Germany's Extreme Monarchists

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2022

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last week a celebrity chef, former police officers and serving army officers were arrested in Germany as part of an extremist coup to overthrow the government. The 'Reichsbürger' group has been described as a 'right-wing terrorist cell' by German media and was targeted by over 3000 police officers in an enormous raid that uncovered rifles, ammunition and personnel gathering. The group's aim was to reinstate the German monarchy with a hereditary prince, and right-wing conspiracy theorist Heinrich XIII as head of state. The 71-year-old is a descendent of the Hohenzollern dynasty, part of the German monarchy deposed in 1918 after the disastrous First World War.

To make sense of the news, Dan speaks to Anglo-German historian and author Katja Hoyer about Germany's relationship with its historical monarchy, the roots of the coup and the influence of QAnon and Trumpian conspiracy theories in galvanising far-right groups in Germany.

Produced by Mariana Des Forges and mixed by John Rogers.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everybody, welcome to Dan Snow's History In.
0:02.7	Last week, the first week of December, 2022,
0:06.0	saw an event that few predicted.
0:09.0	It's been a turbulent year, folks,
0:10.4	and I thought we might stagger through to the end of December
0:12.3	without another absolute clanger.
0:13.8	But no, Germany had a treat for us.
0:16.2	A collection of people,
0:18.1	including a celebrity gourmet chef,
0:20.1	former police officers judges,
0:22.0	serving army officers wearingly,
0:24.3	a bizarre collection of people from right across Germany
0:27.2	were targeted by 3,000 police officers.
0:30.4	They found rifles, they found ammunition,
0:33.2	they were responding to credible evidence
0:35.9	that a monarchist group was about to launch a coup in Germany.
0:39.9	Yes, a group seeking to return Germany into a monarchy.
0:43.6	You just can't make this stuff up.
0:45.0	The plan was to install a 71-year-old aristocrat
0:48.2	who was arrested sporting a fairly ridiculous tweed jacket
0:52.2	and just looking for all intents and purposes,
0:54.9	like a grand old tuff.
	...

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