Briefly, the streets were owned by far-right protesters, who chanted Germany for Germans, and who reportedly gave Hitler salutes and chased anyone who looked foreign. Police struggled to keep control them and fights continued the following day between far-right and left-wing demonstrators.
The violence has raised concerns that the city is a neo-Nazi stronghold, and has shown divisions in German society about immigration.
Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed more than a million migrants into the country at the height of the refugee crisis in 2015. The biggest opposition party, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) seized on what it saw as an open-door policy, winning 92 parliamentary seats in last year’s elections.
Is anti-migrant sentiment growing in Germany?
Presenter: Hashem Ahelbarra | Guests: Philipp Sauter, Student Activist and anti-Fascism campaigner; Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Professor of Education Sociology at the American University; Mona El Omari, political activist and community educator
