Kommissarische Reichsregierung (KRR, English: Provisional Imperial Government) is a label for multiple groups and individuals in Germany and elsewhere who assert that the German Reich (or, occasionally, Prussia[1]) continues to exist in its pre-World War II borders and that they are its government or government in exile.[2]
The KRRs often operate on the basis of conspiracy theories according to which the collapse of the current German state, the Federal Republic of Germany, is imminent, clearing the way for the Reich's reestablishment.
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The KRRs maintain that the Federal Republic of Germany is illegitimate and that the Reich's 1919 Weimar Constitution remains in effect. Most of their arguments are based on a selective reading of a 1973 decision of the Federal Constitutional Court,[3] which held that the Grundgesetz assumes that the Reich, as a subject of international law, survived the collapse of Nazi Germany, but is incapable of acting as a state because it lacks any organization, such as governmental authorities.[4] The KRRs do not, however, cite the Court's further holding that the Federal Republic is not a successor state to the Reich, but, as a state, at that time partially, and today—since 1990—fully identical to it.[5]
The original Kommissarische Reichsregierung was founded by Wolfgang Gerhard Guenter Ebel[6], a former Reichsbahn traffic superintendent, in 1985 in West Berlin. Ebel, who appointed himself Reich Chancellor, claimed to be acting on the authority of the occupation authorities. Some of the members of his "cabinet" later fell out with Ebel and established provisional governments of their own with names such as Exilregierung Deutsches Reich or Deutsches Reich AG (the latter being based in Nevada, USA).
As of 2009, there is no reliable count of the number of KRRs currently existing, but the KRR FAQ, an online registry maintained by a German jurist, lists some 60 persons or organizations associated with operating competing KRRs.
KRRs engage in activities such as issuing currency and stamps, as well as promoting themselves through the Internet and other media. Where the number of their adherents allows, they also emulate the "re-established" institutions, such as courts or parliaments, of the Weimar Republic or of earlier German states.
Some KRRs are ready to issue, for a fee, "official" documents such as building permits, driving licences etc., which their adherents or gullible citizens may attempt to use in everyday life.[2] In one instance, Wolfgang Ebel's KRR issued an "excavation permit" to the Principality of Sealand (a micronation), who then had men dig up a plot of land in the Harz region in search of the Amber Room for two weeks, until the landowner hired a private security service to drive them off.[7] Similarly, in 2002 Ebel's KRR "sold" the Hakeburg, a building in Kleinmachnow south of Berlin formerly owned by the German Reichspost (and therefore, according to Ebel, by his KRR) to one of the two competing governments of Sealand, thus creating, in their view, an enclave of Sealand in Germany.[8]
KRR adherents have also on occasion refused to pay taxes or fines, arguing that the laws providing for such sanctions have no constitutional basis. In the ensuing judicial proceedings, they refuse to recognize the courts as legitimate.[9] Some also pursue their activities abroad: In 2009, after Swiss authorities refused to recognize the "Reich Driving Licence" of a German KRR adherent, he unsuccessfully appealed the case up to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.[2]
Wolfgang Ebel's original organization, in particular, continues to attempt enforcing its asserted authority through attempts at intimidation.[7] According to Ebel, his "government" has issued more than 1,000 "arrest warrants" against people who have disregarded documents issued by the KRR. These warrants inform the addressee that, once the Reich Government is in power, they will be tried for high treason, for which the penalty is death.[7] Ebel has also admitted owning a "government helicopter" painted in the national colours, but has denied using it for intimidating fly-overs.[7] Multiple attempts to prosecute Ebel for threats, impersonating a public servant and so forth have failed because, according to German prosecutors, all courts have found him to be legally insane.[7]
Several (though by no means all) KRRs have links to far right extremist or Neo-Nazi groups,[1] and are under observation by the Verfassungsschutz authorities.
The following is a non-exhaustive list of KRRs that have received recent media coverage.[10]