Founder of Germany's Pegida struggles to show moderate face

Lutz Bachmann, the man behind the anti-Islamisation protests that have shaken Dresden, and stirred fears of a broader rightwing revival across Germany, insists the Pegida movement he has unleashed is entirely moderate.

"We are normal people," Mr Bachmann tells the Financial Times, estimating that "rightwing madmen" accounted for less than 1 per cent of its ranks - and were not welcome in any case.

But where Pegida goes, accusations of extremism tend to follow. At a rowdy Berlin protest linked to the group this month, for example, one demonstrator shouted: "Deutschland den Deutschen" - Germany for Germans. Two others made anti-semitic remarks, with one angrily blaming "Jews" for financing a nearby counter-demonstration promoting tolerance.

Such incidents, says Mr Bachmann, occurred at copycat protests outside of Dresden, over which he and Pegida have no control - something he has vowed to address. "The rightwing idiots can try what they like but we won't be hijacked," he says.

Still, his own background offers little comfort to those already wary of Pegida, more formally known as Patriotic Europeans Against Islamisation of the West. Son of a Dresden butcher, the imposing 41-year-old was convicted for assault and theft in his youth. After fleeing Germany for South Africa, he was eventually repatriated and served two years in prison.

In 2008 he was found in possession of two small amounts of cocaine for which he was given a suspended sentence that expires next month. Last year he was fined for failing to keep up with maintenance payments for his son, the child of a previous relationship - a penalty he is appealing.

"There are many politicians with criminal records," Mr Bachmann shrugs, denying this should pose any barrier to public life.

Making sense of Mr Bachmann and his followers has become one of Germany's most urgent political questions. Chancellor Angela Merkel lambasted Pegida in her New Year's address as full of "hate" and some of her associates have described its members as "Nazis in pinstripes."

But the AfD, a rising eurosceptic party, is now debating whether to embrace them. Some Merkel allies - perhaps sensing Pegida's momentum and the anti-immigration sentiment simmering across Europe - have also tried to appeal to the group's followers.

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Mr Bachmann, the public face of the group, is part of a 12-member leadership committee largely comprised of small businessmen and entrepreneurs. One has been criticised for posting a picture of Adolf Hitler on Facebook, another for praising a Swiss town for excluding asylum seekers from a public swimming pool.

"They know each other through sport, through parties. But they are not part of the establishment," says Ulrich Wolf, a reporter for the Sasische newspaper in Dresden. "A couple have businesses that failed. There is a bit of frustration there. Pegida makes them very proud."

While Mr Bachmann took umbrage at Ms Merkel's critique - Pegida has filed a lawsuit against her for condemning a legitimate group - he says he agrees with her claim that Islam belongs in Germany. People can, in private, practise any religion they like, he argues. But in public, German cultural assets, such as Christmas markets, had to be "protected" from claims they might hurt immigrants' feelings.

<>"You want to make me into an extremist but I have Muslim friends," he told a group of BBC reporters in frustration as he cut short a recent interview at a Dresden hotel.

In an effort to better control multiplying offshoots and splinter groups, Pegida is planning to convene a conference in Dresden bringing together like-minded groups from other German cities, as well as Sweden, Austria and Switzerland. The meeting will focus on refining a common programme based on Pegida's 19-point "position paper".

The wide-ranging document calls for everything from a new referendum law to an end to "gender neutralising" the German language. Yet its chief concerns are immigration and Islamisation. Pegida wants faster processing of asylum claims, a constitutional revision to spell out immigrants' duty to integrate, an end to "parallel societies" in which there are clashes between sharia and civil law, and "protection for our Judeo-Christian-based culture".

Raising an argument often heard among German conservatives, Mr Bachmann says it is time for Germans to once again take pride in Germany - something its citizens have struggled with since the shame of the second world war.

"There must now be a real end to this," he says. Then to demonstrate his point he observed that a Swede could say "I am proud to be Swedish", a Turk could say "I am proud to be Turkish", but "if I stand in the street here as a German . . . and shout 'I am proud to be a German' you will see that at least 12 police cars will appear and will straightaway arrest me."

The people behind Pegida:

? Vicky, Mr Bachmann's 31-year-old wife, owner of DD-Werbung, a small advertising agency in Kesselsdorf, near Dresden.

? Kathrin Oertel, a 36-year-old press spokesperson, a self-employed Dresden-based business consultant. Her long blonde hair has made her a recognisable and photogenic face for Pegida.

? Siegfried Dabritz, an old friend of the Bachmanns who reportedly attended their wedding. His family runs the Altstadtherberge, a pension in nearby Meissen, and a security business. He told the FT that he had a gun licence in connection with his security work and for sport. He belongs to the NRA, the US gun lobby group, visits the US often, and rides a Harley-Davidson. He recently posted on his Facebook site a photo of Adolf Hitler, with quotes praising Muslims. Mr Bachmann said he was free to say what he wanted, as long the opinions were not ascribed to Pegida.

? Thomas Tallacker, a former Meissen town councillor for the conservative CDU, who resigned in 2013 after posting an offensive message on Facebook. He told the FT that he had apologised for comments in which he praised a Swiss town for excluding asylum seekers from a public swimming pool. The 46-year-old interior designer is planning to appeal against a conviction last year for causing bodily harm. He said the conviction, for which he faces a one-year suspended jail sentence, arose from an argument with a client over payment.

? Frank Ingo Friedemann, 46, ran Hamam, a Dresden sauna, until it closed last year and, according to the local court, entered insolvency proceedings.

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