Eight members of far-right group arrested in Germany and Poland
Prosecutors say Saxonian Separatists group sought to target ‘unwanted groups of people by means of ethnic cleansing’.
German and Polish authorities have arrested eight suspected members of a far-right extremist group, accused of promoting conspiracy theories and undergoing military training in preparation for a state collapse, prosecutors announced.
On Tuesday, more than 450 police and security officers raided 20 sites associated with the so-called Saxonian Separatists in eastern Germany and neighboring Poland. Some locations were also searched in Austria, according to German federal prosecutors.
“Our security authorities have thwarted militant coup plans by right-wing terrorists at an early stage. They had been waiting for a 'Day X' to launch armed attacks on people and our state,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser in a statement.
The prosecutor’s office reported that the group aimed to seize control of parts of Saxony and possibly other areas in eastern Germany. Founded in November 2020, the group, known as the Saxonian Separatists (or Sachsische Separatisten), consists of about 15-20 members and is regarded as a domestic “terrorist organization” by authorities. Its ideology incorporates “racist, anti-Semitic, and, in some cases, apocalyptic ideas,” according to the statement.
The group allegedly planned to take over areas of the former communist East Germany to guard against what it saw as an impending collapse of German society. It aimed to establish, “by force of arms,” a state grounded in “national socialism,” the ideology associated with the Nazi Party under Adolf Hitler. Authorities say the group planned to conduct “ethnic cleansing” to remove “undesirable groups of people.”
The group’s members—mostly young men—underwent paramilitary training and acquired military gear, including camouflage, combat helmets, gas masks, and bulletproof vests, the prosecutor’s office said.
The suspects, some of whom will be prosecuted as minors and adolescents, are set to appear before an investigating judge. Seven suspects were arrested near the cities of Leipzig, Dresden, and Meissen in eastern Germany, while one was detained in the Polish border town of Zgorzelec.
This marks the second attempted coup uncovered in Germany in recent years. In 2022, authorities exposed a plot by the Reichsbürger movement, led by Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, a businessman and former aristocrat, who allegedly aimed to overthrow the government and establish a provisional administration. This case revealed an extensive network and shocked the German public.
