Suspects of coup plotting have been arrested in Germany. They planned to kidnap the minister

German police have detained members of a far-right group that tried to topple the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz and kidnap Health Minister Karl Lauterbach.

Reuters writes about this with reference to the statement of the prosecutorʼs office.

The detainees belong to the "Reichsburgers" movement, whose representatives do not recognize the Federal Republic of Germany and consider themselves citizens of the "German Second Reich", which was an empire. The mutineers planned to establish a government modeled on the constitution of the German Reich of 1871 and to kidnap German Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach.

According to the prosecutorʼs office, the group also planned a series of attacks to cut off electricity throughout the country. Among those arrested is a 61-year-old man from the Hessen region who offered his garage to store weapons and agreed to participate in the kidnapping of the minister. Four more men were also detained — they are 49, 52, 32 and 41 years old. The names of the detainees have not been released.

• On December 7 last year, the German police conducted a large-scale special operation against far-right extremists who, according to the Ministry of Justice, were preparing an assault on the parliament and a coup dʼétat. The police have identified more than 50 suspects. Subsequently, the German court sent 23 suspects into custody.
• According to the magazine Der Spiegel, then the prosecutorʼs office established two coup organizers — the so-called Prince Henry XIII (who was assigned the role of the new leader of Germany) and the 69-year-old former paratrooper Rüdiger P. Heinrich, who is a representative of a noble family, was in contact with Russian officials, and the detained Russian citizen Vitalya B. probably helped him in this.