A suspected terrorist from Germany’s far-right Reichsburgers, a domestic terrorist group, made a wide-ranging confession before the Düsseldorf High Court on Wednesday.
The suspect has expressly admitted that he is a member of a terrorist organization and participated in plans to commit high treason, he said in statements from his lawyer.
“I would like to distance myself from my radical ideas at the time. The whole thing is true. I have involved myself in this nonsense,” he said.
A trial is underway against the Reich Citizens Group, which allegedly planned to violently overthrow the German government, involving several alleged members, including suspected leader Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss.
The suspect said he did not see himself as a “Reichsburger”, adding: “I wanted to get out of the whole story.”
He said he had increasingly distanced himself from the ideology, but just didn’t know how to get out. He also denied being part of plans to kidnap former Chancellor Angela Merkel.
He did say he was prepared to carry out attacks on power lines.
Reich citizens, or Reichsbürger in German, claim that the historic German Empire, founded in 1871 with an emperor at its head, still exists and did not end with Germany’s defeat in World War II in 1945.
They do not recognize the Federal Republic of Germany and its constitutional structures such as parliament. They also do not believe that they should pay taxes, fines or social security contributions.
Germany’s domestic intelligence agency estimates that around 23,000 people are involved in the movement.
The coup plot was discovered during a large-scale anti-terrorism attack in December 2022.
The conspirators are said to have already worked out how they would organize a state with Prince Reuss as head of state.
