BERLIN — The leader of an anti-immigrant movement that has attracted tens of thousands of supporters and upended political debate in Germany stepped down on Wednesday after he was found to have posted an online image of himself as Adolf Hitler, after weeks of denying any Nazi sympathies.
In the photograph, the leader, Lutz Bachmann, has his dark hair combed straight and severely parted above his right temple and wears a toothbrush mustache, closely resembling Hitler. The image was found on Mr. Bachmann’s Facebook page and appeared on the front page of the mass-circulation Bild newspaper on Wednesday. It soon went viral on social media sites.
The issue is a sensitive one in Germany because of its history, and Chancellor Angela Merkel and other high-ranking officials have repeatedly denounced the anti-immigrant movement, widely known by its German acronym Pegida, which stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the West.
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It has also sought to downplay the reports that Mr. Bachmann has a criminal record, with Katrin Oertel, another leader, saying on national public television that everyone deserves a second chance.
It was not clear if that belief would withstand the uproar caused by the publication of Mr. Bachmann’s Hitler photo.
The march in Leipzig on Wednesday night was organized after the German authorities prevented Pegida from holding its regular weekly march in Dresden on Monday because, they said, Mr. Bachmann had been the target of a terrorist threat.
