Shalimar Heppner is the girlfriend of Real Madrid star David Alaba, and her father is celebrity chef Frank Heppner. The couple has one child together.
Local press has stated that a celebrity chef is among those arrested in connection with an alleged plot by a far-right terrorist organization to destroy the German government.
Frank Heppner, the 62-year-old father of David Alaba’s fiancée, is believed to have been arrested at his restaurant in the Austrian ski resort Kitzbuhel.
The failed coup of the Reichsburger movement, also known as the Reich Citizens movement, prompted the largest nationwide police operation against right-wing extremism in history.
Last week, 3,000 armed police stormed up to 100 residences in Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Hesse, Lower Saxony, and Thuringia, as well as in Kitzbuhel, Austria, and Perugia, Italy.
The claimed conspirators intended to install Heinrich XIII Prince Reuss, a 71-year-old nobleman, as the next head of government. Among those arrested was him.
Prosecutors stated that the organization intended to install him as the new leader of Germany.
According to the Austrian newspaper Die Presse, Heppner’s task had the purported revolution succeeded, would have been to “take over the canteens of the new German Reich” and supply their troops.
Heppner, an expert in Euro-Asian cuisine, has previously worked in five-star hotels around the globe.
His 28-year-old daughter, Shalimar Heppner, is married to Real Madrid’s Alaba, the Austrian national team captain.
According to German officials, 23 suspected members and supporters of the organization have been arrested.
During the raids, 22 German citizens and one Russian lady were seized, according to the prosecutors. The extradition of two more individuals arrested in Italy and Austria was mentioned.
Expect other arrests to follow.
Der Spiegel reports that 9mm handguns, swords, knives, stun guns, battle helmets, night vision equipment, and the duty weapons of police officers who were among the suspects were among the things recovered during the raids.
The left-leaning newspaper Die Tageszeitung stated that detectives discovered a “kill list” including the names and addresses of 18 prominent German politicians and journalists the gang may have meant to target.
The Reichsburger movement unites many far-right organizations whose goal is to replace the existing administration with their own.
Since November 2021, according to the authorities, Reichsburger gang members have been prepared to “carry out activities according to their ideology.”
After the raids, the German minister of the interior, Nancy Faese, stated that the country was “fighting back against the enemies of democracy.”
The case has brought the far-right Alternative for Germany party back into the limelight. During the raids, a female judge, identified by authorities as Birgit M-W and believed to have ties to the party, was also held.
Her post-coup function was believed to have been that of the justice minister.
Due to its ties to extremists, the AfD party has increasingly been under the surveillance of German security services, which abbreviate it as AfD.
