On 04 March 2024, the Bavarian Police Academy co-organised a webinar together with the RESONANT and ATHENA projects on the current status of extremism, violence and conspiracy theories in Germany and Bavaria. After a set of brief opening remarks on each of the projects the webinar proceeded with a presentation by Chief Superintendent Tobias Beyrle which was followed by Q&A.
The landscape of politically motivated extremism
In his presentation, Tobias Beyrle, a former police officer with the protective force of Augsburg and current instructor at the University of Applied Sciences for Public Services, explained that the landscape of politically motivated extremism has changed slightly in recent years. For example, Islamist extremists have taken advantage of social media, especially TikTok, which is very popular among youth, to recruit supporters. This so-called “TikTokization'' of Islamist propaganda, includes a variety of content such as short question – answer TikToks, online courses and videos, e.g. instructions on how to acquire explosives and build bombs, and memes. [1]
Moreover, the current war between Israel and Hamas is exploited to tap into the anger and frustration felt by many Muslims over the suffering in Gaza. Anti-semitic crimes have increased since the beginning of the war and keep posing a growing threat to Bavaria and Germany’s Jewish communities. [2]
Interestingly, the number of crimes committed by left-wing and right-wing extremists respectively have decreased in Bavaria in the last three years. The number of crimes committed by left-wing extremists dropped from 705 in 2020 to 364 in 2022. [3] Yet, paradoxically, the number of left-wing extremists prone to violence has slightly increased. [4]
The number of crimes committed by right-wing extremists is down from 2,455 in 2020 to 787 in 2022. [5] In the domain of political extremism with foreign roots, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has remained by far the biggest player that enjoys steady support.
The Reichsbürger movement and conspiracy theories
Another extremist group that has grown significantly in recent years in Bavaria [6] and, more broadly, in Germany [7] (albeit a lot of the Reichbürgers’ criminal activities have taken place in Bavaria) [8] are the so-called Reichsbürger, the citizens of the Reich. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz), Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, defines the Reichsbürger as “[...] groups and individuals who, for various motives and on various grounds [...] reject the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany and its legal system, deny the legitimacy of its democratically elected representatives or claim that the German legal order does not at all apply to them”. [9]
The movement has become increasingly aggressive, with the number of crimes committed by its members having almost tripled from 243 in 2020 to 699 in 2022 in Bavaria alone. [10] Especially the number of compulsions (using violence or serious threats to coerce somebody else to engage in illegal activities) has gone up. The Reichsbürger are particularly prone to conspiratorial thinking. For instance, a small network led by Heinrich XIII Prince Reuß hatched a plan to topple the German government. [11] Another group led by Wolfgang Ebel announced the creation of an Interim Government of the Reich ("Kommissarische Reichsregierung"). [12]
Conclusion/ Takeaways
Current trends such as the growing use of social media for propaganda purposes, which is addressed by two of FERMI’s tools, namely the Spread Analyser and the Sentiment Analysis module, and the war in Gaza have contributed to violent extremism in Bavaria and Germany in recent months, especially with respect to violent Islamism. Jewish communities are particularly at risk. That being said, left-wing and even more so right-wing violence have decreased until 2022, whereas the Reichsbürger movement has grown. The latter is particularly prone to conspiracy theories aimed at delegitimising Germany’s political system. Further conspiracy theories that have been circulated among politically motivated extremists, especially on the far right, include various forms of QAnon propaganda. Most of them blame the so-called “deep state” for the misery in the world, whereas others are driven by anti-semitism. [13]
[1] Bayerisches Staatsministerium des Innern, für Sport und Integration, Verfassungsschutzbericht Bayern 2022, pp.108-112, accessed 29 April, 2024, https://www.verfassungsschutz.bayern.de/mam/anlagen/vsb-2022_230627_barrierefrei.pdf.
[2] Götschenberg, M. and H. Schmidt, "Anschlagsgefahr so hoch wie lange nicht mehr," Tagesschau, accessed 29 April, 2024, https://www.tagesschau.de/inland/innenpolitik/sicherheitslage-deutschland-104.html.
[3] Bayerisches Staatsministerium des Innern, für Sport und Integration, Verfassungsschutzbericht Bayern 2022, p.285, accessed 29 April, 2024, https://www.verfassungsschutz.bayern.de/mam/anlagen/vsb-2022_230627_barrierefrei.pdf.
[4] Ibid, p. 277.
[5] Ibid, p.171.
[6] Ibid, p.240.
[7] Bundesministerium des Innern und für Heimat, Verfassungsschutzbericht 2022, p.33, accessed 29 April, 2024, https://www.verfassungsschutz.de/SharedDocs/publikationen/DE/verfassungsschutzberichte/2023-06-20-verfassungsschutzbericht-2022.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=3.
[8] Ibid.
[9] Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, "Reichsbürger" and "Selbstverwalter", accessed 23 April, 2024, https://www.verfassungsschutz.de/EN/topics/reichsbuerger-and-selbstverwalter/reichsbuerger-and-selbstverwalter_node.html.
[10] Bayerisches Staatsministerium des Innern, für Sport und Integration, Verfassungsschutzbericht Bayern 2022, p.240, accessed 29 April, 2024, https://www.verfassungsschutz.bayern.de/mam/anlagen/vsb-2022_230627_barrierefrei.pdf.
[11] Adler, K., "Germany coup plot: The extremists who tried to topple the state", BBC.com, accessed 29 April, 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-63916809.
[12] Pfahl-Traughber, A., "Reichsbürger", Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, accessed 29 April, 2024, https://www.kas.de/de/web/extremismus/rechtsextremismus/reichsbuerger.
[13] Ibid, p.261-265.