The head of the German anti-Islamisation movement Pegida has stepped down after a picture of him posing as Adolf Hitler went viral on the internet. The 41-year-old Lutz Bachmann from Dresden was viewed as the figurehead of the movement and his resignation has led to doubts about the future of Pegida.
A picture of Bachmann sporting a Hitler moustache and side-parted hair went viral on Wednesday after local newspaper Dresden Morgenpost published it. Shortly after being contacted by the newspaper, Bachmann deleted his profile.
A Morgenpost reader had discovered Bachmann’s picture along with his conversation with a Facebook contact in which Bachmann referred to immigrants as “cattle”, “scumbags” and “trash”. State prosecutors have started an investigation against Bachmann on the grounds of sedition after a 12-member Pegida meeting where he apologised for the picture.
Pegida’s spokeswoman Kathrin Oertel told Spiegel Online that Bachmman’s resignation was the “only possibility for the movement”.
“As an association, we reject the Facebook postings made by Lutz Bachmann which have now come to light in the strongest possible terms,” said Oertel. “They do nothing to nurture trust in Pegida’s goals or its protagonists.”
In response to the picture, Bachmann told German tabloid Bild on Wednesday: “I took the photo at the hairdresser’s, for the publication of the audiobook of the satire He’s Back … you need to be able to joke about yourself now and then”.
When he was asked about derogatory statements he made about immigrants, Bachmann responded: “We don’t comment about private matters.”
A spokesman for Bernd Lucke, the head of the political party Alternative für Deutschland which is an anti-euro party that has publicly expressed allegiance with the aims of Pegida, said that Bachmann’s “sad utterings and disgusting jokes” had “embarrassed the people of Pegida who have been compelled by honest concerns to take to the streets”.
