Investigators put pressure on - "Kingdom of Germany": How the "Reichsbürger" financial system works
It is not a normal bank that the investigators march into on this Thursday morning at the end of February. The "Gemeinwohlkasse" and its various branches only exist in the "Kingdom of Germany", a parallel world for all those who have long since renounced the Federal Republic of Germany. As a money collection point, the "Königliche Reichsbank", as it is also known, forms one of the financial foundations for the so-called "Reichsbürger" movement.
The sect-like association, in which right-wing extremist positions are now widespread, has existed since the mid-1980s. For more than ten years, "Reichsbürger" have been appearing more and more frequently. The police and supervisory authorities have been trying to stop their money transactions for almost as long - but without much success.
Nevertheless, the financial supervisory authority Bafin made another attempt in February: on its instructions, the police closed three "representative offices" of the "Gemeinwohlkasse" in Wittenberg, Dresden and Menden. The doors to the premises were sealed. But months later, the Bafin is once again suspicious: illegal financial transactions are still taking place - often involving the same people. So at the end of November, it searched a total of ten properties belonging to the "Kingdom of Germany" association in Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony-Anhalt and Hesse. Investigators from the police, the Saxony State Criminal Police Office and the Deutsche Bundesbank are also involved. On that day, they seized, among other things, 35,000 euros in cash, several gold bars worth around 360,000 euros and 60 rounds of ammunition.
Bafin wants to clarify the extent of these right-wing transactions and understand the connections and networks within the "Reichsbürger" association"Kingdom of Germany". The Office for the Protection of the Constitution now counts 23,000 people in the "Reichsbürger" scene across Germany, 1250 of whom are confirmed right-wing radicals.
The "Kingdom of Germany" serves some of them as their own parallel "state". They have invented it - including their own identity documents, business licenses, driving licenses, bank accounts and insurance policies. Payments in the "KRD" are made with the fantasy payment method "E-Mark". Participants can use it to make purchases on various online trading platforms such as "Kadari". But how exactly does the "Reichsbürger" financial system work and who are the leading figures in it?
Peter Fitzek: "King of Germany"
The "Reichsbürger" are not a homogeneous group and are not necessarily organized in the "Kingdom of Germany". What they do have in common, however, is that they deny the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany and do not recognize its legal system. They therefore usually do not pay taxes or refuse to recognize court rulings. They often want Germany to remain within the borders of 1937 and advocate a crude "Reich idea". Conspiracy theories and esotericism play a major role.
As early as 2017, BaFin regularly targeted the "Kingdom of Germany" association for unauthorized banking and insurance transactions. Head of the group: Peter Fitzek. In 2021, BaFin attempted to wind up the "GemeinwohlKasse" fantasy bank he ran and banned Fitzek from the deposit-taking business. However, he continues, even though he has already been convicted of unauthorized insurance transactions.
Fitzek is at the very top of the hierarchy of the "Reichsbürger" "kingdom". He answers the press inquiry from Capital as "Supreme Sovereign". The trained chef is its most prominent member, partly because he had himself staged as the "King of Germany" in Lutherstadt Wittenberg in Saxony-Anhalt in 2012. He himself denies being part of the "Reichsbürger" scene. Fitzek is a creative mind. Time and again, he comes up with financial models that negate the FRG's monetary system. As the driving force behind "NeuDeutschland" - the predecessor association of the "Kingdom of Germany" - he issued "Engelgeld", a kind of internal club currency. Engel was an abbreviation for "Ein Neues Geld Erweckt Liebe", "Ein Neues Geld Erzeugt Leistungsbereitschaft" and "Ein Neues Geld Erschafft Leihmöglichkeiten".
Before he founded "New Germany" and "Kingdom of Germany", Fitzek tried to gain influence through democratic channels: in 2008, he ran for mayor of Wittenberg and in 2009 as an independent direct candidate for the German Bundestag. Both times he received less than one percent of the vote.
