BERLIN: German police arrested eight suspected members of a right-wing militant group fueled by racist ideology and conspiracy theories who had been training in the war to overthrow the modern German state, prosecutors said Tuesday (Oct. 5).

News of the arrests came as a 450-strong police operation was underway to dismantle the group, dubbed by prosecutors as “Saechsische Separatisten,” or Saxon Separatists.

“Our security authorities thus frustrated at an early stage the coup plans of right-wing terrorists, who longed for a day X to attack the people and our State with armed force,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement. .

This would be the second coup plot discovered in Germany in recent years.

The so-called “Reichsbuerger” movement was exposed in 2022, led by a would-be prince with ambitions to overthrow the state and install an interim government, in a case that shocked Germany with its detailed networking and planning.

The group targeted in Tuesday’s operation was formed no later than November 2020, the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

“This is a militant group of between 15 and 20 individuals whose ideology is characterized by racist, anti-Semitic and partially apocalyptic ideas,” the statement added.

Convinced that Germany is on the brink of collapse, with the fall of government and society prophesied for an undetermined “Day X”, the group had been training to use force to establish a new system in the east of the country inspired by National Socialism, according to researchers.

“If necessary, unwanted groups of people are supposed to be expelled from the area through ethnic cleansing,” the statement said.

PARAMILITARY TRAINING

Among those arrested were four alleged founding members, identified as alleged ringleader Joerg S, as well as Joern S, Karl K and Norman T.

Some will be prosecuted as minors and adolescents.

All eight face charges of participation in a domestic terrorist organization.

Prosecutors said they completed paramilitary training, focusing on urban warfare, firearms handling, night marches and patrols.

The group had also acquired military equipment, such as camouflage uniforms, combat helmets, gas masks and bulletproof vests.

Seven of the suspects were captured in and around the eastern cities of Leipzig, Dresden and Meissen, while another was detained in the Polish border town of Zgorzelec.

Authorities were searching about 20 facilities in execution of court orders, in measures that also targeted seven other suspects.