Denies involvement

Reichsbürger trial: former AfD MP testifies

Former AfD MP Birgit Malsack-Winkemann has denied having been involved in plans to storm the German Bundestag. She had also not been involved in drafting a new constitution, she told the court in Frankfurt on Wednesday.

What she had written on her notes, which were seized during searches, was nothing more than brainstorming, Malsack-Winkemann said on the 21st day of the trial. "The claims of the Attorney General that I had worked something out and that the Council already had a constitution in outline are not true."

The 60-year-old is accused of smuggling other defendants into the Bundestag and scouting out the building with them. She is said to have been part of the so-called Council of the Association. The group planned an armed storming of the Bundestag in order to arrest members of parliament and bring about the overthrow of the political system in Germany (see video above).

The claims of the Attorney General that I had worked something out and that the Council already had a constitution in outline are not true.

Birgit Malsack-Winkemann vor Gericht

"Alliance should do everything"
 "I don't know how many times I've repeated it, but I don't think I can repeat it often enough for it to sink into people's heads: the Alliance should do everything." In the group's worldview, there was an invented global military alliance called "Allianz" - the group assumed that a system change was imminent, triggered by this alliance, Malsack-Winkemann had described.

She had also repeatedly argued with Rüdiger von Pescatore, the alleged head of the military arm. "We would have been the last two to plan something together." He probably wanted to exclude them from the group. In the end, however, they separated from the military arm altogether.

26 conspirators on trial
In Frankfurt, nine defendants are accused of having been members of a terrorist organization or having supported one. Proceedings are also currently underway in Munich and Stuttgart. A total of 26 alleged conspirators are on trial.