OMM Newsroom
Peter Fitzek, who calls himself Peter the First, has gone on trial in Düsseldorf accused of leading a criminal organisation alongside three men described as his senior “subjects”, according to the BBC.
Fitzek belongs to the banned Reichsbürger, or Citizens of the Reich, group, which sought to establish a “Kingdom of Germany” (KRD). German intelligence agencies define Reichsbürger as conspiracy theorists who reject the existence and legitimacy of the post-war German state.
The defendants are accused of plotting against Germany by seeking to create structures for an alternative state, including a banking and insurance system and a currency. Fitzek denies committing a crime, and his defence lawyers have said he will make a detailed statement.
Fitzek and the three other defendants, identified only as Benjamin M, Mathias B and Martin S, face up to 10 years in prison.
Prosecutors allege KRD ran financial services
In 2012, Fitzek, a former chef and karate instructor, declared himself “supreme sovereign” of the “kingdom” and had himself crowned in ermine robes while carrying a medieval sword.
He began buying land and property across Germany. With around 6,000 members, the KRD became the country’s largest Reichsbürger and self-governance group.
Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt banned the KRD in 2025, and Fitzek and the three other suspects were taken into custody.
Prosecutors say the group founded the KRD “to replace the ‘system’ of the Federal Republic of Germany”. They allege that it operated banking and insurance services through branches in Dresden, Ulm, Menden and Lutherstadt Wittenberg, as well as a “registration office” that issued fake identity documents and its own currency.
The charges also include organised forgery and tax evasion amounting to millions of euros. Prosecutors allege that, in the five years up to 2025, the KRD took in about €10m (£8.25m) through unauthorised banking and insurance transactions, donations, gifts and fee-based seminars.
They say the revenues were not declared to tax authorities and that no income tax or social security contributions were paid on behalf of employees. The KRD is also accused of recruiting companies by promising they could operate free of taxes and duties.
Intelligence services estimate 26,000 Reichsbürger members
In a 2022 interview with the BBC, Fitzek denied having violent intentions but described the German state as “destructive and sick”.
German intelligence services estimate that around 26,000 people belong to Reichsbürger organisations. The groups are diverse, and the services say a small minority are right-wing extremists and potentially violent.
In a separate case in 2022, dozens of people, many of them Reichsbürger, were arrested over an alleged plot to overthrow the German government in Berlin. They were accused of planning a violent coup, including the kidnapping of the health minister, to create “civil war conditions” and bring down German democracy.
