# German police arrest members of far-right party **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 24, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-police-arrest-members-of-far-right-party/993636 "2023-11-24T14:27:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2023, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-police-arrest-members-of-far-right-party/993636/1 "2023-11-24T14:27:01Z")
The Reich Citizens? There’s a name that’s sure to make them popular (in both the sarcastic and sadly literal truth). > **[German police raid homes of far-right Reich Citizens group](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna126485)** > > Adherents of the group reject the legitimacy of Germany’s post-war constitution and have similarities to followers of the QAnon movement in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Mops](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mops/32/16494_2.png) [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2023, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-police-arrest-members-of-far-right-party/993636/2 "2023-11-24T14:39:15Z")
It’s not a political party (for one thing the movement is not united, because all _Reichsbürger_ contest the legitimacy of the German state, but they are disunited in what, if anything, is legitimate - there are several co-exiting monarchs, governments, and one-person states, for another thing being a party would mean they acknowledge the existence of the state they are a political party in). They are much like the American _sovereign citizens_, except perhaps for a greater tendency to informally organize. See [Reichsbürger movement - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reichsb%C3%BCrger_movement) ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2023, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-police-arrest-members-of-far-right-party/993636/3 "2023-11-24T14:39:54Z")
20 people arrested? That will never be enough. there are thousands of them. And yes, the similarities to QAnon are evident. Both are on the loony fringe. Here is a documentary that the ARTE TV station aired recently, I don’t know whether it can be seen in the USA: > **[Citizens of the Reich - Inside the German Far Right Movement - Watch the full...](https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/114219-000-A/citizens-of-the-reich/)** > > The German Reichsbürgerbewegung (Reich citizens movement) rejects the post-war democratic order and want to rip up the German constitution. Suspected of involvement in a 2022 coup d’état plot, the movement is growing. Who are its members? And why do... Perhaps on YouTube if the link does not work. Interesting and harrowing. There are idiots, fools and assholes galore everywhere, always have been, always will be. They call themselves Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich, as you wrote). When I answer them on-line, for instance when I try to refute some BS they have posted on the comments section of an article, I like to call them Reichsrentner (Pensioners of the Reich), as they often are old bitter men with too much time on their hands and too little time left to live. It is nice, because it angers them. But it does not do justice to the scale of the problem. They are dangerous. And not all of them are old. They also have weird connections to esoteric circles. The Nazis had that too, curiously. Homeopathy, quiropracticioners, Heilpraktiker (funny name, when you come to think of it), druids, runes… it’s all there mingled somewhere. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2023, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-police-arrest-members-of-far-right-party/993636/4 "2023-11-24T14:53:43Z")
Thanks for your information. I guess I saw “Among the accused plotters was a member of the far-right [Alternative for Germany] party” and conflated that with the group as a whole. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2023, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-police-arrest-members-of-far-right-party/993636/5 "2023-11-24T20:32:48Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Heilpraktiker Translation, please? ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2023, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-police-arrest-members-of-far-right-party/993636/6 "2023-11-24T20:37:41Z")
> **[Heilpraktiker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heilpraktiker)** > > Heilpraktiker ("healing practitioner") is a naturopathic profession in Germany. It is recognized as an alternative and complementary health care profession by German law. > Heilpraktiker, or non-medical healing practitioner, is recognized as an alternative and complementary health care profession by German law. A heilpraktiker does not need to have any formal education or training but must do an exam at the health authorities. This exam used to be somewhat basic until the 1980s, at which time it w... ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2023, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-police-arrest-members-of-far-right-party/993636/7 "2023-11-24T21:27:49Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > quiropracticioners Chiropracters? ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2023, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-police-arrest-members-of-far-right-party/993636/8 "2023-11-24T22:10:58Z")
> [@Arrests in German coup plot \[7-Dec 2022\]](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arrests-in-german-coup-plot-7-dec-2022/976137): > > A [Wednesday statement](https://www.presseportal.de/blaulicht/pm/14981/5388453) from the federal public prosecutor said the members of the group, which was founded in November 2021, subscribed to a range of conspiracy theories including QAnon and the right-wing extremist Reichsbürger movement, which denies the existence of the modern German state. “The accused are united by a deep rejection of state institutions,” it said. The group was prepared to use violence and accepted that deaths would happen, the statement added. Its central “council” wa… ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2023, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/german-police-arrest-members-of-far-right-party/993636/9 "2023-11-25T00:12:20Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Translation, please? Chiropractor, or chiropractitioner, the word I wrote just before that one, comes pretty close. There are subtle cultural and legal differences. > [@carrps](#): > > Chiropracters? Oh, you write it with an e, not with an o. OK, sorry. That is what I meant. But _Heil_praktiker fits, IMO. From the [German Wikipedia:](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heilpraktiker) > In Germany, a _Heilpraktiker_ (a term that emerged at the beginning of the 20th century and was generally introduced in 1928) is someone who practices medicine professionally or commercially without being licensed as a doctor or psychological psychotherapist (Section 1 of the Alternative Practitioners Act, which has existed since 19 **39** ). As a rule, these are alternative medical practices. The practice of medicine as a _Heilpraktiker_ requires a state license in Germany; unlike doctors, however, alternative practitioners only have to prove that they do not cause harm and not that they can actually heal. Yes, the law was adopted 1939 (bolding in the quote mine). And is still valid. I think that is no accident. In fact, since 1952 the interdiction to teach to become a Heilpraktiker was abolished, as it was ruled inconstitutional. So being and becoming a Heilpraktiker is even more institutionalized and stately sanctioned than under the Nazis. No, I did not make this up. I couldn’t if I tried.