Self-proclaimed “King of Germany” arrested: ISD’s Jakob Guhl on the rise of Germany’s anti-state conspiracy theorists

The Telegraph published an in-depth article on the recent arrest of a self-declared monarch, whose movement—the “Kingdom of Germany”—is part of the Reichsbürger scene, an overlapping network of people who reject the legitimacy of the German state. 

Jakob Guhl, ISD’s Director of Policy, Research and Counter-Extremism for Europe, explained to The Telegraph that the isolation of the pandemic drove many people toward this movement. 

“Chat forums, such as Telegram, which are [largely] unregulated, saw a huge inflow of anti-vaccine people and far-Right groups,” Jakob said. “Part of that mix was Reichsbürger, and there was suddenly a far larger audience.” 

Despite being written off as a fringe novelty for years, the group has been linked to numerous criminal acts—including a foiled coup in 2022. 

“The ideology of rejecting state authority and holding historical revisionist ideas—many of them antisemitic—always had the potential to unload itself very badly,” Jakob said. 

The full article is available on The Telegraph.