Hundreds of Reich Citizens demonstrate in German city of Karlsruhe

Several hundred supporters of Germany’s far-right Reich Citizens Movement and so-called “self-administrators” gathered for a rally Saturday in the centre of the south-western city of Karlsruhe.

The police spoke of a total of 300 to 350 participants on Karlsruhe’s Schlossplatz. Officials had expected around 500 people from all over Germany.

Participants waved numerous Reich flags in the immediate vicinity of Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court.

Some 250 counter-demonstrators also gathered on Schlossplatz within sight of the Reich Citizens, police said. The local Antifa, a left-wing anti-fascist and anti-racist political movement, was also present.

The event had been peaceful so far. According to a police spokesperson, no major incidents were reported.

The Reich Citizens movement, which reportedly has around 6,000 followers across the country, has been accused of seeking to establish a “counter-state” and building “criminal economic structures.”

Reich Citizens do not recognize the Federal Republic of Germany and its laws.

“This is not our Germany,” a spokesman said on stage. He called for resistance against what he called “the dictatorship in our country.”

Reich Citizens is an umbrella term used to describe a diffuse group of German residents.

The movement has no official structure and consists of several groupings.

Many of the group’s followers maintain that the German Reich proclaimed in 1871 still exists. They do not recognize modern-day democratic and constitutional structures such as parliament, laws or courts.

They also refuse to pay taxes, social security contributions or fines.