Reich Citizens Trial | Trial against Prince Reuss and Co: still at the very beginning

Even those who dream of overthrow want a little comfort. A fireplace, sauna, and jacuzzi were offered by the chalets where a group led by former Bundeswehr Colonel Maximilian Eder rented two rooms in the fall of 2021. Opponents of the coronavirus policy, conspiracy theorists, and right-wing Reich Citizens gathered here in the rural idyll of the Franconian Forest. And according to the Federal Prosecutor's Office, they formed the leadership of a group that pursued no less a goal than the violent overthrow of the federal government .

The group, led by real estate developer Heinrich XIII, Prince Reuss, is alleged to have planned a coup d'état, including an armed attack on the Bundestag, the establishment of paramilitary "Homeland Defense Companies," mass executions, and the formation of a designated putsch government led by Reuss. For a year now, the Reich citizen, a former colonel, and seven co-defendants have been on trial before the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt am Main. Parallel proceedings are underway against 17 other men and women in Munich and Stuttgart. The charges: terrorism and high treason.

This week, the landlady who rents out those elegant chalets was invited. But she didn't remember much more than that she had to call Eder several times before he transferred the 660 euros for the first night. And that he and the defendant Michael Fritsch – an activist with the coronavirus-denying Die Basis party and a former police officer – had left their business cards behind. Not particularly conspiratorial behavior, then. "A suspected terrorist who leaves business cards is certainly somewhat conspicuous," commented defense attorney Roman von Alvensleben smugly.

The questioning of the restaurateur lasted an entire day, and the insights gained were limited. This was quite typical of the pace at which the trial is progressing in the specially constructed lightweight hall on the outskirts of Frankfurt. After 68 days of proceedings, only a fraction of what the Federal Prosecutor's Office has summarized in 550 pages as the "essential findings" of its investigation have been discussed. Of the 258 witnesses on whom the prosecution is based, only a dozen have appeared so far. And even from the countless chats and phone calls that the investigators have overheard, only a few sentences have been heard. Progress is slow, very slow.

For days, the accused former AfD Bundestag member Birgit Malsack-Winkemann responded to the charges. A seemingly endless, meandering monologue in which the former Berlin judge arrogantly explained why all the allegations were groundless, baseless, in short: a personal insult.

The 60-year-old twice led suspected co-conspirators through the Bundestag. The Federal Prosecutor's Office believes this maneuver was intended to scout the parliament. Malsack-Winkemann countered that it was a purely tourist visit. But when photos taken during the visit were shown in court, she evaded questions with a lot of verbosity. Perhaps because the tourist interest in underground garages, entrance gates, elevator signs, basement corridors, or escape routes isn't immediately apparent.

The AfD politician remains the only defendant in the Frankfurt trial to have entered a court appearance. Former Colonel Eder hasn't yet made it beyond an introductory PowerPoint presentation. The former staff officer in the elite Special Forces Command (KSK) spoke about his fight against the coronavirus measures and against what he calls "satanic ritual pedophilia." Like most of the alleged would-be coup plotters, he believes in underground tunnel systems in which children are systematically tortured and abused by a power elite known as the "Deep State." This is the core of the anti-Semitic QAnon conspiracy ideology. But Eder said: "I emphatically distance myself from the insinuation that I am a supporter of QAnon."

Eder dismissed the charges in proud Bavarian as "nonsense." "It was always meant to remain peaceful and non-violent," he asserted. "A coup d'état was never my intention." Really? The defendant, Johanna Findeisen-Juskowiak, state chairwoman of Die Basis in Baden-Württemberg until her arrest, wrote down code words for conspiratorial communication during a meeting with the veteran soldier: "Crayons = weapons, deforestation = elimination of people."

Eder is said to have been even more explicit with an old comrade from his time in the Bundeswehr. "As I recall," the man said, "it was about the killing of Mr. Spahn." At a meeting in a Bavarian beer garden, Eder had tried to recruit him. But for what? For the fight against the supposed "coronavirus dictatorship," as the lieutenant general reported shortly afterwards to the military intelligence agency MAD? For a "coup d'état," as he later said during his interrogation at the Federal Criminal Police Office? Or for the "elimination" of Jens Spahn, then the CDU's health minister, as he now explained in court? "The term 'killing' wasn't used literally," the witness admitted. "But it was clear what was meant."

Dates for the trial are currently scheduled until January 2026, while the parallel proceedings in Munich, although progress is somewhat faster there, are already scheduled until 2027. Neither of these is likely to be sufficient.