What's more, it is becoming increasingly well organized—even across national borders, according to extremism expert Hans-Jakob Schindler, director of the Counter Extremism Project in Berlin. “In the German milieu, we repeatedly observe close ties to right-wing extremist milieus abroad, particularly in Austria and Switzerland, but also in Eastern European countries,” Schindler said in an interview with Ippen.Media's Frankfurter Rundschau.

Such rhetoric spread within hours to other Telegram communities and social media websites including Trump’s Truth Social platform. Violent groups have pounced on the recent news events to promote themselves, rehabilitate their images and reach new audiences, said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a researcher at the Counter Extremism Project, a nonprofit that tracks such activity online.

“Propagandists are also hoping that federal action will spill over to journalists and those who monitor the extreme right,” he said.

The youth organization of the NPD successor party Die Heimat, Junge Nationalisten (JN), for example, relies on decentralized "Tiktok divisions" in addition to numerous newly founded so-called Revolte local groups, as a digital report by the Else-Frenkel-Brunswik-Institut (EFBI) in Leipzig noted. These groups "pursue a sophisticated social media strategy by using youth-oriented aesthetics such as bomber jackets, sneakers, combat boots or fashwave looks and combining topics such as migration with identity and self-valorization offers", writes Alexander Ritzmann from the Counter Extremism Project (CEP).

CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans Jakob-Schindler quoted: “The constitution includes measures to intervene in the activities of radical parties, because Germany has dark memories of the Nazi era, when the far-right rose to power in democratic elections. In Germany, it is known that the end of democracy does not require civil war. Democracy can be weakened, and it can also be driven down by democracy's own tools, says Schindler.”

The Reichsbürger are not a single group. For the German secret services they are anti-state extremists. Analyst Hans Jakob Schindler [CEP Senior Director] draws a profile of them. Authorities estimate 2,000 Reichsbürger but the real number may be higher. Many have gun licenses, some are former military or members of the police force and some are ready for battle. This is the case of the group led by the self-styled Prince of Reus, dismantled in December 2022, while preparing an armed coup. 130 searches and 25 arrests, the largest anti-terrorism operation in recent history in Germany. A parallel reality that has become a concrete threat.