The first proceedings in a sprawling multipart trial against members of an alleged far-right plot to attack the German parliament and overthrow the government began in Stuttgart on Monday.
Nine members of the group led by the minor aristocrat and businessman Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss will take the stand in the southwestern city.
They included, among others, a special forces soldier, a former far-right MP, an astrologer, and a well-known chef.
Prosecutors accuse them of preparing a “treasonous undertaking” to topple the German government.
The affair is the most high-profile recent case of far-right violence, which officials say has grown to become the biggest extremist threat in Germany.
The complexity of the trial and the need for extra security measures has seen proceedings against the alleged plotters split across three courts.
Reuss, who was set to be installed as head of state after the supposed coup, will face trial in Frankfurt in May, while a third set of proceedings will open in Munich in June.
The alleged putschists are said by prosecutors to have espoused a mix of “conspiracy myths” drawn from the global QAnon movement and the German Reichsbuerger (Citizens of the Reich) scene.
The Reichsbuerger movement includes right-wing extremists and gun enthusiasts who reject the legitimacy of the modern German republic.
Its followers generally believe in the continued existence of the pre-World War I German Reich, or empire, under a monarchy, and several groups have declared their own states.
