PEGIDA

Pissed Evil Germans Initiating the Deportation of Arabs Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the Occident (German: Patriotische Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes), or best known as simply Pegida or PEGIDA, is a German extreme far-right xenophobic mob, largely consisting of middle class and middle aged, but non-confessional[note 1] white guys,[1][2] who participate in a "stroll" every Monday since 20 October 2014 and whine about a perceived threat of an impending Islamisation of German society even though the city where Pegida is mostly active and successful (Dresden) has a rather low Islamic population consisting of around 2000 Muslims[3] out of a total population of 536,308[4], so basically a population density of 0.37 percent.

Frogs, clowns and swastikas
Alt-right
Chuds
Rebuilding the Reich, one meme at a time
Buzzwords and dogwhistles
v - t - e
Inventing "The Other"
Islamophobia
Fear And Loathing
v - t - e

The movement/organization was founded by Lutz "Lutzifer" Bachmann, who is an Adolf Hitler cos-player as a pastime (more on that later). In real life, he has dabbled in "theft, physical assault, drug dealing and burglary".[5] Though he has a criminal record, he has taken advantage of EU's free movement policies to work as an overseas migrant on one of Spain's Atlantic islands, the exact thing he has railed against for his native Germany.[5] Despite insisting that Pegida is a mobocracy, Bachmann is generally seen as the movement's de facto Führer leader. Bachmann claims repeatedly that the movements' means to its patriotic evil ends are peaceful, but Pegida is continuously given indirect blame for the increasing attacks on refugee homes and assaults on migrants and foreigners[6][7][8][9] as xenophobic and racist crimes have increased during Pegida's rise[10] and its supporters keep attacking reporters,[11][12] non-Whites,[13] and police officers.[14]

Sein Kampf

Lutz Bachmann is a fine gentleman who committed multiple crimes prior to the creation of Pegida, for example drug dealing, burglary, battery, etc.,[15] essentially everything he accuses his fellow human beings of doing (when they have the misfortune of being migrants from the Middle East).

Being sentenced to a few years behind bars for some of the aformentioned charges, Mr. Lutz saw the necessity to flee the Abendland and chose South Africa[16] as his new home, a country inhabited mostly by Black people, but well if you're on the run you could possibly let that slide for the time being, additionally South Africa's time zone is only one hour later than Germany's which makes it most likely easier to keep in contact with family & friends whom he had to leave behind.

Two years later, Bachmann was deported back to Germany due to an invalid visa. Back at home, he served fourteen months of his three and a half year[16] prison sentence before he was set free on bail. In 2009, he was caught carrying forty grams of cocaine and on another occasion 54 grams were found in his possession. In 2010, he was convicted of unlawful sale of narcotics and sentenced to a two year prison term on bail.[17] In 2014, he was again convicted, this time for failing to pay the child support for his son for nearly a year.[18]

Birth of a nation

On 11 October 2014, Lutz - being disgruntled when he witnessed a rally of Kurdistan Workers' PartyFile:Wikipedia's W.svg (better known by its handle PKK) supporters just the day before in Dresden (presumably because he saw too much non-German people on Germany's prestigious pure streets, which overloaded his xenophobia-infested synapses) - created a private Facebook group called "Friedliche Europäer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes" (Peaceful Europeans against the Islamization of the occident).[19][note 2]

The group protested against "the gradual Islamization" of German society and "religious wars" being fought on Germany's streets by "terrorist, Islamic forces" like ISIS, Al Qaida and the PKK, despite the fact that the last one is a secular organization that's somewhat friendly to the West... sort of. Another initial aim of the group was to draw the incumbent government's attention to its displeasure towards political correctness and its annoyance that everyone who is politically left to them constantly labels far-right activists like them as Nazis or Neo-Nazis. It was proposed to use the slogan "We are the people", reminiscent of the Monday demonstrations in East Germany in 1989/90.

