bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

The leader of the fast-growing German anti-Muslim movement PEGIDA resigned on Wednesday after a photo of him posing as Hitler, and reports that he called refugees “scumbags”, prompted prosecutors to investigate him for inciting hatred.
Lutz Bachmann, a 41-year-old convicted burglar, had appeared on the front page of top-selling daily newspaper Bild on Wednesday sporting a Hitler moustache and haircut.
Bild and another paper said he had called asylum-seekers “animals” and “scumbags”.
The news came just as supporters of PEGIDA (Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West), which is based in Dresden, staged a march in another east German city, Leipzig.

However, a rally by the so-called LEGIDA movement, a sister body to PEGIDA based in Liepzig, attracted only around 15,000 people – far fewer than the originally estimated 40,000 – and they were outnumbered by more than 20,000 people who joined several counter-demonstrations, officials said.
PEGIDA has forced itself onto the political agenda with its anti-immigrant slogans that have attracted tens of thousands to regular rallies in Dresden.
Bachmann, who denies he is a racist, had heard on Wednesday that he faces a criminal investigation for incitement to racial hatred. State prosecutors in Dresden said preliminary proceedings had been launched following the Bild report.
“IMPULSIVE”
Kathrin Oertel, another PEGIDA co-founder, said Bachmann’s resignation had nothing to do with the Hitler photo, but was linked to his comments on refugees posted on the internet.
“Yes, I can confirm that Lutz Bachmann has offered his resignation and it was accepted,” Oertel told reporters.
She added: “PEGIDA will go on.”
Bild quoted Bachmann as saying the Hitler photo had been taken as a joke, prompted by a recent satirical book about the Nazi dictator called Er ist wieder da (Look Who’s Back).

The Dresdner Morgenpost newspaper also quoted what it said were Facebook messages from Bachmann saying asylum seekers acted like “scumbags” at the welfare office and that extra security was needed “to protect employees from the animals”.
Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, the Social Democrat leader, said the real face of PEGIDA had been exposed: “Anyone who puts on a Hitler disguise is either an idiot or a Nazi.”
In an interview last week, Bachmann played down a ribald comment made in 2013, seized on by the media, that “eco-terrorist” Greens, first and foremost former party leader Claudia Roth, should be “summarily executed”.
“I am an impulsive person...I regret I didn’t resist my impulsiveness,” he said.
 


 Hitler pose investigation prompts German PEGIDA leader to resign 

Newspapers show the picture of Lutz Bachmann posing as Adolf Hitler. Photo: EPA

Members of LEGIDA, the Leipzig arm of the anti-immigrant movement PEGIDA, march in Leipzig on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

News

World

Lutz Bachmann resigns from German anti-immigration movement PEGIDA after authorities launch probe into pictures of him with an Adolf Hitler moustache and haircut


German prosecutors opened an investigation into A leader of the anti-Muslim PEGIDA movement resigned on Wednesday after a newspaper printed a photo of him posing as Hitler and reported that he had described refugees as 'animals' and 'scumbags'.


.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Update | Hitler pose investigation prompts German PEGIDA leader to resign

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Lutz Bachmann resigns from German anti-immigration movement PEGIDA after authorities launch probe into pictures of him with an Adolf Hitler moustache and haircut

Update | Hitler pose investigation prompts German PEGIDA leader to resign

Lutz Bachmann resigns from German anti-immigration movement PEGIDA after authorities launch probe into pictures of him with an Adolf Hitler moustache and haircut