(Patriotische Union) or "The Council" (Der Rat) is the name of a German right-wing extremist group. It aims is to establish a new government in Germany in the tradition of the German Empire of 1871. The gang wanted to provoke chaos and a civil war in Germany and thus take over power in the Federal Republic of Germany. Among other things, the German Bundestag was to be taken by force of arms and taking into account, that there will be killings of people. Aims The group wanted to establish a new government ('Council'). Since November 2021 the network had been planning an armed attack on the Bundestag, as well as public arrests of politicians to cause public unrest. The "Patriotic Union" assumed that parts of the German security authorities would then have shown solidarity with the terrorist group, which would have led to an "overthrow" and the group would have taken power. Members Heinrich Reuss, a German aristocrat, is alleged to have led the group and been the planned head of state of the group. The group, which comprised more than a hundred people, was divided into areas of responsibility. The Federal Public Prosecutor has 52 suspects and arrested 25 of them. The gang also included several former members of the Special Forces Command (KSK), including a former Staff Sergeant of the Paratrooper Battalion of the Bundeswehr, Rüdiger von P. The GSG9 searched a KSK site of the Graf Zeppelin Barracks near Calw. Rüdiger von P. was supposed to lead the "military arm" of the group. The Federal Public Prosecutor describes von P. alongside Heinrich Reuss as a "ringleader". Von P. is said to have tried to recruit police officers and soldiers. A lawyer and judge in the state of Berlin, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, was designated as the future "Minister of Justice". Malsack-Winkemann was a member of the German Bundestag from 2017 to 2021 for the AfD and was arrested on December 7, 2022. The group included at least one other AfD politician, an AfD Stadtrat from Olbernhau in the Saxon Ore Mountains. Other members were doctors and at least one was an entrepreneur. 2022 investigations and arrests German police authorities have been investigating the group since spring 2022. The group is also made up of parts of the radicalized German Querdenker movement, a heterogeneous group of COVID-19 protesters and deniers. Reuss was the starting point for the investigations, which ended