Further, Bachmann insisted early on that the movement shouldn't become a cesspool of "right-wing loons, neo-nazis, etc.". However right-wing loons were immediately attracted to Pegida[19] before he even made that statement: Siegfried Däbritz (from the Free Democratic Party (FDP), basically Germany's closest analogue to the US Libertarian Party) and Thomas Tallacker (from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Germany's ruling party), both of them being notorious since the summer of 2013 for posting vile & racist statements about Muslims in general, Kurds, Turks and refugees. The CDU quickly saw the writing on the wall and forced Tallacker to resign from his incumbent city council post and initiated the process to have him expelled from the party. On 26 October 2014, Däbritz attended a "Hooligans Against Salafists" (HoGeSa) rally, where violent riots took place. Afterwards he tried to court "HoGeSa des Ostens" (HoGeSa of the East) into joining Pegida on one of its Facebook pages by making insulting statements about Muslims ("bearded goat fuckers"). On the same page hooligans demanded to incinerate Muslims and the public burning of Qurans.[20][note 3]

But no, Pegida are absolutely not Nazis and Bachmann preferred the euphemistic term "patriot" to defend the members and their protests from the correct allegations by the media of them being Neo-Nazis.

Another reason for founding Pegida were "terrible events in Hamburg and Celle" on 8 October and 7 October respectively, when violent riots between Kurds and various Islamists took place.[21][22] The inspiration for the movement's name were CDU election posters from the 1960s which carried the slogan "Save the occidental culture. Vote the Christian Democratic Union".[23] Starting in 20 October 2014, Pegida called for their supporters attending weekly "strolls" in Dresden's inner-city. The first one managed a meager 350 "strollers." However the more the "strolls" gathered steam and the more the "lying press" was reporting on Pegida (even though its supporters keep on insisting that they're being ignored), the incipient movement managed to amass 25,000 people[24] who came along "strolling" on 12 January 2015, making it possibly the hugest collective "stroll" in the history of mankind. This huge eruption was mostly triggered by the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks just a few days prior.

Pegida dictionary

Pegida uses terminology unknown to many, even to (other) native German speakers and reuses many of the linguistic conventions of their Third Reich idols and keeps up the extreme-right's tradition of using nursery rhymes to "awaken" the German masses, for example "Lügenpresse / halt die Fresse!" (translation: "lying press, shut the fuck up!").

Pegida-speakliteral English translationActual meaning in GermanActual meaning in English
PatriotpatriotNeo-NaziNeo-Nazi[25]
SpaziergangstrollDemonstrationprotest[26]
AbendlandoccidentEuropaEurope[27]
Lügenpresse[note 4]lying pressMainstreammedienmainstream media[27]
Volksverrätertraitor[s] against the peoplePolitikerpolitician[30][27]
JudenschweinJewish swineJournalistjournalist[31]
DreckspackscumbagsAusländerforeigner[32]
Viehzeug[mindless] cattleAusländerforeigner[32]
IslamifizierungIslamisationZuwanderungimmigration[33]
Überfremdungexcessive influence or presence of foreignersZuwanderungimmigration[31]
Zecke[note 5]tick (the spider)Gegendemonstrantopposing protester[34]
Scheißstaatshit stateDeutschlandGermany
Kinderfickerparteichild fucker partyDie GrünenGerman Green Party[note 6]
bärtige Ziegenwämserbearded goat fuckersMuslimMuslim[36]
Schluchtenscheißer[note 7]canyon shitterMuslimMuslim[36]

OH MY GOD!!11! Did he really pose as Hitler or not?

