Violent extremists who still believe in the Third Reich

“Hitler’s Third Reich was never legally dissolved, so we’re under no obligation to obey federal laws.” Germans have always been faintly amused by the eccentrics who make this claim, said Claus Christian Malzahn in Die Welt (Berlin). “Reichsbürger” (citizens of the Reich) they call themselves. And their beliefs are seriously cranky, said Juri Auel in Der Spiegel (Hamburg). They insist the postwar constitution is invalid, because it was “dictated by the Allies” and never passed in a public referendum. As there’s no “functioning state”, they claim there’s no obligation to pay taxes or obey federal laws. They cite Article 9 of UN Resolution 56/83 – which actually applies to failed states such as Somalia. It’s all so “completely absurd” as to make discussion pointless. But it makes them an endless annoyance to public officials, who they tie up in knots with legal challenges over taxes, ID papers and gun licences.

We shouldn’t go on indulging Reichsbürger as “harmless cranks”, said Malzahn. They’re starting to look like violent extremists. When police raided the home of one in Bavaria last week, to enforce a debt recovery, he opened fire from behind a closed door – injuring four officers, one of whom later died. It’s not the first time this has happened. In the summer, a property owner who had “declared independence” from the German state started a shoot-out in which three officers were injured. Another Reichsbürger threw firebombs at the Bundestag. “This dangerous soup has been brewing for a while.”

Our police have a history of failing to take the threat of far-right violence seriously, said Wolfgang de Ponte in Münchner Merkur (Munich). What’s particularly shocking is that in Bavaria, one of Germany’s most conservative states, some officers now identify themselves as Reichsbürger. We’re told by Bavaria’s politicians of the danger of Islamic State terrorists posing as refugees: they should worry about the threat in their own ranks. And not just from Reichsbürger, said Peter Pauls in Kölner Stadt-anzeiger (Cologne). They’re but one of several groups proliferating on the extreme-right: they rub shoulders with the Rechte (Rights), Identitarians, Third Way, Pegida and many others. All promote elaborate conspiracy theories on the internet, a magnet for every “nutcase” with a grievance. We must be on guard. These people nourish “violent fantasies” that put them on a collision course with the state and make them a breeding ground for terror.