The scene of so-called imperial citizens is much larger than hirto known. A spokeswoman for Federal Office for Constitutional Protection said that constitutional protection and its national authorities were 15,000 people at end of September. Among citizens of Reich were 900 right-wing extremists. This had previously been reported by Berlin Tagesspiegel. About 1,000 citizens of Reich have a gun possession card.
BfV president Hans-Georg Maaßen told Tagesspiegel that constitutionalists would "always take a closer look" at this scene. Their danger is above all visible, "when citizens of Reich believe y have to face armed violence against legitimate police and judicial missions".
In March, Constitutionalists were still talking about 12,800 imperial citizens. In current constitutional protection report 2016, its number is indicated by 10,000. The authorities officially speak of "Reich citizens and self-managers". Both groups do not recognise existence of Federal Republic of Germany and its legal system. "They call mselves, for example, on a historical German Empire, on conspiracy-oretical patterns of argumentation or on a self-defined natural law", says Constitutional protection report. Self-managers are Imperial citizens who designate ir own property as a state and deny access to authorities.
As a commonality of orwise heterogeneous scene of Imperial citizens and self-managers, constitutionalists call " fundamental rejection of State, its representatives and entire legal order".
The authorities have already registered a significant increase in activities of imperial citizens in recent years. According to Constitutional Protection report, y are "increasingly obstructing courts, police and authorities in ir work and threatening ir employees". "In individual cases, violent attacks occur."
In October 2016, an Imperial citizen had shot a policeman in Bavaria. Since n, group has increasingly targeted security authorities. At end of August, trial started against perpetrator. At beginning of October, a trial began against an imperial citizen who was to be shot in Saxony-Anhalt by policemen when his house was evicted.
Date Of Update: 13 October 2017, 12:03