The "lying press" dug up some more dirty secrets from Mr. Bachmann's past. On 21 January 2015, multiple media outlets published previous xenophobic statements by Bachmann, which surprised nobody, because most sane people in Germany already regarded him as a straight-up racist. But accompanying the disgusting statements about migrants and foreigners the media published a selfie of Bachmann posing as Hitler.[37]

Bachmann's personal account at the time was the following: He himself acknowledges the authenticity of the photo and says that it was merely a "joke."[38] He also claimed that the picture was made for the audio book release of Look Who's Back (a German comedic novel about Hitler's resurrection in 2012 — yes, German humor is weird!). He supposedly posted the picture onto the Facebook page of German comedic actor Christoph Maria Herbst (who is the audio book's voice actor) and that Herbst consequently "liked" the photo on Facebook. When the latter became aware of these allegations, he said that he didn't even have a Facebook profile, and made it clear through his lawyer that Bachmann's account was total bullshit.[39] Herbst's acting agency confirmed however, that there was a Facebook fan profile for Herbst which was maintained by a person unknown to them.

Following the controversy, Bachmann stepped down as Pegida's Führer leader, which resulted in a massive dip in "strollers" from 25,000 to a pathetic 2,000 on 9 February 2015.[40] So much for it being a mobocracy, as it was severely weakened when its head was lopped off. Bachmann was relatively soon reinstated as the Führer leader to save the ailing movement but except for a few Monday "strolls" with high turn-outs, the "strollers" stayed at home during the summer and Pegida has since then basically become a fringe movement.

As the storm died down about Bachmann's Hitler photo-shoot, he considerably changed his story of how the picture came to be. Apparently the Hitler mustache was photoshopped onto the photo, and he didn't mention it during the controversy because "nobody would have believed [him]" at that time. However to this day Bachmann has failed to show us the original photo so that everyone could judge for themselves, or at least, you know, release a photoshopped picture with the mustache removed (which PI news, arguably one of Germany's most notorious right-wing websites, actually did.[41])

Some right-wing blogs[42][43] spread a story from the Sächsische Zeitung, which allegedly confirms that Bachmann did not have a "Hitler mustache" in the original picture.[44] The picture was taken by a local barber who claims that she still has the particular picture on her mobile phone. The picture was made when both of them, in a cordial conversation when his hair was cut by her, mentioned that they each were listening to Look Who's Back and both of them started joking about it, resulting in the sexy (now world famous) picture of Bachmann. The article posted three pictures[45] which were made when his "shoulder-long" hair was cut, one of them featuring both of them smiling into the camera (which could have been shot on a totally different day), and the other two showing his cut hair on the floor (which basically could be anybody's hair). Did you notice which picture is missing? Exactly the original photo without the mustache, a totally wasted opportunity to shut the "lying press" up! But it really doesn't matter because with or without the mustache, Bachmann has a stereotypical stern Hitler expression on his face, and his two different stories about the photograph are enough proof that he meant the pictures to be interpreted as such (and it surely doesn't help that he has a history of spouting countless racist and xenophobic comments). However extreme-right websites claim the other non-Hitler pictures and the barber's memory, which is nothing more than anecdotal evidence, as irrefutable proof that Bachmann didn't pose as Hitler even though we now have three different stories in which he tells that he did pose as Hitler.

Strange bed fellows

Akif Pirinçci, a German author of Turkish descent, most famous for a world famous novel about cats and also a homophobic right-wing activist, was invited as a speaker on Pegida's 19 October 2015 stroll, which was the group's first anniversary. His speech was an incoherent mess of right-wing populism, which included calling Germany a "Scheißstaat" ("shit state"), the German Green Party "Kinderfickerpartei" ("child fucker party"), the spokesperson for the mosque in Erfurt "Moslemfritzen mit Talibanbart" (Muslim freak with a Taliban beard). Further intellectual diarrhea included that Muslims want to "pump infidels full of their Muslim juice", that Germany awaits a "Muslim garbage dump" and that Islam has as much to do with German culture as "my asshole with the production of perfume."[46] His most controversial statement however was "Unfortunately, the concentration camps are out of order at the moment!", for which he received applause from the other "strollers." But he didn't mean that Pegida's undesirables should be sent to said camps, no, he meant that Pegida critics would send the "strollers" to concentration camps if they were still active.[46] Then why did he start the phrase with the word 'unfortunately' when he didn't mean it that way?

