The Guardian reports Lutz Bachmann, a founder and leader of the German anti-Islamisation group known as Pegida, has stepped down after controversial photos surfaced of him at his hairdresser posing as Adolph Hitler. Bachmann says the photo and its caption “He’s Back” is an homage to a 2012 best selling book of the same name.

Bachmann has also gone on record to apologize for comments made on his Facebook profile in which he called immigrants “cattle” and “garbage.” The comments and the photograph were posted by Bachmann in September 2014, weeks before organized Pegida demonstrations began in the east German city of Dresden, where demonstrations have been held every Monday night since October.

Kathrin Oertel, a Pegida spokeswoman, says that Bachmann’s resignation was the “only possibility for the movement,” and that, “As an association, we reject the Facebook postings made by Lutz Bachmann in September which have now come to light in the strongest possible terms. They do nothing to nurture trust in Pegida’s goals or its protagonists.”

Oertel went on to simply dismiss Bachmann’s pictures of him posing as Hitler as “a joke” and “satire, which is every citizen’s right.”

Bachmann and Pegida leaders deny being racist, stating that they are simply “Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West” (in German: Patriotische Europaer gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes, which forms the acronym Pegida). In a televised discussion on Monday, Bachmann and other Pegida leaders distanced themselves from Pegida demonstrators uttering racist remarks.

Warning against liberal migration and asylum policies under the term “Islamisation of the West,” pro-Pegida demonstrations in Dresden and other German cities have begun to attracted tens of thousands while allowing Pegida and its issues to jump to the forefront in German politics.

German intelligence agencies allege the former Pegida leader is now a target for Islamist terrorists who have stated on social media that they intend to kill him. Because of the threats to Bachmann, the planned Pegida demonstration in Dresden has been canceled.

Due to the cancellations in Dresden, the Pegida movement has begun to shift focus to the German city of Leipzig, where police in riot gear were forced to form a human barricade to separate the approximately 15,000 Pegida demonstrators from a crowd of counter protesters.

When asked why she had come to the demonstration, one German woman replied, “I’m German. I don’t want my daughter to end up wearing a burka.”

Angela Merkel, Germany’s Chancellor, insists she will defend the right of German citizens to demonstrate saying, “I have an interest that demonstrations are possible in every part of Germany, regardless of whether I like the content or not.”

In the meantime, German state prosecutors have been investigating Bachmann on charges of sedition and inciting popular hatred.

Now that Lutz Bachmann has stepped down, the future of Pegida is in question. Despite Bachmann’s resignation Oertel insists, “Pegida will go on.” Members of the Pegida movement have vowed to return to the streets of Dresden, with Oertel insisting that Pegida would “not allow itself to be muzzled.”