During searches in the “Reichsbürger” milieu, a police officer was shot and wounded. The official of a special task force suffered a bullet in the arm, according to information from the DPA news agency, his condition is stable. The federal prosecutor is investigating against the shooter, among other things, on suspicion of attempted murder. The searches on Wednesday were related to a major raid in early December, which was directed, among other things, against a nobleman as a suspected ringleader.
According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, there are now five other suspects. They are suspected of supporting a terrorist organization that wanted to overthrow the political system in Germany. There were campaigns in eight federal states and in Switzerland.
The federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe announced that the emergency services had identified themselves as police officers during the search in Reutlingen in Baden-Württemberg on Wednesday morning by shouting loudly. When they finally entered the living room, the man who had been a witness up to that point pointed a large-caliber gun at the officers. “He did not follow the repeated request to put the gun down,” the statement said. There was then an exchange of fire between the emergency services and the man, with a police officer being hit in the arm by the accused. The man finally surrendered and was arrested for the time being. He was to be brought before the magistrate on Wednesday at the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe.
According to information from the DPA news agency, the arrested marksman is a marksman and had permission to own several weapons. He entrenched himself when the special forces arrived.
The five new suspects come from Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Saxony and Switzerland. In addition, the premises of 14 other people who are not considered suspicious were searched. According to information from security circles, among them are a police officer and a member of the Bundeswehr. According to the federal prosecutor’s office, there were no further arrests.
A reporter from the DPA at the scene in Reutlingen reported that there were five bangs in a house in the morning. According to DPA information, the police blew up a locked door.
According to reports, in addition to Bavaria, Lower Saxony and Saxony, Baden-Württemberg, Hesse, Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and North Rhine-Westphalia were also affected. According to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, officials from the Federal Criminal Police Office and special federal and state units were deployed.
According to DPA information, six objects in the area of three police headquarters in Bavaria were searched: Lower Franconia, Munich and Upper Bavaria South. In Lower Saxony, an object in the Hanover area was affected, as a spokesman for the local Ministry of the Interior said. There was also a search in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, according to security circles.
At the beginning of December there was a large-scale anti-terror raid against “Reich citizens” in several federal states, Austria and Italy. At that time, 25 men and women were arrested. The federal prosecutor accuses the group of preparing to overthrow the political system in Germany. She would have accepted the dead and recruited soldiers and police officers in a targeted manner.
In this process, the federal prosecutor also determined against 30 other people. It had always been said that it could not be ruled out that more suspects would be added over time.
The new searches are related to this. In certain exceptional cases, the law also allows searches of persons who are not considered suspects. For this purpose, certain facts must indicate, among other things, that a “searched person, trace or thing is in the rooms to be searched”, as stated in the Code of Criminal Procedure. As the dpa learned, signed non-disclosure agreements discovered during the first raid were an important starting point for the operation on Wednesday. According to the security authorities, several gun owners were among the signatories.
Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) said: “We must consistently disarm these extremists. To do this, we urgently need the tightening of gun laws that I have proposed.” With a view to the searches, she said on Wednesday in Washington, according to a statement from her ministry: “We will continue this tough stance until we have fully disclosed and dismantled these structures.” Nobody in this extremist scene should feel safe.
“Reich citizens” are people who do not recognize the Federal Republic and its democratic structures. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution assigned around 23,000 people to the scene of “Reichsbürger” and “Selbstverwalter” in Germany in 2022, 2,000 more than in the previous year.
