Rising Extremism: The Reichsbürger Threat

Three thousand security officers fanned out across Germany this past week, raiding 150 homes, arresting 25 people and putting more than 50 others under investigation for plotting to overthrow the national government in Berlin.

The target of the counterterrorism operation, one of the biggest that postwar Germany has seen, was a movement known as the Reichsbürger, or citizens of the Reich.

What does the Reichsbürger plot reveal about the depth of right-wing extremism in the country?

Guest: Katrin Bennhold, the Berlin bureau chief for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• Among those arrested was a German aristocrat called Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss. Nostalgic for an imperial past, the prince embraced far-right conspiracy theories.
• The Reichsbürger movement picked up momentum from conspiracy theories that grew during the pandemic and gained strength from QAnon.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. 

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