Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss

Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss (born 4 December 1951) is a member of the Princely House of Reuss. He was arrested by German federal police in 2022 due to his alleged involvement in the 2022 Germany coup d'état plot to install a monarchy in Germany with himself as German Emperor.

Family background
Prince Heinrich XIII was born in Büdingen the fifth child of Prince Heinrich I Reuss and his wife Duchess Woizlawa of Mecklenburg. Through his mother, Prince Heinrich XIII is the great grandson of Heinrich XXVII, Prince Reuss Younger Line the last reigning monarch of Reuss. As the succession passes through the male line his cousin Heinrich XIV, Prince Reuss (born 1955) from the first branch of the family descending from Heinrich IV, Prince Reuss-Köstritz (1821-1894) is the current head of the Princely House of Reuss, Prince Heinrich XIII belongs to the third branch descending from a younger brother, Prince Heinrich XII (1829-1866).

Through his mother, the prince is related to the Dutch and Danish Royal Families, his mother having been a first cousin of Queen Juliana of the Netherlands and Queen Alexandrine of Denmark. However the families had no contact after the Second World War. Prince Heinrich XIII is also distantly in the line of succession to the British throne due to his descent from King George II of Great Britain.

Career and political activism
Prince Heinrich XIII who has an engineers degree (Dipl Ing), has worked as a real estate developer through his company Buero Prinz Reuss based in Frankfurt, and he also produced sparkling wine.

Prince Heinrich XIII has spoken in favour of low taxation, hailing the 10 percent rate in the former Principality of Reuss, saying it let Reuss's citizens lead "happy lives" because it was "straightforward and transparent". He has commented that the modern German government and European Union were more distant and inaccessible forms of government when compared when th the rule of a sovereign prince. He also believes monarchies across the world, including that of France, have been overthrown at the instigation of foreign powers who wanted to establish corporate structures in the pursuit of profit and that the people had suffered as a consequence.

In August 2022, after he appeared at a party held in honour of a German politician sympathetic to the Reichsbürger movement and who was accused of assaulting a journalist, the current head of the Reuss family, Prince Heinrich XIV, denounced Prince Heinrich XIII, calling him a "distant relative" and "a confused man peddling in conspiracy theories".

On 7 December 2022, Prince Heinrich XIII was arrested at his home in the Westend of Frankfurt during a wide-ranging set of German police raids against alleged conspirators in a planned coup d'état. According to police, the coup's conspirators—which included former Minister of Parliament Birgit Malsack-Winkemann—were proponents of the Reichsbürger movement who hoped to install the 71-year-old Prince Heinrich XIII as head of state. Prince Heinrich's estate in Thuringia was allegedly the site of weapons stockpiles and meetings regarding the conspiracy.

Personal life
Prince Heinrich XIII was married to the Iranian born Susan Doukat Jalali in Frankfurt on 1 August 1989. As his wife was not from a noble family the marriage was morganatic according to the house laws of the Princely House of Reuss. His wife and the couples two children therefore carry his title as a surname in accordance with German civil law, but are not regarded as prince/princess with the style His/Her Serene Highness by the House of Reuss.

Prince Heinrich XIII and his wife divorced in 2005.

Prince Heinrich XIII, who lives in Frankfurt, also owns a hunting lodge in Thurginia which the territory of the former principality of Reuss today forms part of. He has been involved in a number of legal challenges against the Free State of Thuringia in order to obtain the restitution of family property which was expropriated after the Second World War.