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BERLIN — Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss, a descendant of a 700-year-old noble household that when reigned over a tiny state in jap Germany, was a comparatively obscure determine — till Wednesday, when he was named as one of many leaders of a bunch accused of plotting to overthrow the German government.
Earlier this yr, his household publicly distanced themselves from him, according to MDR, an area public broadcaster, after the prince met publicly with an area mayor who was recognized to be sympathetic to the Reichsbürger motion, a far-right group that denies the legitimacy of the fashionable German state. The mayor was suspended from workplace after attacking a journalist.
“I’m afraid that he’s now a conspiracy theorist, a confused previous man,” Heinrich XIV of Reuss, who speaks for the Home of Reuss, advised MDR on the time, including that Heinrich XIII, 71, had damaged all ties to the household greater than a decade earlier. (Male members of a number of branches of the household are historically all named Heinrich, and the spokesman will not be the son of Heinrich XIII.)
The Home of Reuss reigned till 1918 in a principality round Gera, in present-day Thuringia, that was integrated into the German Empire. In trendy Germany, hereditary nobles don’t have any particular authorized standing; their titles carry no formal weight, however they’re nonetheless generally used as components of names.
The prince, whose professional website calls him Heinrich XIII Prinz Reuss and says he provides “Coordination of Enterprise curiosity,” labored as a high-end real-estate dealer. He was arrested in Frankfurt, the place he has each an condominium and places of work within the unique West Finish neighborhood.
Below Germany’s strict privateness legal guidelines, the authorities give solely initials for suspects’ surnames, however the identify they gave for him — “Heinrich XIII P. R.” — and images and particulars of the arrests made his id clear. A Russian citizen recognized as Vitalia B., who in accordance with German information retailers was the prince’s life associate, and one other co-conspirator recognized as Norbert G., had been arrested nearer to the ancestral residence of the prince within the neighborhood of Unhealthy Lobenstein, in Thuringia.
Law enforcement officials additionally raided his fortress there, the place conspirators often met, MDR reported. The prince is claimed to have funded a number of the group’s actions, in accordance with media stories.
Over time the prince, whose great-grandfather was the final sovereign of the road till he abdicated on the finish of World Battle I, had labored to take care of household historical past and burial websites. Born in West Germany in the course of the German division, he turned energetic within the area as soon as dominated by his ancestors after reunification, supervising a dig searching for an ancestor’s tomb in 2014 and renovating an area theater.
However his curiosity in conspiracy theories and antisemitic tendencies had been additionally properly documented.
In January 2019, he gave a lecture on the WorldWebForum in Zurich, Switzerland, that was entitled “Expertise the rise and fall of the blue-blooded elite.” Within the 15-minute speech, he railed towards the Rothschild household and claimed World Battle I used to be compelled on the German kaiser by worldwide monetary pursuits — each frequent antisemitic canine whistles — and that trendy democratic Germany was simply an phantasm.
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