Reich Citizens?

For decades in Germany, this splinter oddball group....called "Reich citizens"....existed.  No one can say with any real evidence how many there are.  It might be dozens....it might be hundreds.....it might be thousands.

Out of the late 1930s....some individuals adapted to the Nazi-style behavior, and after the war ended....they didn't fall into line with the new German republic or accept the rules as most Germans did.

This week, a couple of cops were sent to a house in Georgensmund, a fairly rural town just south of Nuremberg.  They were supposed to evict a 49-year-old guy from the property.  Things didn't go well, and shots were fired (by both parties).  One cop is dead, and the other three wounded,

The shooter is a "Reich citizen".  He had a gun collection, and was prepared to meet any situation.

This "Reich citizen" thing then popped up big-time in mainstream German news (at least with the state-run TV crowd).  The political folks are all hyped up and noting that this has gone for long enough.  They want intelligence collection and arrests.

I've done a fair amount of research on the "Reich citizens".  They are an independent crowd.....or at least they claim that.  Generally, they will try to avoid paying taxes whenever possible.  For the most part, they state that German law simply doesn't apply to them.

Neo-Nazis?  Yeah, in the basic sense of the term.....they want the standard laws that were in effect in the 1930s to be observed.

Oddly, if you think about it....the Nazis desperately wanted limited to marginal gun ownership.  With the Reich citizens.....most all of them are gun enthusiasts and all participate in the German gun license program, which means they have to obey the current German law....not the 1930s law.

The numbers?  In each region, there is a "club" or association in existence, and this is the connection of one group to another.  ARD says that for the Brandenburg region of Germany....there are roughly 200 members of the "Reich citizen" club.  But across all of Germany?  Only estimations exist and it's put at roughly a couple thousand.

Why any of this really matters?  The intellectuals and journalists have branded these "Reich citizens" as extremists and pressing for some police action.  As for arresting thousands?  No, that would look extremely foolish.  But they would go and invent a massive intelligence collection apparatus that would go and look upon private citizens.

So you sit there......pondering this massive intelligence collection apparatus and wonder.....who else might they then view, and might this broaden out?  Strangely enough....they would have gone and created the exact same intelligence collection apparatus that the Nazis of the 1930s would have created.  The obvious question is....who is the real Nazi?