The news Wednesday that a far-right group had plotted to overthrow the German government in a coup surprised many around the world who thought the country had largely done away with its extremist right wing. The group is closely associated with the extremist Reichsbürger movement — literally meaning “citizens of the Reich,” or kingdom — which rejects the legitimacy of the German state. Miro Dittrich, an expert at CeMAS, a German group that monitors right-wing extremism, said this was not the first far-right group to have plotted a coup d’etat in recent years. One of the group’s main leaders is Heinrich XIII Prince Reusthe, holder of a royal title that lapsed with the abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm II and the creation of the modern German state in 1918. What unites them, he added, was a “belief that the Germans are being oppressed by a powerful foreign power,” or that the German state is assisting in this oppression, therefore justifying an armed insurrection.

---