DRESDEN: In German City Rich With History and Tragedy, Tide Rises Against Immigration
Many of the demonstrators refused to identify themselves or be interviewed. But Mr. Bachmann, their leader, eagerly shook hands with a reporter before the march, and insisted that his group is not against refugees from war zones, Islam or foreigners per se.
“What we don’t like here” are economic refugees mooching on the German system, he said. “Politicians in Germany, they did the whole thing wrong, basically wrong.”
The local Sächsische Zeitung newspaper recently reported that Mr. Bachmann had several criminal convictions — 16 burglaries, driving drunk or without a license and even dealing in cocaine. The report also noted that it was hard to pin down where and how Mr. Bachmann had lived, though it found that, among other things, he had done publicity for nightclubs.
News of his record jars with his accusations that arriving foreigners spread crime, but Mr. Bachmann waved it off as a distraction. Yes, he told the crowd. “I, too, have a previous life,” he said, adding, “If it is better for our cause, I am ready to step out of the unwanted spotlight.”
Nevertheless, he said, he was worried about foreigners who took advantage of Germany’s welfare system, while “some old people can’t afford a slice of Christmas cake.” Pretty soon, he predicted to applause, deformation of the German language would deprive Germans of Christian terms like “Christmas tree.”
At the market, Erika Gemende, 74, chatting to a grandson as she sold Christmas sweets, tried to make sense of the Pegida movement.
“I will help anyone who is fleeing from war; if they need some of my old things, they can have them,” she said. “But we have to see who gets what.”
In this town, she noted, memory plays a part. “My mother, she was all alone, with the four of us children” after her father was killed in the war, Ms. Gemende said. “No one helped her.”
www.nytimes.com/…/in-german-city-…