Ex-soldiers among 25 arrested by German police on suspicion of planning armed coup

Former soldiers are among 25 suspected far-right extremists arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning to overthrow the state in an armed coup.

The terrorist group had a "military arm", headed up by a 69-year-old former paratrooper, and was actively trying to recruit military personnel.

Thousands of police officers carried out the raids across much of Germany on what justice minister Marco Buschmann described as an "anti-terrorism operation", believing the suspects may have planned an armed attack on institutions of the state.

Federal prosecutors said some 3,000 officers conducted searches at 130 sites in 11 of Germany's 16 states against adherents of the so-called Reich Citizens movement, who reject Germany's post-war constitution.

German news outlet Der Spiegel reported that locations searched included the barracks of Germany's special forces unit KSK in the southwestern town of Calw.

The unit has in the past been scrutinised over alleged far-right involvement by some soldiers.

Federal prosecutors declined to confirm or deny that the barracks were searched.

Prosecutors said 22 German citizens were detained on suspicion of "membership in a terrorist organisation".

Three other people, including a Russian citizen, are suspected of supporting the organisation, they said.

Prosecutors also said those detained are alleged to last year have formed a "terrorist organisation with the goal of overturning the existing state order in Germany and replace it with their own form of state, which was already in the course of being founded".

The suspects were aware that their aim could only be achieved by military means and with force, prosecutors said.

According to a press release from the Federal Prosecutor's Office, the suspects planned "a military transitional government is to be formed by the association, which, according to the members of the association, should negotiate the new state order in Germany with the victorious Allied powers of World War II in accordance with the classic Reich citizen narrative". 

"From the point of view of the association, the main contact for these negotiations is currently the Russian Federation."

The group's "military arm", was run by former paratrooper Rüdiger v. P.

Some of its members are believed to have previously served in the Bundeswehr, which was "a main focus of the association's recruitment efforts".

In October 2022, members of the "military arm" scouted out Bundeswehr barracks in Hesse, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, to inspect them for their suitability for housing their own troops after the overthrow.