Protection of the Constitution warns
“Kingdom of Germany” is looking for land in the Uckermark
01/27/2023, 7:23 p.m
With the prospect of alleged tax exemption, an extremist organization of so-called Reich citizens in Brandenburg wants to take over a cooperative and buy land and real estate. There is resistance in the affected area. Even the Office for the Protection of the Constitution turns to the citizens.
The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution sees in Lychen in der Uckermark the danger of the extremist Reich citizens’ organization “Kingdom of Germany” settling there. “The Brandenburg Office for the Protection of the Constitution considers it possible that structures of the extremist movement ‘Kingdom of Germany’ could temporarily establish themselves on site,” said a spokeswoman for the Brandenburg Ministry of the Interior in Potsdam. Accordingly, the “Reichsbürger” with their leader Peter Fitzek have been operating covertly in the Rutenberg district for a year. The organization is now becoming more and more openly anti-Semitic.
According to information from rbb24 and the political magazine “Contrasts”, the organization “Königreich Deutschland” is trying to establish itself in Lychen-Rutenberg and to create what it believes to be a self-administered national territory with real estate purchases. According to the report, she wants to bring a cooperative under her influence, which has around 44 hectares of land and also buy real estate. The Office for the Protection of the Constitution had warned the citizens of the group’s plans at an event. The area corresponds to around 61 football pitches and is therefore slightly larger than, for example, Munich’s Theresienwiese, where the annual Oktoberfest takes place. Lychen is located almost 100 kilometers north of the center of Berlin.
The ARD quoted another employee of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution as saying that if such a group settles down, does not recognize the laws and does not pay taxes, “then the local community crumbles”. The non-party mayor Karola Gundlach said in the post that she would do everything possible to discuss the situation locally and to take action against the so-called “Kingdom of Germany”.
Scene with thousands of followers
The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution declared that civil society and the state were called upon to “resolutely oppose this activity with the means of a well-fortified democracy and to put a stop to it”. According to the ARD report, this is already happening: A local entrepreneur is trying to mobilize people against the settlement of Reich citizens.
In recent years, various courts have dealt with Fitzek. He did not accept the verdicts. It was about unauthorized banking, breach of trust and violations of the Insurance Supervision Act. So-called Reich citizens do not recognize the German state and its laws and refuse to pay taxes, social security contributions and fines.
The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution wrote in the most recent report in 2021 that the “self-administrator” group ‘Königreich Deutschland’ (KRD) suggested to its supporters that they could free themselves from tax liability by transferring to the KRD, which would involve costs.
Across Germany, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution assigned around 21,000 people to the scene of the so-called Reichsbürger- and Selbstverwalter in 2021, 1,000 more than in the previous year. The proportion of those who are classified as right-wing extremists is more than 5 percent.