“Reichsbürger” raids: Who is Heinrich XIII. Prince Reuss?

IIn the office of the man who was allegedly planning a coup d’etat in order to become head of government himself, the police found folders with the inscription “FRG”. With quotation marks. Heinrich XIII recognizes the German state. Prince Reuss apparently not. In a video recorded in Geneva in 2019, he said that Germany has had no constitution since 1945 and is not a sovereign state. Classics of the “Reichsbürgerszene” in other words. Reuss was well known in these circles.

Among the videos of individual performances that are available on the Internet, there is applause for the “brave prince”, as well as requests to save the video before it is deleted – and to share it in relevant Telegram groups.

In another speech, also delivered in 2019, he talked about the “rise and fall of the blue-blood elite.” He told the story of his family, who had lived in Thuringia for over a thousand years and were expelled by the Soviet army. He calls the Basic Law an instrument of repression. According to his conviction, the First World War was fought to “promote the spread of the Jewish population”. There is talk of financing wars and revolutions – driven, according to Reuss, by the Jewish Rothschild banking family.

Followed at every turn

So there had been indications for a long time that this man had gone astray. The Hessian Office for the Protection of the Constitution had been informed of him by another authority; Reuss was apparently also connected to another investigation in southern Hesse. It quickly became apparent that there was information about the prince’s crude theses and strange activities not only in Hesse, but also in other state authorities.

In Wiesbaden, the information, some of which was incoherent, was bundled and evaluated at an early stage. The State Office of Criminal Investigation was involved, and the Federal Public Prosecutor General (GBA) in Karlsruhe was soon informed, who took over the investigation. For many months, investigators followed the prince at every turn, who officially offered his services as a real estate entrepreneur, financial advisor and wealth manager. On the website of the “Büro Prinz Reuss” you can see the coat of arms of the noble family, decorated with a princely hat and ermine coat, lion and crane, below it: “I build on God”.

Reuss is said to have been the head of the group

On Wednesday morning, officers from the Federal Police, Federal Criminal Police Office and State Criminal Police Office gained access to the suspect’s apartment in Frankfurt’s Westend and to his offices in the Nordend. At the same time, 24 other people were arrested across the country. The allegation: The formation and support of a domestic terrorist organization. Pre-trial detention is to be requested for eight people, including Reuss.