Damien McGuinness
BBC News in Berlin
BBC
Self-proclaimed King Fitzek told the BBC he had no interest in modern Germany.
The German self-declared “king” and three of his senior “kings” were arrested, and their group was banned for attempting to overthrow the state.
Peter Fitzek, 59, was among those arrested in the morning raids in seven states on Tuesday.
The government banned their group, the Empire, or “imperial citizens.” This is about to establish the Germans of Koeniglich Germany, or “the kingdom of Germany.”
German Home Minister Alexander Dobrint accused the group of attempting to “defeat the rule of law” by creating an alternative state and spreading “supporting the anti-Semitic plot narrative to authority.”
His ministry announced the dissolution of the group, accusing it of funding itself through a “economic crime structure.”
Fitzek, a former chef and karate instructor, called himself the “king” and identified himself in his previous trial as “Peter the First” to judge.
He crowned the crown in 2012 while wielding a medieval sword in an archmin robe. Since then, he has purchased land and property throughout Germany.
Reichsbürgers has its own currency, flags and ID cards and wants to set up separate banks and healthcare systems.
Fitzek claims to have thousands of followers – or “subjects.”
In an interview with the BBC in 2022, he denied that he had violent intentions, but described the German state as “destructive and sick.”
“I’m not interested in being part of this fascist and demonic system,” he told BBC’s Jenny Hill when she visited the “kingdom” of East Germany.
Fitzek repeatedly clashed with the authorities and refused to comply with German law.
Reuters
German police conducted a series of attacks on Tuesday, arresting leaders of Germany’s extreme kingdom
He was previously jailed for repeatedly driving without a license, following a decision to hand his back to the symbolic refusal of the law. At the end of one court session, Fitzek was seen driving in front of the courtroom.
Fitzek is one of the approximately 25,000 Reichsbürgers in Germany. The number has increased over the past few years.
Many are right-wing extremists selling racist and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. They refuse to grant security forces’ authority, and many people own illegal weapons, which has led to a shootout with police. Officials say about 2,500 people are potentially violent and 1,350 are classified as right-wing extremists.
In 2022, dozens of people were arrested. Because many of them plan to overthrow the German government in Berlin. They were accused of planning a violent coup that involves luring the health minister to create “civil war conditions” to defeat German democracy.
In the past, Reichsbürger was often dismissed as a quirky crank due to their strange ideas.
However, as the politically right-wing growth in Germany over the past decade, authorities now see them as serious threats.
The federal prosecutor’s office in Karlsruhe said Fitzek was arrested along with three other suspected ringleaders of the group, which was classified as a criminal organization.
As “the so-called supreme sovereignty,” Fitzek “had control and decision-making power in all important areas,” the office said.
“The “King of Germany” itself considers it a sovereign state within the sense of international law, and strives to expand its “state territory” to the borders of the German Empire in 1871,” he added in the statement.
