And now something about PEGIDA:

“Menzel, a media scholar, has been running the Blaue Narzisse (Blue Narcissus), a conservative right-wing magazine for high school and university students, for the last 10 years. His small magazine had attracted little interest until now. But that is about to change, at least if Menzel has his way. "The uprising of the masses that we have long yearned for is slowly getting underway," he writes on his magazine's website. "And this movement is moving toward the right."
In Dresden, at least, the sentiments expressed in the Blaue Narzisse have become more palpable in recent weeks. Protests staged each week on Mondays initially attracted only a few dozen to a few hundred people, but more recently the number of citizens taking to the streets has reached 10,000. The group, which calls itself Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West (and goes by the German acronym PEGIDA), demonstrates against economic migrants and a supposed "cultural foreign domination of our country" -- whatever is meant by that.
What is going on in Germany, the world's second most popular destination for immigrants? Has the open-mindedness for which Germans had long been praised now ended? Are we seeing a return of the vague fear of being overwhelmed by immigrants that Germany experienced in the 1990s, when a hostel for asylum seekers was burned down? How large is the new right-wing movement, and will it remain limited to Dresden, or is it spreading nationwide? o far, protests held under the PEGIDA label in under cities -- like Kassel and Würzburg -- have attracted only a few hundred people at a time. In fact, some of the protests attracted significantly larger numbers of counter-demonstrators. And while thousands of "patriotic Europeans" aim to take to the streets in Dresden again in the coming days, their counterparts in Germany's western states are taking a Christmas break.”

(…)

“German security agencies are alarmed. "We take this very seriously," says a senior official with the domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). The authorities were especially aroused by the events of Oct. 26, when at least 400 right-wing extremists went on a rampage in downtown Cologne during a demonstration staged by the group "Hooligans Against Salafists" (HoGeSa). The issue was even on the agenda of an "intelligence situation" meeting at Merkel's Chancellery, where officials were ordered to heighten their scrutiny of the unusual mix of protestors.
The Federal Prosecutor's Office is also involved. According to a spokesman, there are more than 100 "observation and investigation procedures associated with right-wing extremist activities" pending at the agency, based in the southwestern city of Karlsruhe. The HoGeSa movement is one of the groups under observation, say the Karlsruhe officials.
A report on the connections between hooligans and right-wing extremists compiled by the police and the BfV was the focus of a meeting of the federal and state interior ministers just over a week ago. The group also discussed PEGIDA and its many clones, as well as the question of how to handle the simmering protests.”

(…)

‘While PEGIDA wants to see criminal asylum seekers deported immediately, some of its own activists are known to the police. Movement founder Bachmann is registered with the authorities under the heading "General crime (including violent offences)," and he has a criminal record for offences that include burglary and drug crimes. Another member of the group's middle-class leadership is also registered with authorities under the same category, and a third rally organizer has fraud convictions on his record.
PEGIDA's connections to the hooligan community are also noteworthy. For instance, the police have identified some of the protestors as members of "Fist of the East," a Dresden hooligan group in the right-wing extremist camp. Members of "Hooligans Elbflorenz (Florence on the Elbe, a nickname for Dresden)," which the Dresden Regional Court has classified as a criminal organization, have also been spotted. Activists with the group have reportedly been in contact with the banned far-right extremist fellowship known as "Skinheads Sächsische Schweiz."
The police estimate that the PEGIDA marches include about 300 people "associated with the fan community of SG Dynamo Dresden," the city's football club, and describe about 250 of them as "problem fans." Unofficially, the authorities assume that a large portion of this group is "open to right-wing extremist ideas." There are also apparently ties between PEGIDA and HoGeSa. For instance, police have identified a 42-year-old in Meissen, a city near Dresden, who is seen as an organizer for both protest movements.

Nationalism Dressed Up as Patriotism

A vague feeling of being threatened unites the demonstrators, whether they see themselves as members of the middle-class, conservative nationalists or radical right-wingers. They yearn for isolation and simple answers, which is why almost-forgotten, Nazi-era terms like "Volk" (the people) and "Vaterland" (the fatherland) are back in vogue.
Only last summer, the German flag was a symbol of a joyous, multicultural nation of soccer fans. Now it's being waved above the heads of PEGIDA followers as they crow: "Germany is awakening. For our fatherland, for Germany, it is our country, the country of our ancestors, descendants and children."
Where does this new nationalism, dressed up as patriotism, come from? "Disenchanted citizens with right-wing sympathies" are unable to cope with the social change of the last few decades," says Alexander Häusler, an expert on right-wing extremism in Düsseldorf. The protestors are pursuing a "restorative image of society" that roughly corresponds to Germany in the 1950s, long before it became a country of immigration.’

Read the complete article in Der Spiegel here.

I would argue that it is no coincidence that PEGIDA appears to be stronger in Dresden than in cities in Western Germany. Denazification was more successful in the BRD (FRG) than in the GDR or Austria for that matter.

The position of the AfD (Alternative for Germany) is going to be interesting. It started as an anti-euro party, but the AfD may be completely overtaken by anti-Muslim groups and politicians. This would not be surprising. Hatred of the EU and the euro boils down to hatred of the foreigner.