Far-Right group suspected in German plot gained strength from QAnon

BERLIN — A ragtag band that had been dismissed as wacky and harmless gadflies, the Reichsbürger, or Citizens of the Reich, has tilted at windmills on Germany’s far-right political fringe for decades.

But after authorities accused members of plotting to overthrow the government and kill the chancellor, a sharply different view of the obscure group emerged Thursday: as a serious terrorist threat, supercharged by conspiracy theories about the coronavirus and vaccines.