Afterwards all his publishers quit their contracts with him and virtually all book stores delisted his books. In a perfect case of irony, the seemingly misunderstood author said that he seriously considers emigrating from Germany. You have to wonder what right-wing loon clubs in other nations might think if someone like him, a person of Turkish-Muslim descent would set foot onto their holy pure country which needs defending from "Islamisation."

A match made in heaven?

The far-right sections of the far-right Euroskeptic Alternative für Deutschland, tried to capitalize on Pegida's notoriety and were immediately open for negotiations.[47] Other members from the party left to the party's far-right wing (which means still pretty far-right) including then-party head Bernd Lucke were more ambivalent. While he endorsed the "peaceful" strolls and described Pegida's concerns as "legitimate,"[48] he made it clear that the people strolling should do so in defense of "occidental values" which include the guarantee of religious freedom and the strollers should not the demonize Islam as a whole.[49] The ever opportunistic Frauke Petry, long before she ousted Lucke as party head, was quick to recommend Bachmann's resignation after his Hitler selfies were leaked.[50]

Concurrently Bachmann has also shown interest in cuddling with the seemingly natural allies and sought an alliance with the party, believing both groups have a large overlap in their proposed policies.[51] It has been noted that the AfD's bourgeois respectability and Pegida's populist grassroots nature could potentially change Germany's political landscape.[52]

Yet the engagement between the two hasn't managed to result in a meaningful marriage. Despite Bachmann's outreaching efforts, he has been turned down by AfD party heads, the reasoning being that Pegida must lend itself a credence of respectability by turning the movement into a party before the AfD would take it seriously and that the party saw no need for unification[53] and why should they? The AfD is doing exceptionally great for a third party in state elections while Pegida's numbers of strollers have been dwindling close to obscurity for some time now.

However Führer Lutz hasn't abandoned his plans of working more closely with the far-right party. In an interview he told that he believes the only obstacle to a merger is current party head Frauke Petry, whom he says is putting religious freedom above the self-determination of children by accusing her of being "scared of Germany's past with Jewish people" because apparently she doesn't want to anger the Jewish community by calling for a ban on the circumcision on minors. He seems quite confident of another coup in the AfD because according to him AfD members with Pegida ties with which he keeps in contact allegedly constitute a large part of the party's membership and they want her gone as well.[54] His certainty may arise from a secret plan (spilled by former Pegida Führerin co-leader Tatjana Festerling) that these specific AfD members Lutz was talking about are conspiring with Pegida to get rid of Petry.[55]

Fudge fumble

Hellbent on defending the Judeo-Christian culture not only from actual refugees and migrants, "Pegida BW - Bodensee" an offshoot from Lake Constance in Baden Würtemberg thought that the candy market was a logical frontier in waging war for the occident when they whined on May 19, 2016[56] about the packaging of Kinder Chocolate, a popular candy bar sold in Germany made by Italian company Ferrero. "They don't stop at anything. Can you really buy them like that? Or is that a joke?" was the group's comment to a picture they posted on their Facebook feed of two Kinderschokolade packs,[56] one which featured a black boy and the other a Middle-Eastern boy instead of the white Italian[57] boy who usually graces the box art. One response to the post said "They're trying to pass this shit as normal, poor Germany.😭"[56] Some even went as far as boycotting the product from now on.[58]

Pegida's cheerleaders were apparently unaware of the fact that Ferrero printed new special edition boxes for the impending 2016 UEFA European ChampionshipFile:Wikipedia's W.svg which featured child pictures of players from Germany's national team including of Jérôme Boateng (whose father is from Ghana and mother is actually German[59]) and İlkay Gündoğan (whose parents are from Turkey[60]), the very images of which they had a childish fit about. So basically they could've made their racism heard by "voting with their wallets" and only buying Kinder Chocolate with child pictures from the white players which were also available.[61] The group was rightly and deservedly mocked for their ignorance on social media[60] and Ferrero and the German Soccer Association came out in denouncing discrimination.[60] The aftermath was that Ferrero enjoyed the free advertisement, Kinder Chocolate possibly selling even more than before the silly incident, once again everybody got a taste of what clowns Pegida is comprised of and lastly the group hoisted the white flag quickly and deleted their online presence. And all of it was set in motion just by chocolate.

