BERLIN: German police on Tuesday arrested eight suspected members of a far-right group who had been training for what they expected to be a breakdown of law and order, prosecutors said.
Hundreds of police carried out pre-dawn raids on 20 sites linked to the “Saxon Separatists” militant group in formerly communist East Germany and neighboring Poland, with searches also taking place in Austria.
Federal prosecutors said the operation targeted “a militant group of 15 to 20 individuals whose ideology is characterized by racist, anti-Semitic and partially apocalyptic ideas.”
Prosecutors said the group’s members, mostly young men, strongly rejected Germany’s liberal democratic order and believed the government was on the verge of “collapse” on an unspecified “X day.”
In anticipation of this day, the militants had planned to take control of parts of their state of Saxony and potentially other parts of East Germany.
Their plan was to “establish governmental and societal structures modeled on National Socialism” that would have sought to target “undesirable groups of people…by means of ethnic cleansing.”
They had provided paramilitary training in combat gear, focusing on “urban warfare and firearms handling,” as well as marches and patrols.
Authorities partially named the suspects, all German nationals, as alleged leader Joern S. and members Kurt H., Karl K, Kevin M, Hans-Georg P, Kevin R, Joerg S and Norman T.
They were arrested in and around the cities of Leipzig and Dresden as well as neighboring areas. Joerg S., 23, was arrested in Poland.
The searches also targeted the premises of individuals not considered suspicious in Austria, particularly in the capital Vienna.
Prosecutors said the group was founded about four years ago and since then has made “continuous preparations for the perceived inevitable and violent change in government.”
The group had obtained camouflage clothing, combat helmets, gas masks and bulletproof vests, prosecutors said in a statement that did not mention the seizure of firearms.
More than 450 law enforcement personnel joined the operation, including state and federal police and commandos, in cooperation with domestic intelligence services.
The arrested men were due to appear on Tuesday and Wednesday before the Federal Court of Justice in Karlsruhe, in the west of the country. Judges should read arrest warrants and decide whether to keep defendants in pretrial detention.