They have been an issue for a long time. But COVID really gave a boost to these schools of thought and those that opposed COVID quickly found themselves on networks and pages that were and are spreading right wing and Russian propaganda. It is a huge mess and truly arrived in the middle of society. I have people at work in high positions getting ready to fight some boogyman government overreach that was supposed to happen with COVID, but didn't happen. Now it is supposed to happen as part of climate change policies... for a while I have kept the official information on what to do if you encounter a Reichsbürger by our BND at hand. It is ridiculous.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

In 2017, for example, a former winner of the Mister Germany male beauty pageant, Adrian Ursache, shot a policeman in the neck when the officer tried to evict him from a property he had declared to be a sovereign state.

But his kingdom is expanding relentlessly, with hundreds coming to live and work on his "royal" estates and thousands paying up to 2,500 Euros to attend his weekend courses on how they too can separate from the state.

Four years ago, in a speech to a Swiss business forum, he publicly bemoaned the descent of his noble family "after a thousand-year rule" and told the audience how much better people had lived when the Heinrichs were in charge.

For example, a poster bearing the Reuss family crest was nailed to a tree informing local residents they were "stateless" and would have to register on the internet to actually get valid identity documents.

Prince Reuss and 24 others were charged with a terrorist plot to take over the Reichstag building, arrest or execute their opponents, declare a transitional military government and suspend democracy.

von Storch rejects any suggestion that the party is extremist, arguing its controversial migration policy (it would ban any migrant who can't pay five million Euros) is not so different from Australia's.

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