The leader of Germany's anti-Islamisation PEGIDA movement has resigned after German newspapers published a photo of him posing as Hitler.
Lutz Bachmann's Facebook comments also proved to be too much - his post reportedly called refugees "animals" and "scumbags."
News of his resignation broke as thousands of people took part in demonstrations for - and against - PEGIDA in the city of Leipzig.
Police in the east German city estimated 15,000 people came out to support PEGIDA.
Among them was Peter Munkwitz.
"We are on the streets because the passive government needs to finally do something. A law on immigration as it stands in point one of PEGIDA has been pushed under the carpet since 1993 without a proper explanation. The politicians say that we are dividing Germany, but they have been dividing us for decades and eventually you get cross."
PEGIDA is a German acronym which in English translates as Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West.
It claims not be racist or xenophobic and its manifesto calls for the protection of Germany's Judeo-Christian culture.
At this latest rally, the PEGIDA supporters chanted "We are the people", while those opposing the anti-Islamisation movement made it clear what they thought.
This anti-PEGIDA protester says Germany is a diverse and multicultural country.
"I think that this has no place in our current society. Diversity. This is the one reason to take to the streets. We are a multicultural society and it should stay that way."
After stepping down, Lutz Bachmann apologised for what he called his ill-considered Facebook comments and a party official played down his Hitler photo as a joke and a form of satire.
The German government condemned the Hitler photo with Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel quoted in the daily Bild newspaper:
"Anyone in politics who poses as Hitler is either a total idiot or a Nazi. Reasonable people do not follow idiots and decent people don't follow Nazis.
PEGIDA decided to stage a rally in Leipzig after the police banned its regular Monday protest in Dresden after reports of an assassination plot against the movement's leaders.
The PEGIDA rallies, and their counter-protests, have been attracting tens of thousands of participants.
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