It should be noted however that Germans have strong feelings when it comes to what their Kinderschokolade boxes look like as back in late 2005, a decade before this incident, when the first German kid was changed to the newer one, some people were in immature uproar over the image.[62] The difference though was that there was no xenophobia that time. It makes you wonder why that kid was spared from those attacks...

Downfall 2: Seven decades later and even more pathetic

Despite its quick rise to prominence and minor success in the beginning, Pegida has failed to live up to its incipient glory and finds itself increasingly incapable of profiting from radical Islamic terror attacks across the globe.

Not only is the movement lethargic in making a dent in politics where even the ideological brethren from AfD snub them but Pegida's leadership has found itself in petty internal quarrels most of the time.[63] Lutz Bachmann has come out on top in each of these because let's face it, he is Pegida. Former companions like the ones who founded the splinter group DDfE have long been forgotten and become so irrelevant that even their leaders don't know if their irrelevant group still exists. Others who have remained in the group have received gag orders from the man when they haven't been willing to let the Führer guy "proof-read" their speeches.[64][63]

Bachmann has as of yet weathered the storm multiple times but it remains to be seen for how long as his supporters start to get increasingly impatient as Lutz's plans to found a new party or initiating a boycott of the fee collection service for public TV and radioFile:Wikipedia's W.svg have failed to transpire.[63]

The strollers' frustration is usually expressed by insulting their Führer leader on Facebook and entertaining a conspiracy theory that Bachmann was all along an informant from the Federal Office for the Protection of the ConstitutionFile:Wikipedia's W.svg (the German domestic security agency).[63][64] They are now aware that Onkel Lutz maintains a totalitarian reign over the protest group and his lip service to direct democracy only ever applied to himself.[64] The man himself is no stranger to insulting others as his posts are littered with accusations of his critics being "rats" or "filthy traitor pigs" and if childish name-calling becomes too time-consuming critical sympathizers are simply blocked from Pegida's Facebook profile.[64]

Anyway Pegida's immediate future looks grim as Bachmann has been convicted in May 2016 to paying 9600 Euro for incitement of hatred and Pegida's war chest only amounts to a low five-digit Euro sum.[64]

The corpse is still twitching

It mostly flew under the radar as barely anyone gives a damn about the group nowadays but Bachmann/Pegida have finally managed to found AfD Jr. AfD 2 Pegida-Partei a party called the FDDV[65] (Freedomly Direct-Democratic People's Party, this needs to be this literal as otherwise the right-wing slant of the name would be lost in translation). Apparently Bachmann won't be the party have no executive role in the party and promised to still be "Lutz from the streets."[66] He merely founded the party to circumvent a possible ban of Pegida and a potential subsequent freeze of its bank account. Never mind the fact that parties can just easily be banned by Germany law as any association. Bachmann expressed his intention to not compete but to cooperate with the AfD, which in turn has unsurprisingly turned down his proposal again.[66]

From online to offline

While Pegida continues to fail in garnering any noteworthy turnouts to thwart its impending obscurity (for example an insignificant pitiful rise of few hundred strollers is considered newsworthy these days[67]), Bachmann still uses social media to sermon his message to his roughly 10,000[68] couch-dwelling supporters who got tired of strolling. These opinions range from his typical regurgitated statements about refugees to veiled threats of execution against certain people he deems unlikeable.[69]

