What is Germany's 'Reichsbürger' movement?

The Reichsbürger, literally "Reich citizens," is the name given to a disparate movement of  conspiracy theorists who deny the legitimacy of Germany's post-World War II Federal Republic

Though there are overlaps with the far-right scene, Reichsbürger are marked out by their adherence to four often debunked claims: That the pre-war German Reich still legally exists, that the post-war Federal Republic of Germany does not have a valid constitution, that the Federal Republic is not a state at all, but in fact a private company, and that Germany is still under occupation by the Allies.

Originally arising in the 1980s, the movement is made up of both organized groups and individuals across Germany, who manifest varying degrees of resistance to the state's administrative organs.

Some Reichsbürger refuse to pay fines and taxes, ignore court orders, or declare their own "national territories," which they give names like the "Second German Empire," the "Free State of Prussia" or the "Principality of Germania." Reichsbürger sometimes print their own passports and driver's licenses, or even declare themselves monarchs.

Just crackpots?

For many years, Reichsbürger were dismissed as harmless cranks, and authorities simply ignored their often treasonous declarations. But that changed in the past decade as the movement became more prominent and began to show a more pronounced propensity to violence and far-right ideology.

Some hoarded firearms, and in 2016, the Reichsbürger Wolfgang P. shot dead a Bavarian state police officer during an attempt to confiscate his cache of weapons. That same year, Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), officially put the Reichsbürger movement under observation.

The BfV, charged with tracking extremist groups of all stripes inside Germany, estimated in 2022 that there were around 23,000 Reichsbürger (2,000 more than in 2021), over 5% of whom it classified as far-right extremists. The BfV has also recorded a steady increase in crimes committed by Reichsbürger since 2019, and several thousand firearms permits have been revoked by German authorities in the past few years.

The potential threat of the Reichsbürger movement became most spectacularly apparent on December 7, 2022, when a series of police raids uncovered an alleged plot to overthrow the German government. The plot is said to have included a plan to raid the German parliament, arrest the chancellor, key ministers, and opposition leader, and install an interim government to negotiate a new state order in Germany with the Allied powers of World War II.

Some 25 people were arrested and 380 firearms were found. Three major trials, on terrorism and conspiracy charges, began in late April 2024.

A burden to the state

Most Reichsbürger are males aged between 40-60, though some observers believe there is a bigger female proportion of Reichsbürger than in the far-right extremist scene at large.

The movement also became increasingly radicalized during the COVID-19 pandemic, when their beliefs gained support from the "Querdenker" movement, who protested against pandemic restrictions imposed by authorities.

Despite rejecting the official system, Reichsbürger sometimes inundate German courts with floods of motions and objections filed against court orders and payment demands issued by local authorities.

This has placed extra bureaucratic burdens on local authorities, who are required to process every properly filed request. Beyond the extra senseless work, many local counselors and politicians have reported verbal and physical abuse from Reichsbürger.

Reichsbürger theories — and why they're not true

No peace treaty: Reichsbürger claim that Germany is not an independent state, but a private company created by the victorious allies after World War II. The lack of a peace treaty is among the arguments cited as "proof" for this theory.

Indeed, at the end of World War II, Germany surrendered but did not conclude a peace treaty, as there was initially no German government that could have signed it. This allows the Reichsbürger to argue that the Federal Republic of Germany has never been a sovereign state but is in fact still under occupation.

Though West Germany and East Germany were both universally recognized as states, this argument technically had some legitimacy until 1990, as the Allies did legally keep some level of control over German affairs.

But when the "Two Plus Four" treaty — between the two Germanys and France, the UK, the US, and the Soviet Union — was signed to regulate German reunification, the Allies relinquished all remaining rights and recognized Germany's sovereignty.

Germany's transitional constitution: When West Germany implemented its Basic Law (Grundgesetz) in 1949, the term "constitution" was deliberately avoided because Germany was divided and the two Germanys did not recognize each other's legitimacy. Since the West German Basic Law could not cover all the German people, it was framed as being provisional.

In 1972, the two German states improved relations and accepted their borders without fully recognizing each other, which made things complicated for the Basic Law. West Germany's Supreme Court then pronounced a judgment that the Reichsbürger point to until this day:

"The Basic Law assumes that the German Reich survived the collapse in 1945 and did not perish either with the capitulation or through the exercise of foreign state power in Germany by the Allied occupying powers, nor later; this follows from the preamble, from Article 16, Article 23, Article 116 and Article 146 of the Basic Law. [...] The German Reich continues to exist, still possesses the legal capacity, but is not itself capable of acting as a total state for lack of organization, in particular for lack of institutionalized organs."

But again, the Two Plus Four Treaty put an end to the transitional nature of the West German Federal Republic. Similarly, the Basic Law was made legitimate for all of Germany by a change in the wording of the final Article 146 to state, "This Basic Law, which, since the achievement of the unity and freedom of Germany, applies to the entire German people, shall cease to apply on the day on which a constitution freely adopted by the German people takes effect."

Nevertheless, Reichsbürger insist that this was a sleight of hand never approved by a referendum of the German people, that the provisional Basic Law only ever applied to West Germany, and is therefore illegitimate.

Germany is just a company: Finally, the "Reichsbürger" hold on to the theory that Germany is just a limited liability company and that its inhabitants are just its employees. They often refer to the "Bundesrepublik Deutschland GmbH" (Federal Republic of Germany limited liability company).

Such a company does indeed exist, but it is a property of the federal government that takes care of the state's money and capital market transactions. Also, it was not founded shortly before reunification in 1990, as is often suggested, but at the end of 2000.

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This article has been updated since its publication to reflect recent developments.

This article was edited by Rina Goldenberg