Germany could have had its January 6th - but bloodier

Wolfgang Hansson  

Germany close to getting its 6 January - but bloodier  

Published: Less than 3 hours ago 

Updated: Less than 50 min ago  

This is a commenting text. Analysis and positions are the writer's.  

COLUMNISTS  

One could easily dismiss the suspected German coup plotters as a bunch of deranged lunatics.  

But that doesn't mean they're harmless. 

Germany could have had its January 6th. Bloodier though.  

The first image that popped into my head after hearing about the extensive dawn raid by German police to arrest a number of suspected right-wing extremists was the bizarre horned, fur-capped, shirtless "shaman" who became the symbol of the storming of the Capitol when supporters of President Trump attempted a coup d'état.  

It was immediately felt that it is the same kind of deranged and conspiratorial goblins that stormed the US Congress on January 6 last year, planning to take by force the German Reichstag building in Berlin and seize power in Europe's great power. 

"The Shaman" Jake Angeli in the Capitol during the storming on January 6, 2021. Photo: AP  

The 71-year-old Prince Heinrich XIII , who is supposed to lead Germany, does not have horns on his forehead, but still belongs to the same category of conspiracy theorists. Earlier this year, his family distanced themselves from him as an "old and confused man".  

The more information that comes from Germany, the clearer it appears that what happened if the group had been held would have been the German equivalent of the storming of the Capitol. With the probable difference that the German variant has become much bloodier.  

According to German media, the group had engaged in weapons training and was richly equipped with firearms.  

While their American "comrades" used batons and other devices, the Germans seem to have been prepared to execute members of the Bundestag as well as Chancellor Scholz. 

They actively recruited supporters within the police and military. 

Here the nobleman Prince Heinrich XIII is arrested in Frankfurt. Photo: Boris Roessler / AP 

Small chances - but not harmless 

But just like in the US, the suspected German terror group had very little chance of succeeding in their plans.   

The German state with all its resources had beaten them back with full force. The plans appear rather like a bad film script.  

The plan is said to have been to take over the German parliament's Bundestag building, the Reichstag Building, by force. Photo: Markus Schreiber / AP  

However, this is not the same as the group being harmless. In their ranks, they have both active and former military and police officers. There is also a former member of parliament from the far-right German party AfD, Alternative for Germany. A woman who is now a judge in Berlin and who is said to have been intended as Minister of Justice after the coup plotters took over. 

Just the fact that this type of grouping is gaining a foothold in a modern democracy is food for thought. 

One of those arrested is taken to the federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe by German police. Photo: Michael Probst/AP  

We live in troubled times  

First the pandemic and then the energy crisis in the wake of Putin's war in Ukraine have had a strong destabilizing effect on our societies, just as Donald Trump's four years in power had in the United States.  

At the same time as society is destabilized, it is also being split up. Social media enables diverse groups to live in their own bubbles and create their own reality. 

Add to that that foreign powers, in our case primarily Russia but also China, have an interest in further undermining societies in the West. Not least Germany, which with its strong economy and leadership within the EU plays a key role for Europe's persistence in supporting Ukraine.  

One of those arrested is a Russian citizen who is suspected of having contacted the Russian embassy in Berlin to get Russia's help in defending the new rulers once they have established their "government". 

Dangerous cocktail  

There is no indication that the Russians helped the group in any way, but this kind of extremists who praise Putin and slander democracy obviously favors Russia's interests.  

Even if the arrested terrorist cell was previously unknown, the movement from which it comes is hardly so. The Reichsburger (Citizens of the Reich) movement gained a boost during the pandemic when their members actively demonstrated in the streets around Germany opposing the coercive measures of the German state to reduce the spread of infection. 

The same demonstrations attracted many from the far-right party AfD, which primarily has its supporters in eastern Germany, what was communist East Germany before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.  

 

There were also neo-Nazis here. Together they formed a dangerous cocktail.  

A police helicopter carrying a suspect arrives at the federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe. Photo: Michael Probst/AP  

 

They discovered that they had many interests in common. Above all, a hatred of the establishment and the German state. The Reichburger movement does not recognize the German state after 1945. The group wants to restore the Germany that existed between 1871 and the end of World War II and rejects the peace terms of 1945.  

 

Perhaps most frightening is that, according to the German intelligence service, the BfV, these unrealistic beliefs have managed to gather around 21,000 followers across Germany, although most are concentrated in southern and eastern Germany. Of these, the BfV believes that 1,150 are right-wing extremists who have committed over a thousand extremist crimes in Germany.  

 

The intelligence service already warned during the pandemic of a radicalization of right-wing extremist groups. Now they seem to have been right.  

 

We saw the storming of the US Capitol in 2021. We have the coup plans in Germany. The question is whether there are more countries where the pandemic and the unstable situation after Russia's invasion of Ukraine may have given rise to similar groupings.  

 

How does it look in Sweden? Could something similar happen here?  

 

We live in dangerous times.