Prince Reuß is said to have founded another secret group in 2019
Prince Reuß and other alleged members of the "Patriotic Union" are currently on trial. However, it is not said to be the first coup attempt by the nobleman. In 2019, he is said to have founded a group that wanted to reinstall the emperor and establish contact with Russia.
The evidence that Heinrich XIII. Prince Reuß planned a coup in Germany is mounting. According to an investigation by Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk (MDR), he is said to have already gathered a group of loyalists in 2019 with whom he is said to have prepared a violent coup. The name of the group: Competence Team Free Germany (KTFD).
When the secret group was actually founded is unclear. A meeting is said to have taken place in the spring of 2019. According to MDR, there is a meeting protocol from April 1. This was secured by authorities during raids in December 2022 - when the Reuß group was exposed. The location of the meeting is said to have been Bad Lobenstein in eastern Thuringia. Whether the meeting was also the founding event is not proven.
In any case, concrete goals were already named in the protocol. For example, the "temporary installation of the emperor". Diplomatic contact with allies, apparently with Russia, was also planned. It is said there that an "open discussion with Lawarow" is planned. This could refer to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The "Patriotic Union", to which Reuß later joined and against whose members raids were carried out in 2022, also planned contact with the Kremlin.
The protocol also reveals another parallel. Confidentiality declarations were also drawn up and signed by 30 people for the KTFD. According to MDR, they resemble a blueprint for the documents that the "Patriotic Union" later used. A central difference apparently lay in the type of punishment if someone from the secret group violated the declaration. In 2019, according to MDR, there is talk of a procedure before an "international court of justice", although it is unclear which one. In 2022, the breach of silence was to be punished by execution.
After the raids on members of the "Patriotic Union" in December 2022, three trials are now underway in Frankfurt am Main, Stuttgart, and Munich against a total of 26 suspects. They are accused, among other things, of founding a terrorist organization, preparing a high treason offense, and violating the weapons law.
Reichsbürger planned meeting with former "Tagesschau" announcer
A prominent Reichsbürger from Thuringia held a protest rally a few days after the raids at the end of 2022, at which he reportedly spoke, according to MDR, of Reuß and Co. being "political prisoners of a left-green party dictatorship". Moreover, they were only acting "out of concern for the future of our people". This Reichsbürger is said to be the head of "Patriots of Eastern Thuringia" and to have contacts with Thuringian AfD leader Björn Höcke. Moreover, he is said to have belonged to the KTFD.
There are said to be emails between him and Prince Reuß in which he tries to arrange a meeting with former "Tagesschau" announcer Eva Herman and her husband Andreas Popp. Both now live in Canada and have been spreading conspiracy theories for years. They are said to have also denied the Corona pandemic.
A meeting scheduled for December 2019 did not take place, Herman and Popp confirm through their lawyer, Ralf Höcker, in response to an MDR inquiry. Furthermore, they deny any acquaintance with Prince Reuß. They claim to only know him from television and have never been in contact with him. They only know the Thuringian Reich citizen casually, as he participated in a seminar organized by Herman and Popp in 2018, they say.
The group with intentions to reinstall the emperor and establish contacts with Russia, as revealed in the meeting protocol from April 2019, was called the Competence Team Free Germany (KTFD). The location of this secret meeting was in Bad Lobenstein, eastern Thuringia, Germany.
The Thuringian Reichsbürger, connected to the KTFD, attempted to arrange a meeting with former "Tagesschau" announcer Eva Herman and her husband Andreas Popp, who have been spreading conspiracy theories, as indicated in emails between him and Prince Reuß.
