Patriotic Europeans Against Islamization of the West (PEGIDA) founder Lutz Bachmann stepped down as Chairman of PEGIDA after his photo, showing his hair and moustache styled to resemble Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, was printed in BILD. The German tabloid also published his comments where he defaced refugees as “cattle” and “filthy”.
Another image Bachmann posted of a man in a Ku Klux Klan robe with the caption, “Three K’s a day keeps the minorities away” was published by The Dresdner Morgenpost. The Dresdner Morgenpost also quoted Bachmann as saying, “asylum seekers acted like ‘scumbags’ at the welfare office and that extra security was needed ‘to protect employees from the animals”.
BILD quoted Bachmann as saying he had posted the Hitler photo, captioned ‘He’s Back’, on his Facebook page as a joke. Prior to stepping down, Bachmann changed his Facebook profile picture to a still from Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, with the caption “He’s allowed to do satire…but not Lutz”.
Bachmann told BILD, “I took the photo at the hairdressers, for the publication of the audio book of the satire He’s Back… You need to be able to joke about things now and then”.
The ‘joke’, made a month before the group staged its first protest on 20 October 2014, appears to glorify Hitler and intimidate immigrants; it has also adversely affected the movement, which has distanced itself from neo-Nazi groups.
“I sincerely apologize to all citizens who feel offended by my posts. They were inconsiderate remarks that I would not make it today. I am sorry that I have so harmed the interests of our movement,” Bachmann apologized for the anti-refugee comments in a statement on the group’s Facebook page on January 21.
“Facebook postings of Lutz Bachmann in September do not contribute to the trustworthiness and protagonists of PEGIDA. Only personal integrity creates political credibility. The Hitler selfie was satire; while every citizen has the right to engage in satire, insulting foreigners is not satirical. We regret this development,” PEGIDA’s spokeswoman Kathrin Oertel commented on uproar over the photo, insulting remarks and the resignation.
PEGIDA organizer Rene Jahn, however, said the “incident must have consequences. That’s unacceptable. I won’t have anything to do with such a thing”.
“Anyone in politics who poses as Hitler is either a total idiot or a Nazi,” Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told BILD.
The Hitler photo caused an outcry in a country still trying to come to terms with its Nazi past.
Synonyms for "asylum seekers" used by #Pegida head Lutz Bachmann. "Animals" "Rubbish" "Dirtbags" https://t.co/yGHOqaATlv
— Charles Hawley (@charles_hawley) January 21, 2015
#Pegida's Lutz Bachmann posted his #Hitler fancy dress image on FB with comment: "He's Back" http://t.co/nM7c5Twjw1 pic.twitter.com/MWMwMdsTbj”
— Kate Connolly (@connollyberlin) January 21, 2015
The nazis are back in Germany: Pegida's Lutz Bachmann describing immigrants as “cattle” & “garbage”: http://t.co/Xh4siD5BFh
— Hans Renman (@renman_hans) January 21, 2015
Prosecutors seeking to charge #Pegida's Lutz Bachmann with sedition after #Hitler pic & more http://t.co/nM7c5Twjw1 pic.twitter.com/MWMwMdsTbj”
— Kate Connolly (@connollyberlin) January 21, 2015
Man thats my father :O hes so famous!!
Ich denke nicht, dass er Dein Vater ist, ArcadeYi. Wenn doch, tut mir leid für dich, so einen unwissenden Vater zu haben, der keine Ahnung hat, wie es ist, mit “Ausländern” zu leben. Es ist nämlich gar nicht so schlimm! Ich lebe in Duisburg, NRW wo ich tagtäglich mit welchen zu tun habe, mein bester Freund ist selbst einer. Weißt du was mich mehr stört? Das wegen diesem Lutz Bachmann und seinen “Freunden” jetzt wieder das Gerücht aufkommt, das Deutschland rassistisch ist. Außerdem stimmt ich der Pegida zu, dass alle Extremisten nichts in Deutschland zu tun haben, dazu gehört auch Pegida! Schönen Tag noch.
Aside from the fact that you may be offended by ArcadeYi, I would really like to point out that I love the fact that you Germans are more than respectful to everyone, and I’ve yet to meet someone German who wasn’t going out of their way to be kind to me, and I appreciate that.
“It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.”
-Confucius
Ig looks like he has a robe on getting his hair cut and playing around and it was taken to fit a narrative. Could be wrong but looks like it.