Legal Battles, Coup Fantasies, and Foreign Agents: What’s Happening on Germany’s Far Right?

Last month, one of the largest legal proceedings in German history began with the start of the first trials against a group of far-right conspiracists who planned the violent overthrow of the Bundestag. According to federal prosecutors, the group – known as the Reichsbürger, or citizens of the Reich, a disparate group that denies the legitimacy of the modern German state – planned to enter the Reichstag with armed support to arrest members of parliament with the intention of “overthrowing the system.” Due to the complexity of the case and a variety of logistical and security reasons, there will be three separate trails in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, and Munich.

New York Times reporter Christopher F. Schuetze has been following this emerging story – and right-wing populist movements. Join us just days before the European Union’s Parliamentary election on June 9 for a virtual discussion about developments on Germany’s far right. The event will take place on Tuesday, June 11 at 11:00 am ET / 5:00 pm CET.

Christopher F. Schuetze is a reporter for The New York Times based in Berlin, covering politics, society, and culture in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. His recent stories have focused on the rise of populism and the far-right – as well as Germany’s multiple simultaneous transformations. In addition to its vaunted green-energy transformation, the country is becoming more ethnically and culturally diverse.

Raised in Germany and Canada and trained in the United States and France, Mr. Schuetze has reported from a dozen countries, mostly in Europe. He got his start at The Times as an intern for the paper’s international edition in Paris (which was then called The International Herald Tribune), where he covered sustainability and higher education. Before moving to Berlin in 2018, he reported from the Netherlands.