Fitzek has repeatedly clashed with the authorities. He has been in court several times. Most recently, the Wittenberg district court sentenced him to eight months in prison for intentional assault and insult. Fitzek lodged an appeal and the case is now before the Dessau-Roßlau district court, which is why he will not have to serve his prison sentence for the time being.
When asked, Fitzek described the Bafin searches of properties belonging to the "Kingdom of Germany" association as "illegal" and "an armed act of war against another subject of international law". He sees Bafin itself as part of a "mafia-like banking cartel".
Marco Ginzel: Fitzek's adjutant in money matters
In the meantime, Fitzek is no longer working on his financial system alone, but has the support of Marco Ginzel. It was only in mid-December that Bafin banned him from initiating, concluding and processing financial transactions. Ginzel must therefore reverse the financial transactions he carried out on behalf of Fitzek. Affected investors should contact the lawyer appointed by Bafin, Stefan Oppermann.
According to Bafin, Ginzel is part of the management of the "Kingdom of Germany" founded by Fitzek. Accordingly, he advertised Fitzek's unauthorized business on the Internet. "He also accepted certain funds in his own bank accounts for Fitzek," Bafin said. According to the findings of the supervisory authority, Ginzel managed several associations through whose bank accounts Fitzek accepted or made payments. Among other things, Ginzel then used the collected funds to buy a property in Saxony, which temporarily served as the headquarters of the "kingdom". Bafin has since imposed bans on Ginzel's bank accounts, meaning that he is no longer allowed to access them.
Neither Fitzek nor Ginzel have a banking license. In Fitzek's eyes, the financial transactions do not require a license. That is why they did not intend to obtain a banking license, "as the existing system is very destructive and harmful to humanity and promotes overexploitation and wars on an immeasurable scale," writes Fitzek when asked by Capital.
"Gemeinwohlkasse": sham bank with poor conditions
While BaFin is in the process of winding up the "Gemeinwohlkasse", the website with its own presentation and offers can still be found on the Internet. The "GK" presents itself as a mixture of central bank, commercial bank, private equity investor and Ministry of Finance. Fitzek decides on everything as "the Supreme Sovereign for the Protection of the Kingdom of Germany".
On the homepage, the words "Königliche Reichsbank" appear in front of a photo of a summer grain field. The group's entire financial system is characterized by the renunciation of interest, as also laid down in the invented "constitution". According to Fitzek, this has a "destructive" effect. Only fees are charged. The rejection of interest is often also a component of anti-Semitic thinking, in which interest is negatively associated with Jewish money transactions.
The pseudo-bank offers a "euro savings account", but this is not the same as a savings account at a normal bank. Instead, investors conclude a so-called capital transfer agreement and thereby agree to invest in various projects. These include a training center, a media center and a village project.
The deposits are therefore used to finance the development of an infrastructure for the "Kingdom" community with the promise of participating in future profits. The "Euro Savings Account" is therefore a type of subordinated bond. It states: "There is therefore no obligation to unconditionally return the capital. It will be repaid by the Royal Reichsbank when it can be paid and there are untied assets." In other words: If the money is invested in the various projects and there are no cash flows from these projects, there is no money back.
When asked by Capital why he calls the "euro savings account" a bank account, even though the money deposited there is invested in projects and there is no immediate claim to repayment, Fitzek refers to a version of the law from the National Socialist era. "Section 41 of the (actually inapplicable) German Banking Act (KWG) from 1934 (the illegal Nazi era) defines that you can call something a 'bank' if it is clear that activities carried out with the help of the institution are not so-called banking transactions. That is the case here," writes Fitzek. He is therefore referring to a law that he himself describes as not applicable.
The account agreement states: "The main purpose of the capital transfer is primarily to support the objectives of the KE. The CU thus acquires the opportunity to help build a new community and can, on request, be informed about the use of the capital provided by it to promote these purposes. The use of the funds is entirely at the discretion of the KE." KE stands for capital recipient, KÜ for capital provider. According to Fitzek, there are no expectations of returns.
