The Reichsbürger

Reichsbürger is used as a label for a loosely connected group of Germans who believe that the 1871 borders of the German empire are still in effect and that all of the country's governments since (and including) the Nazis have been illegitimate, many also subscribe to anti-Semitic ideologies. They believe that the current Federal Republic of Germany is a puppet government.

It has increased its membership by about 56 percent in a single year and are also trying to build an army and preparing for a "day of reckoning," according to news magazine Focus.  "They have begun preparing themselves for Day X," Focus writes, referring to an imagined day of reckoning or uprising against the German government. The Reichsbürger have increasingly been in the headlines after a series of violent incidents in the past two years, including the murder of a policeman in the Bavarian town of Georgensgmünd. The biggest number of supporters resides in Bavaria, which has about 3,500 Reichsbürger members.