A 49-year-old anti-government extremist who shot and killed a police officer who was part of an operation to confiscate his weapons is set to stand trial in the German city of Nuremberg on Tuesday.

Wolfgang P, whose name was withheld in line with German privacy laws, is a self-declared member of the extremist Reichsbürger movement, whose adherents believe in the continued existence of the Third Reich and do not follow laws imposed by the German state.

Prosecutors say Wolfgang P - who owned 30 firearms - had his weapons license revoked in 2016, but repeatedly denied the authorities entry to his house. Police subsequently conducted an operation to confiscate his weapons.

According to prosecutors, Wolfgang P waited for the police officers to storm his apartment in the Bavarian town of Georgensgmuend before shooting at them 11 times, injuring three officers, one of whom later died.

He is facing charges of murder, attempted murder and grievous bodily harm.

The Reichsbürger movement is under surveillance by Germany's domestic intelligence agency and authorities have warned that the group may be radicalizing.

Members of the Reichsbürger group refuse to acknowledge the German constitutional state and they do not accept to pay any taxes or fines to the German state. They continue to follow the laws of the third Reich and believe in the borders of the 1930s.