Early on Wednesday morning, 3,000 police officers raided 130 locations in a total of 16 German states.
About 50 people are suspected of having formed a far-right terrorist group, which planned to overthrow the democratic rule of Germany and restore the German Empire.
Docent Christer Mattsson is director of the Segerstedt Institute at the University of Gothenburg. He sees clear parallels to the storming of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
“It is remarkable that in two fairly stable democracies, within the space of two years, we have two planned and partially initiated coup d’etats that are driven by these ideas,” he says.
Christer Mattsson, associate professor and director of the Segerstedt Institute at the University of Gothenburg. Stock image. Three ideas encourage radicalization
The suspected terrorist organization in Germany is linked to the so-called Reichsbürger movement, which swears allegiance to the previous German Empire, which ended after World War II.
Christer Mattsson points to three common ideas in this far-right fantasy world.
The first idea is that white people in white territory are threatened to their existence.
The second idea is about the “deep state”, a conspiracy theory that there is no democracy, but a deep state with the real power holders.
The third idea is a radical anti-feminism, with a notion that white men have been feminized and can no longer defend themselves.
“It is these ideas that encourage and inspire radicalisation,” he says.
Reminiscent of the explosive
What holds these three rather scattered ideas together is the notion that it is Jews who are behind it in one way or another, Mattsson continues.
— When people stormed the Capitol and shouted “jews will not replace us”, it is a reminder of the explosiveness of these ideas. People feel that this is really happening and feel compelled to resort to violence.
In the short term, security services in various countries now have a big job ahead of them in keeping track of conspiratorial networks and lone actors, according to Mattsson. In the long term, we must prevent the ideas from taking hold.
— The work against anti-Semitism is absolutely the most important. Understanding that anti-Semitism cannot be reduced to racism against Jews, but anti-Semitism is these system-threatening ideas against democracy.