But even Pegida's social media future looks less than rosy as Facebook has been habitually removing a slew of accounts related to Pegida like Bachmann's personal profile, the official profile of Pegida[70] and other accounts[68] to where he could flee to with his drivel. Either that, or Lutz just goes through the hassle and recreates his old accounts. However he once failed to do so quickly and the official Pegida profile got hijacked by someone who the profile's remaining subscribers deem as a "leftist troll."[70] Their assessment would be correct if posting news about the Middle-East would be considered trolling.[71]

Bachmann blames the deletions on the "Stasi rope team" of Angela Merkel and Joachim Gauck, the two prominent East-Germans currently leading the country.[72]

Regional and ideological offshoots

Similar movements inspired by Pegida were created in other parts of Germany. Contrary to the original movement, most of these do not even try to hide their sympathies for neo-nazism and are often supported and sponsored by Germany's better known far-right parties. Nearly all names of the offshoots share a naming convention by substituting the "Pe" part of Pegida either by using the first two letters of the city's name where the offshoot was created (which is the most common case) or something different alltogether. What they also share is the fact that they are (fortunately) far less successful than the original.

Legida
Inspired by Pegida supporters from Leipzig[73] and is arguably the largest offshoot, even attracting one of Germany's most famous wingnuts, Jürgen Elsässer.[73] Initially both Pegida and Legida were supportive of each other, but later the relationship deteriorated, as the clone movement wants to stick to its more radical demands compared to Pegida's 'moderate' ones which were suggested to them by Bachmann.[74] The original movement even considered to sue its copy at one point.[75] On top of Pegida's anti-immigration demands, Legida adds Anti-Americanism and other conspiracy theories.[74]
Bogida
Founded in Bonn, originally endorsed by Pegida, now disowned by it[76] for being too far-right.
Dügida
Founded in Düsseldorf, originally endorsed by Pegida, now disowned by it[76] for being too far-right.
Kögida
Founded in Köln (Cologne), originally endorsed by Pegida, now disowned by it[76] for being too far-right.
Bärgida
Founded in Berlin, (Bär, German for bear, most likely because of the Coat of arms of BerlinFile:Wikipedia's W.svg)
Jewgida
A smaller subsection of Bärgida, consisting of Jewish Pegida supporters, who actually believe Nazism isn't the main source of anti-Semitism, but Islamism.[77] How someone could possibly guess, most within this far-right movement are conflicted to have Jewish brothers in arms — some believe that Jewish support of a Pegida movement makes sense, but many, obviously confused in their anti-semitic beliefs, go as far to claim that Bärgida has been subverted by Jewish people or even been controlled by them from the start. Many declared it the end of Pegida or that the movement has lost support from them by accepting Jewish sympathizers.[78] So much for defending the Judeo-Christian culture from Islamisation.
Hagida
Founded in Hannover, was started by a right-wing extremist.[79]
Bagida
Founded in Munich, Bayern (Bavaria), which changed its name to Pegida München[80], is basically a cesspool of convicted Bavarian neo-nazis,[81] including André Eminger, who is one of the accused in the NSU trialFile:Wikipedia's W.svg.[82]
Mügida
Founded in München (Munich), Bavaria, because apparently you simply can't have enough Pegida movements in one city.[83] Supports Bagida and is not acknowledged by Pegida.
Saargida
Founded in Saarland, many of its members are high-ranking members from the Saarland section of the extreme-right NPD[84]
MVgida
Founded in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, mostly controlled by the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern section of the NPD.[85]
Sügida
Founded in Südthüringen (South Thuringia), initiated by the fringe extreme-right party Bündnis Zukunft Hildburghausen (Alliance Future Hildburghausen)[86] which is close to the better known NPD.
Thügida
Founded in Thüringen (Thuringia), a Thuringia-wide expansion of Sügida.[87] Who says Germans don't have a sense of humor?
Nügida
Founded in Nürnberg (Nuremberg), became infamous when neo-Nazis among its ranks planned to bomb a refugee center. However their plan was foiled by the police.[88]
PegAda
Patriotic Europeans Against the Americanization of the Occident, swaps Islamophobia for Anti-Americanism with a healthy dose of Anti-Semitism. It's basically nearly the same movement except for the fact that its adherents regard US influence as a more iminent threat to the survival of the Occident than Islam.[89][note 8]
DDfE
Direct Democracy for Europe, is a Pegida successor group splintered off the original organization and founded by six of Pegida's original founders. It aims to present itself as a more "moderate" version of Pegida, renouncing all of the crazy rhetoric, the more extreme demands and even the silly repetitive naming scheme. Stripped off Pegida's lunatic language and its batshit-insane goals, the target audience is completely indifferent to the new group, turning DDfE's rented "strolling" routes into the streets of a ghost town.[91]
Festung Europa
(Fortress Europe) is the splinter group of Tatjana Festerling, long considered the number two of Pegida until Bachmann excommunicated her from future strolls.[92] The term "Festung Europa" itself originates from national socialist times coined by a Nazi in 1943 which refers to the areas controlled by the Third Reich during World War II.[93] For people who adamently claim to be unaffected by Nazism, these coincidences do seem to creep up pretty often.
This new movement aims to form an pan-European alliance between similar populist right-wing movements but in Germany Festerling hasn't come any further than waving self-drawn posters with only four like-minded fools in front of the 2016 Bilderberg ConferenceFile:Wikipedia's W.svg which took place in Dresden,[92] something for which Bachmann mocked his old friends turned foes. But unlike Pegida, Festung Europa does more than simply strolling on safe German streets and fighting petty flame wars on social media, as Festerling has already gone all the way to Bulgaria meeting up with Bulgarian, pro-Russian, anti-Semitic and anti-democratic nationalists where they all stroll along the Bulgarian-Turkish border while scouring for illegal immigrants, all in military uniforms and boasting about their experiences flavored with the ubiquitous Islamophobic tirades on Facebook.[92]

What do Germans think about Pegida?

Someone not living in Germany might get the impression by reading this article that the country is a very scary place. However on special dates (like Pegida's anniversary), anti-Pegida protests manage to outnumber Pegida's "strolls" with up to 100,000 protesters[note 9] showing up in cities across Germany.[94] [95]

In December 2014, opinion polling company TMS Emnid surveyed German people if they were sympathetic of Pegida's weekly "strolls".[96] Results for region were:

RegionSympathetic
West Germany48%
East Germany53%

and according to party affiliation:

PartySympathetic
AfD86%
CDU/CSU54%
SPD46%
The Greens19%
The Left19%
FDP, who?n.a.

However according to another poll done a few days later[97] 85% of Germans wouldn't attend any of Pegida's "strolls."

gollark: That is an arbitrary and silly dividing line.
gollark: This is "unnatural" or whatever but it's probably good to have vitamin D in sufficient quantity.
gollark: I take vitamin D supplements because I was apparently somewhat horribly deficient when blood tested some time ago, for instance.
gollark: Well, by the definition of "optimal", you probably want to improve them, see.
gollark: It's not like bodies are automatically perfect and optimal™.

See also
  • Alternative für Deutschland, basically the establishment version of Pegida, which is a far-right technocrat party consisting of lawyers, former CDU and FDP politicians, extreme laissez-faire economists, etc. instead of the uneducated lumpenproletariat mob led by a former miscreant.
  • The Reichsbürgerbewegung has a lot of overlap in both membership and ideology with the various *GIDAs
  • Chemtrails is a distressingly popular conspiracy theory among some segments of the *GIDA crowd
  • Party for Freedom, its Dutch political counterpart
  • Anders Behring Breivik
  • Brexit