Furthermore, it becomes clear that the money is to be used exclusively to build up the tax-free "kingdom" and keep it running. "This profit participation right is not transferable. The conditional claim of the KÜ to repayment of the capital provided against the KE takes precedence over the interests of the KRD," according to the contract text. "In particular, the repayment of the capital must not lead to arithmetical over-indebtedness or insolvency of the CR / the KRD and / or the KRB. The lender's claim outside the insolvency proceedings can only be satisfied from untied assets and, in the event of insolvency, only after the claims of all normal insolvency creditors." Withdrawals from the savings account are therefore only possible if the money has not already been used to build up the "KRD".
"E-Mark" as a fictitious means of payment
The "euro savings account" is also used to exchange euro balances "free of charge" into the fictitious currency of the "kingdom": the "e-mark". This should enable payments "within the kingdom" and on the online marketplace "Kadari". Opening an "e-mark account" costs a fee of 20 euros. While the "e-mark" was launched at an exchange rate of 1:1, one euro now only costs 0.91 "e-marks". Nevertheless, Fitzek claims that the "e-mark" is worth more than the euro. The euro as a currency "will soon be at its (planned) end and with it the so-called 'banks' and a large part of their assets".
The possibility of exchanging "e-marks" back into euros is ruled out. Fitzek does not give a reliable reason for this, but says: "We can only replace the existing sick system and make a re-exchange possible if there are courageous people who want it. Once the Kingdom of Germany has been recognized directly or indirectly by the courts as a state and We (Sic!) as the head of state, We (Sic!) can only then make a return exchange possible by law."
"German Heilfürsorge": Pseudo health insurance for non-corona vaccinated people
In Fitzek and Ginzel's illusory world, there are also their own insurance policies - against which Bafin has also already taken action. The spectrum ranges from household contents insurance to residential building and burglary insurance to motor vehicle liability insurance and health insurance.
Deutsche Heilfürsorge", for example, is intended to be a "health insurance fund for the new age". The operators welcome potential customers on their homepage with the words: "With us, whoever heals is right!". According to Bafin, however, "Mr. Fitzek" does not have a license for the insurance business.
Only self-employed persons and freelancers as well as "entrepreneurs in the KRD public welfare state" can become members of the bogus health insurance company. Excluded from membership are - "for legal reasons", as it says - "corona vaccinated persons, employees, students, civil servants, social benefit recipients, pensioners, applicants aged 55 and over". In addition to the "legally required minimum benefits for outpatient and inpatient cover", the pseudo-insurance company advertises that it also covers "alternative treatments such as alternative practitioner services, acupuncture, homeopathy, osteopathy and others".
The potential for claims is particularly high for health insurance policies offered without permission. Depending on the amount of the claim, policyholders can end up in debt that they can no longer reduce on their own.
Back in 2017, Bafin shut down a "Reichsbürger" health insurance company called "Deutsche Gesundheitskasse DeGeKa VVaG" in Dresden, which was operating without a license. It offered health insurance for the German Reich within the borders of 1914. "Even if these insurance contracts are only to be concluded with members of the respective group, this still constitutes operating the insurance business without a license," Bafin stated in 2017.
However, Bafin did not consider "DeGeKa" to be responsible at the time. "We are nationals and citizens and have founded our own health insurance company," said Doris Roy from the Dresden pseudo-branch office. "Bafin is outside the scope of what we intend to do." The proceedings against four defendants before the Dresden district court were later discontinued in exchange for fines. A Bafin employee had reported in the trial that documents and forms had looked deceptively similar to those of the real health insurance company "Debeka". An inexperienced consumer would not have been able to recognize the "Reichsbürger" background of the insurance company.
This article first appeared here in the business magazine "Capital", which, like stern, is part of RTL Deutschland.
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Source: www.stern.de
