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Tag: German government

  • Five to face trials after planning a coup against the German government

    Five to face trials after planning a coup against the German government

    A far-right takeover of the German government, including the kidnapping of the health minister, is allegedly being planned by five persons.

    Today’s trial will feature four men and a woman who are charged with treason and joining or establishing a terrorist organisation.

    The group, according to the prosecution, is connected to the Reich Citizens movement, which is said to be comparable to the Sovereign Citizens and QAnon movements in the United States.

    The four men, who range in age from 44 to 56, and the 75-year-old woman, are accused of wanting to foster “conditions resembling civil war.”

    They planned to use bombs to cause nationwide blackouts before kidnapping health minister Karl Lauterbach, who backed the country’s strict anti-Covid measures, it’s claimed.

    There’s no indication the group, which went by the name United Patriots, was close to launching the alleged coup.

    Despite this prosecutors say the group’s procurement of weapons and cash show its members are ‘dangerous criminals who wanted to implement their plans’.

    The four men were arrested last April and 22 firearms, including a Kalashnikov rifle and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, as well as cash, gold and silver, were seized.

    The woman was arrested six months later and she’s accused of drafting documents for the group, including a fake arrest warrant for Mr Lauterbach.

    The names of the five suspects have not been released for privacy reasons.

    She also wrote letters to Vladimir Putin and Polish president Andrzej Duda, prosecutors said.

    Ahead of the trial Mr Lauterbach told Der Spiegel he hopes for a ‘hard, fair verdict’ that will deter others from similar plots.

  • Porsche billionaire divorces his 74-year-old wife over dementia

    Porsche billionaire divorces his 74-year-old wife over dementia

    The elderly wife of a billionaire from the Porsche family dynasty has filed for divorce, citing a ‘dementia-like condition’ as the cause of their split.

    Claudia Porsche, 74, is said to have filed for divorce from Wolfgang Porsche, 79, who claims that her illness has caused significant behavioral changes.

    Since 2007, Wolfgang and Claudia have been dating. They got hitched in 2019.
    The assets owned by the Porsche family are worth approximately £18 billion.

    Claudia Porsche, a grandmother and former adviser to the German government, has been unable to move independently for months and has reportedly been living with her daughter for almost two years.

    SALZBURG, AUSTRIA - JULY 27: Claudia Huebner and Wolfgang Porsche attend the 'La Clemenzia di Tito' premiere during the Salzburg Festival 2017 (Salzburger Festspiele) on July 27, 2017 in Salzburg, Austria. (Photo by Isa Foltin/Getty Images)
    Wolfgang Porsche married his wife Claudia in 2019 after getting together in 2009 (Picture: Getty)

    Four housekeepers are employed to make sure they have everything they need around the clock.

    Her mental awareness is said to have undergone a rapid decline during this period, which sources close to the family claim has made living together impossible for the couple.

    German media reports that following the split, Wolfgang has been getting closer to his friend of 25 years, 59-year-old Gabriela Prinzessin zu Leiningen, in recent months.

    Born in Austria, Wolfgang is the youngest son of Ferry Porsche, who founded the sports car brand in Stuttgart in 1930.

    As an executive and member of the supervisory board, he played a key role in the development of the Porsche company.

    His oldest brother is Ferdinand ‘Butzi’ Porsche, who designed the first Porsche 911 in 1964.

    Wolfgang currently lives in Zell am See, Austria, and has four children- two to director and screenplay writer Susanne Bresser, whom he married in 1988 and divorced in 2008.

  • Germany refuses to remove World War I tunnel

    Germany refuses to remove World War I tunnel

    There will be no recovery of the bodies of more than 200 German troops who were buried alive in a tunnel in northeastern France during World War I.

    Instead, the German government has chosen to designate the graveyard as a war memorial and place it under official protection.

    The decision was made on Friday afternoon at the Caverne du Dragon museumDragons star Johnson is on fire at Forest in northeastern France by the French government, the Volksbund, and the German war cemetery commission.

    “Rescue efforts to reach the remains in 2021 and 2022 had proven very difficult,” a spokeswoman for the Volksbund told CNN on Friday, adding that there had been “several attempts” to open the “very deep and very long” tunnel, which is located in a nature reserve with “sandy ground still contaminated with ammunition.”

    Although the Franco-German team managed to see as far as 64 meters (210 feet) down the tunnel, they “did not find any remains,” the spokesperson said.

    Many WWI battles took place between the French armed forces and German troops positioned on the Chemin des Dames, or “Lady’s Way,” a crest between two valleys.

    On May 4, 1917, during one of the biggest battles of the war, the French army was firing on German soldiers with heavy artillery. An artillery shell hit the entrance of the Winterberg tunnel on the Chemin des Dames, according to the Volksbund.

    Some of the German troops, from the 111th Baden Reserve Infantry Regiment, fled further into the tunnel, where stored ammunition had exploded and toxic fumes were being released.

    The soldiers created a barricade to try to protect themselves from the poisonous gases until they could be rescued, but heavy shelling prevented help from reaching them.

    The tunnel’s entrance collapsed during the attack and just three soldiers out of an infantry of more than 200 were saved. The others suffocated, died of thirst or shot themselves.

    Over the years, there had been numerous – including illegal – attempts to find the buried tunnel entrance in the state forest of Vauclair, according to the Volksbund.

    Last May, more than a century after the event and following years of work, the Volksbund and French partners used precise drilling to confirm the tunnel’s location, discovering a large cavity deep underground, with the burial site intact.

    By designating the site a memorial, German and French authorities hope to dignify and protect the soldiers’ resting place. “This guarantees that the soldiers will continue to rest in peace,” said a Volksbund spokeswoman.

    “In the past years and months we have been cooperating with our French partners in a spirit of trust,” said Dirk Backen, chief executive of the Volksbund.

    “We are very grateful for this – and are pleased to be able to present a joint solution today,” he added.

    Once the legal requirements for a war cemetery site are met, planning for the memorial site will begin, and the site could be inaugurated as early as next year, French and German officials said.

  • German to withdraw troops from Mali by mid 2024

    The German government said Tuesday that it plans to wind down the country’s participation in a U.N. military mission in Mali by the middle of 2024.

    Tensions have grown between Mali, its African neighbors and the West after Mali’s government allowed Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group to deploy on its territory.

    “The Malian soldiers who were so well trained then went out and fought with Russian forces, I don’t know 100 percent if it was Wagner’s forces every time or not, but they fought with Russian forces and there were also human rights violations. And that can’t be what we’re about.

    Not just training, no matter what happens afterwards, but acting on principles. And that is why we have ended the training mission,” said German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht at a discussion in Berlin.

    Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s spokesman, Steffen Hebestreit, had said in a brief statement that the government will propose to parliament granting a final one-year extension to the mission in Mali in May “to allow this deployment to be phased out in a structured way after 10 years.”

    The idea is to take account of elections in Mali that are expected in February 2024, he said.

    German military missions overseas require a mandate from parliament, which is typically granted on an annual basis.

    The current mandate for Germany’s participation in the U.N. mission known as MINUSMA allows for the deployment of up to 1,400 troops.

    Britain announced last week that it would withdraw its troops from the U.N. mission in Mali, saying that the West African country’s growing reliance on Russian mercenaries is undermining stability.

    Britain did not give a timeline for its withdrawal.

    France announced earlier this year it was withdrawing its own, much larger force from Mali after relations deteriorated with a junta that seized power in 2020.

    France, the former colonial power in Mali, led a nine-year mission and had at its peak 5,500 troops in the country to combat Islamic militants.

     

    Source: African News