GERMAN POLICE IN SHOOTOUT WITH SO-CALLED "REICH CITIZEN"

Germany: 3 wounded in shootout with anti-govt extremists
August 25, 2016
BERLIN (AP) — Three people have been wounded in an armed standoff in eastern Germany between police and members of a group that denies the legitimacy of the modern German state. Police spokeswoman Ulrike Diener says the shootout happened while some 100 officers tried to enforce an eviction order Thursday against a 41-year-old "Reich citizen" in Reuden, about 20 kilometers south of Leipzig.

Members of the Reich Citizens' Movement refuse to acknowledge the authority of the post-war Federal Republic of Germany and instead believe they are citizens of the German Reich. They have been compared to the U.S. sovereign citizen movement.

Diener said the 41-year-old was shot and seriously wounded. One officer received a minor neck injury, while another was bitten. German media identified the evictee as former "Mr. Germany" Adrian Ursache.

To explain, these are not neo-nazis, though some of the KRRs do have tenuous links to nazis groups; they hark back more to the pre-Hitler Weimat Republic and the Prussian Empire which was dismantled at the end of WW1.    LL

Reichsbürgerbewegung ("Reich Citizens' Movement") is a label for multiple groups and individuals in Germany and elsewhere who assert that the German Reich (or, occasionally, Prussia) continues to exist not in the shape of the present-day Federal Republic of Germany, but in its pre-World War II borders, and that it is governed by a Kommissarische Reichsregierung (KRR, Provisional Imperial Government), or Exilregierung ("government in exile").  There are a number of competing KRRs, each claiming to govern all of Germany.  It can be compared to the Sovereign citizen movement in the USA and Canada.

Yes, that's all that's needed, nutters who still support the Kaiser. I confess, that particular group of loonies is a new one on me.

bb1 wrote:Yes, that's all that's needed, nutters who still support the Kaiser. I confess, that particular group of loonies is a new one on me.

They don't actually support the Kaiser, they just want the status quo restored. They prefer to support a new Weimar Republic. They are, in the main, fairly harmless, no religious themes involved, just a love of what was and is long gone. They have no representation in the Bundestag nor in the country, just considered nuts who live in the past. LL

Ah, thanks, LL. Perhaps they could try forming a re-enactment society to let off steam, instead of getting into brawls with the police?