Germany, 2022 — military coup conspiracy
Event Summary
This entry is coded 8 December 2022, corresponding to the December 2022 German coup plot by the far-right Reichsbürger network known as the Patriotic Union. On 7 December 2022, in the largest counterterrorism raid in the history of the Federal Republic, thousands of police officers searched some 130 properties across eleven of Germany's sixteen states, with additional arrests in Austria and Italy, and detained 25 members of a suspected far-right terrorist group. The network, part of the Reichsbürger movement that rejects the legitimacy of the modern German state and including QAnon adherents, aimed to overthrow the government by force, storm the Bundestag, and re-establish a monarchist government in the tradition of the German Reich, with the minor aristocrat Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss designated as future head of state.
Alleged ringleaders included Reuss and a former Bundeswehr special-forces officer, Rudiger von Pescatore, who was to lead the group's military wing, while a former far-right party member and judge was slated to become justice minister. The group had coalesced from November 2021. The 8 December 2022 coding matches the reporting of the raid.
Researched Details
Researched
Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.
Sources
Editorial Note
Cross-Reference
Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.
Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:
- Cline Center id
26012082022
How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.
Outcome and Target
Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: The German government foiled the plot and arrested 25 alleged conspirators.
Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.
Baseline Dataset Citation
Baseline Source-Document Entries
New York Times
This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →