Investigation into German far-right coup attempt reportedly confirms leader meeting Russian diplomats

The German prince accused of being involved in organizing a plot to overthrow the German government met at least once with Russian diplomats at a consulate in Germany, a meeting that investigators are examining to determine how aggressively the prince tried to involve Moscow in the plot.

This revealing news of the investigation was reported on by the New York Times, citing two people familiar with the investigation into the conspiracy.

Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss, who has been identified as the designated leader of a shadow government that intended to overthrow the German government and has now been arrested, had twice visited the Russian consulate in Leipzig, where he was said to have met with Russian diplomats, the people familiar with the investigation said, with one of the visits having occurred on Russia’s National Day in June.

A relative of Heinrich of Reuss has commented on his arrest, calling it a disgrace to the family. "For 850 years we have been a tolerant, world-open Fürstentum [German principality that is headed by a prince] in Ostthüringen. Now we look like terrorists and reactionaries [political radicals] to the world. It is truly terrible", he said according to the Frankfurter Rundschau. 

As the NYT reported, investigators told lawmakers that in the course of raids against the group, which targeted 150 locations across the country, they confiscated around 40 firearms. But they also found thousands of bullets for other weapons they have yet to locate, leaving police on the hunt for hidden caches of weapons.

Three people familiar with the investigation, a lawmaker, a top aide to another lawmaker, and another German official, talked to NYT on the details of the investigation on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the case publicly. Lawmakers on certain parliamentary committees were briefed on the investigation on December 12.

So far, police have arrested 23 suspects and are investigating another 31 people. According to the Frankfurter Rundschau report, a judge and former member of the far-right "Alternative für Deutschland" (AfD) political party, Birgit Malsack-Winkelmann, as well as celebrity chef Frank Heppner (the father-in-law of Austria's national football captain and FC Real Madrid player David Alaba) are among the detained.

The raids also found more than 100 nondisclosure agreements, two of those people said, swearing signees to secrecy over the group’s plans, which involved storming the German Parliament and arresting its members, as well as killing the chancellor. 

Many of these contracts, the lawmaker and the lawmaker’s aide said, were signed with an acknowledgment that breaking their silence should be punishable by death.

“The grossest scandal for our country will be if this is true, that a number of people signed these, including some people in government offices”, said Matthias Quent, a professor of sociology at Magdeburg University of Applied Sciences and an expert on the far right scene. “And that apparently nobody, or at least very few of them, reported it or criticized it”.