Notes
  1. I.e. they reported "no confessionFile:Wikipedia's W.svg" (alternatives being Protestantism, Catholicism and "other"); so, answers might encompass anything from spiritual but not religious over apatheism and agnosticism to outright atheism. However, contrast the overwhelming (73% according to Vorländer) lack of self identification with any particular religion with the hooplah about "Judeo-Christian values" across the pond. The lack of a religious confession likely reflects the (middle) age of Pegida Dresdeners which means they probably grew up in avowedly atheist East Germany and were thus less likely to be exposed to religion at an early age.
  2. Despite the fact, that the PKK is not an Islamist, but very much a secular left-wing organization.
  3. Such talk evokes Heine's famous quote “Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings”, which was written about 112 years before a regime that did both.
  4. Declared the Unwort des Jahres in 2015 by panel of linguists.[28] The word was also used by American neo-Nazi Richard Spencer.[29]
  5. A political term of abuse against purported or actual left-wing extremists, in most cases used by the right-wing extremists.
  6. This was because back in the '80s pro-pedophilia and child sexual abuse lobbies were very important inside the party, to the point it served as kind of the parliamentary arm of the pedophile movement.[35] Why this has any kind of importance today other than a bashing board against the Greens...
  7. Originally a German anti-Austrian slur. Since Austria is famous for its mountain ranges, this slur portrays the Austrians as uncivilized mountain-dwellers shitting down from the mountains right into valleys or canyons.
  8. This one requires some context. In the 50's, the US was courting Turkey as an ally, due to its control of the Bosphorus and gateway to Russia and all. Turkey wanted to get rid of some unemployed people let some of its workers go to Europe to, umm, work and send money home. Many Germans didn't want it, claiming that the Turks were too culturally different.[90] The Social Democrats complained that no foreign workers should be let into the country as long as there were unemployed German workers sitting idle at home. However American pressure and a good dose of guilt caused the German Christian Democrat led government to relent and let in the "Gastarbeiter" (guest workers). The plan was to let them stay for a couple of years and make the factory owners Germany rich, then boot them out rotate them for a new set of workers, but the Turks didn't want to go back to Turkey, even with the offer of bribes repatriation grants, seeing as they had left Turkey due to the lack of good jobs back home. Many brought wives over, but a combination of poor planning and politics resulted in the Turks being a separate/under-class of people with their own enclaves. Kind of like the Gypsies Romani, with similar racism. So, in a sense, PegAda is trying to go after the "source" of Multikulti. Sort of. But if its strollers are aware of this bit of history is highly doubtful.
  9. To give some sense of scale, somewhere around 300,000 Germans demonstratedFile:Wikipedia's W.svg against the Iraq War back in 2003 and even the barely veiled Neo-Nazi NPD managed to get more than 300,000 votes in the 2014 European Parliament electionFile:Wikipedia's W.svg where less than half of eligible German voters even bothered to turn up. In other words, 100,000 protesters in a country of 81 million is hardly a popular groundswell.

References
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  3. Mosques in Dresden (in German)
  4. Population statistics in Germany (in German)
  5. The leader of Germany’s anti-immigrant movement has become a migrant himself by Rick Noack (September 23, 2016) The Washington Post.
  6. Simon Schuster, "Meet the German Activist Leading the Movement Against ‘Islamization’", Time, Jan 15, 2015
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  29. 'Hail Trump!': White Nationalists Salute the President-Elect: Video of an alt-right conference in Washington, D.C., where Trump’s victory was met with cheers and Nazi salutes by Daniel Lombroso & Yoni Appelbaum (Nov 21, 2016) The Atlantic.
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  56. Image: Pegida BW - Bodensee Facebook post
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  61. Michael Nienaber, Chocolate bar wrappers ignite German row over racism, Reuters, May 25, 2016
  62. Weg-mit-Kevin.de, an old website of internet activists fighting for the original box art (in German)
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  89. "First Pegida, now PEGADA : Anti-American March in Erfurt", Dialog International, Jan 24, 2015
  90. The more things change...
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