Spanish police said Thursday they had apprehended a suspected neo-Nazi on the island of Majorca who is wanted in Germany for allegedly trying to set off a bomb.

Officers arrested the 28-year-old in an operation with German colleagues as he stepped out of a luxury villa where he had been hiding, police said in a statement.

German authorities suspect the man manufactured a pipe bomb found by a resident in the small Bavarian town of Burgenlengenfeld in February this year.

The bomb did not explode but later anaylsis found it had been made with metallic substances that increased its power and Mercury to contaminate the intended blast zone.

The Spanish Guardia Civil said the man had stayed hidden in the house but was arrested when he went outside to put out the rubbish.

Read more: Reichsbürger movement on the rise in Germany

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Reichsbürger links

Police suspect the man is a member of the Reichsbürger (Citizens of the Reich), a group which believes the Third Reich is still the legitimate government despite Nazi Germany's defeat in World War II.

Read more: German police find weapons cache linked to right-wing Reichsbürger group

Because they reject the legality of the German Federal Government, many refuse to pay taxes and perform civil tasks.

The growing movement had around 16,500 members in 2018, according to Germany's domestic intelligence agency.

The Reichsbürger movement in Germany What do Reichsbürger believe? "Reichsbürger" translates to "citizens of the Reich." The nebulous movement rejects the modern German state, and insists that the German Empire's 1937 or 1871 borders still exist and the modern country is an administrative construct still occupied by Allied powers. For Reichsbürger, the government, parliament, judiciary and security agencies are puppets installed and controlled by foreigners.

The Reichsbürger movement in Germany What do they do? The Reichsbürger refuse to pay taxes or fines. They see their personal property, such as their houses, as independent entities outside the authority of the Federal Republic of Germany, and reject the German constitution and other legal texts, but also swamp German courts with lawsuits. They produce their own aspirational documents such as passports and driving licenses.

The Reichsbürger movement in Germany How much of a threat are they? The Reichsbürger scene began to develop in the 1980s and is a disparate, leaderless movement that has grown to about 19,000 supporters, according to German intelligence officials. Of those, about 950 have been identified as far-right extremists and at least 1,000 have a license to own firearms. Many subscribe to anti-Semitic ideologies.

The Reichsbürger movement in Germany Who are its members? One was Mr. Germany According to German authorities, the average Reichsbürger is 50 years old, male, and is socially and financially disadvantaged. The movement's members are concentrated in the southern and eastern parts of Germany. Adrian Ursache, a former winner of the Mister Germany beauty pageant, is also a Reichsbürger and was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2019 for shooting and injuring a policeman.

The Reichsbürger movement in Germany Turning point The case of Wolfgang P., who in October 2017 was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a police officer, is seen as a turning point for how German authorities deal with the extremist group. P., an alleged Reichsbürger member, shot at officers who were raiding his home to confiscate weapons. The case gained international attention and set off alarm bells over the escalation of violence.

The Reichsbürger movement in Germany What are the authorities doing about it? German authorities were accused of long underestimating the threat. In 2017 for the first time Germany’s domestic intelligence service documented extremist crimes perpetrated by individual Reichsbürger. Since then there have been several raids on Reichsbürger targets and subgroups have been banned. Police and military have also probed whether they have Reichsbürger in their own ranks.

The Reichsbürger movement in Germany International parallels, conspiracy theories Reichsbürger have been seen waving Russian flags, leading to allegations that they are funded by Russia with the aim to destabilize the German government. Germany's Reichsbürger are also compared to US groups such as "freemen-on-the-land," who believe that they are bound only by laws they consent to and can therefore declare themselves independent of the government and the rule of law. Author: Samantha Early, Rina Goldenberg



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ta/rt (AFP)