An alleged plot to topple the German government, led by a self-styled prince, a retired paratrooper and a Berlin judge, had its roots in a murky mixture of post-war grudges, antisemitic conspiracy theories and anger over recent pandemic restrictions, experts say.
Police detained 25 people on Wednesday described as being part of Germany's Reichsbuerger, or Reich Citizens, movement.
While the name might suggest a link to the Nazi era, it actually refers to the first modern pan-German nation formed when Prussia's King Wilhelm I and his chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, united numerous smaller states into a single empire, or Reich, in 1871.
Reich Citizens consider the partition of Germany by Allied powers after World War II and the subsequent democratic states that followed to have been illegal, arguing instead that the original Reich still exists.
