A woman dubbed “Terror Granny” was arrested in Germany over an alleged plot to destroy the modern democratic German state and restore the Kaiser.
Elisabeth R., 75, an evangelical theologian and retired pastor and schoolteacher, was already well-known in German monarchist circles, being dubbed “the countess,” according to T-Online. Due to her advanced age and unassuming nature, the German press has dubbed her “Terror-Oma,” or “Terror Granny,” Bild reported. Prosecutors claim she was the leader of a monarchist cell called “United Patriots” that sought to kidnap the German health minister and destroy the nation’s power grid, which the cell hoped would then lead to civil war-like conditions that would result in the restoration of the Kaiser. The plot was foiled back in April, but she was only arrested on Thursday, T-Online reported.
The alleged plot was grandiose and simple: The conspirators would destroy the country’s power grid in order to trigger a blackout, dubbed project “silent night,” possibly using a graphite bomb planted at a substation that would trigger a nationwide chain reaction of short-circuiting. In the resulting chaos, members would stage a coup, which would have apparently involved the conspirators kidnapping several celebrities, including Health Minister Karls Leuterbach, a central enemy in far-right circles in the country over his strict COVID-19 lockdown policies. The “United Patriots” Telegram chat named six ministers among them, apparently appointed by a “Prussian regent,” who would run the government, T-Online reported. R.’s planned role in the new government is not immediately clear.
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Alongside Elisabeth R. as ringleaders of the group were a former East German Army officer and an East German Coast Guard seaman, T-Online reported. R. allegedly underwent recruitment talks with potential members of the conspiracy, and was involved in the procurement of weapons and explosives. It was during one such handover of weapons, staged by undercover agents, that the conspiracy was foiled.
?An elderly woman accused of being the ringleader of a terror cell plotting a monarchist revolution was arrested in Germany https://t.co/r6H0pUZucp
— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) October 14, 2022
Though it is unknown exactly how far along the conspiracy was, an AK-47 assault rifle was found in the home of one of the conspiracy members, along with ammunition, arrows, and a rapid-fire crossbow.
Elisabeth R. was a member of Germany’s Reichsburger circles, a network of German monarchists that seek to restore Prussia’s monarchy. Many within these circles were aware of and actively discouraged the plot, according to T-Online, but R. pushed ahead anyway.
Sometime prior to the arrest, the German radical drew enough attention from her writings to get her pension canceled, with the justification that she had “acted actively against the free democratic basic order within the meaning of the Basic Law in her retirement.” In her writings, she had discussed “asylum seeker tsunamis,” “rape and slaughter,” and the “secret remodeling of brain structures” through “genderism, digitization and 5G.”
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She also wrote extensively on the legal foundations for the illegitimacy of the modern democratic German state, claiming that the Versailles Treaty and Weimar Constitution were illegal, so the true system of government is a parliamentary monarchy without an emperor, as outlined by the Constitution of 1918.
The old woman’s neighbors were shocked by the news, with one telling Bild, “I have rarely seen her. She used to do gardening in the evenings with a headlamp.”
Another alleged far-right coup plot in Germany, dubbed “Day X,” in which elements of Germany’s military planned to assassinate several left-wing government figures and use the resulting chaos to take over the government and expel migrants, was foiled in 2018. “Terror Granny” is not believed to have had any role in this plot.
