PEGIDA Leader Steps Down After Photos of Him Imitating Hitler Go Viral

The leader of the German, virulently anti-immigrant group called Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West has resigned from his post after photos of him dressed as Adolf Hitler went viral.

The New York Times reports that Lutz Bachmann resigned from his leadership role in PEGIDA after Facebook photos of him with a Hitler-esque moustache and hairstyle went viral.

PEGIDA is strongly opposed to any type of immigration into Germany, particularly from Muslim nations such as Syria or Turkey. The group has staged large marches with thousands of participants throughout Germany.

The rise of the group has challenged the political establishment in Germany, which continues to fear any echoes of its anti-Semitic and racist past. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has gone so far as to call out the group explicitly and label it racist.

Merkel has been forced to address the group because 10,000 people regularly attend PEGIDA marches in Dresden, which is the base of its support. The group has slowly begun to spread to other cities as well, further necessitating a response from Germany's political class.

Many Germans have responded by hosting counter protests at PEGIDA events. In one notable example, the world famous Cologne Cathedral chose to turn off all of its lights in opposition to PEGIDA when the group announced they would meet underneath the landmark for a march.

The Times reports that German law enforcement is determining whether the photos are egregious enough a transgression to bring charges against Bachmann. Under German law, Nazi symbols are illegal. Hate speech is also punished under German law, and part of the scandal swirling around Bachmann involves a conversation wherein he used extremely crude and derogatory language to describe immigrants.

Bachmann has tried to explain away the photo as a joke related to the publishing of a book about Hitler appearing in 2011 Berlin.