A QAnon related conspiracy theory hits the Bundestag elections.
Ahead of federal elections this weekend, conspiracy theories have been spreading online, including claims the poll will be invalid because the German state is illegitimate.
Followers claim neither Germany nor Austria were officially recognised as independent states by Allied force commanders after World War Two, operationally known as the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF).
These baseless claims have echoes in the Reichsbürger Movement, which rejects modern Germany's legitimacy. With links to far-right and anti-Semitic groups, it claims a German Reich still exists, with pre-War 1939 borders.
But modern Germany was constituted in 1949, as the Western allies merged their post-War occupation zones into the Bundesrepublik (West Germany) while the Soviet zone became the DDR (East Germany). And these merged into the current Federal Republic in 1990, after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
SHAEF conspiracy theory believers say the current German elections are invalid because they are organised by an non-existent state - and anybody taking part is committing treason.
Like the
QAnon conspiracy in the United States, the SHAEF theory has a "saviour", who will rescue Germany from disaster. While in the US, it is Donald Trump who adherents believe will eventually intervene and retake power, in Germany it is a "Cdr Jansen", who posts on the social media platform Telegram. Theorists say Jansen, with the aid of a reinstated President Trump, will install a "legitimate" government, an absurd idea that has found a home in Germany's far-right online presence.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58655702