WHO ARE THE REICHSBÜRGER?On 7 December 2022, more than 3,000 police deployed in what was probably the largest anti-terror raid in the history of the Federal Republic. They arrested the ringleaders of a group from the Reichsbürger milieu who had planned a violent overthrow of the government. But who are these Reich citizens who do not recognise the Federal Republic of Germany as a legitimate state, talk about a BRD GmbH and still believe they are part of the German Reich?
Constitutional law scholars Sophie and Christoph Schönberger look at the historical roots of the Reichsbürger scene, which lead back to the peculiarities of the division of Germany, illuminate the diverse spectrum of their current manifestations and examine the fragments of their fragmentary ideology. To be sure, the Reichsbürger's curious obsession with legal norms and bureaucratic forms all too easily tempts one to dismiss them as marginal and ridiculous. In fact, however, the growing scene is of paradigmatic importance for the current threat to democracy. As outdated as the Reichsbürger may seem due to their reference to the past empire, they nevertheless prove to be a thoroughly zeitgeisty phenomenon of our individualised society. They react to widespread experiences of helplessness and powerlessness by inventing an imaginary right that serves them as a means of radical self-empowerment. In doing so, they not only touch the limits of the understandable, but also the limits of state power.
The historical development of the Reichsbürger sceneAn interesting interpretation that goes beyond the factsThe Reichsbürger are exemplary for the current threats to our democracyThe ghostly movement also reveals something sinister about the state.At the same time, the ghostly movement reveals something sinister about the constitution of our democracyThe Schönbergers are among the most high-profile and talented journalists in the public eye.