"The safety of our Cologne people has priority," said a police spokesman after ugly clashes between far-leftists and riot police. The leftists, who were bent on occupying a city square set aside for the rightists to use, assaulted police and tried to snatch their pistols.
Riot police advanced against them, swinging batons.
At Heumarkt, the square set aside for the rightists, the far left attacked roadblocks at several places and scuffled with riot police, but were repulsed.
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Expecting trouble, riot police kept water-cannon trucks that can knock a man to the ground at 30 meters at the ready.
A police spokesman said the leftists were no longer attacking in small groups but in large formations.
Television images showed that only about 50 rightists managed to pass the blockade and enter the city square, where "no mosque" banners were hanging. The "anti-Islamification" rally failed to start at the announced time, noon, and was banned a few moments later.
City mayor denounces far-rightists but defends free speech Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Schramma condemned the far-rightists in Cologne About a kilometer away, several thousand peaceful demonstrators listened as Cologne's mayor Fritz Sharma stood up outside the city's great cathedral to denounce the far-right rally.
City and national German authorities detest the rightists, but say they must allow them the right of free speech.
Sharma described those who bent on holding the far-right rally as "racists in bourgeois dress" and "the moldy clique of Euro-Fascism," adding: "I say, there is the door. Go home!"
The planned anti-mosque demonstration had not only inflamed passions in Germany, but in Muslim nations. Iran demanded that Germany prohibit it.
The mayhem also hit rail links. A signal box on the edge of town was set on fire in the early morning by persons unknown, forcing the closure of a main line for several hours and the diversion of 12 national express trains.
The line was re-opened after hasty repairs.
Rightist group formed to oppose "Islamification" of Cologne Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Public property was damaged during the unrest Pro Cologne, a local group which won 5 per cent of votes at the last city-council elections, has invited 1,000 to 1,500 rightists from all over Europe to join it Saturday at a protest against the mosque and what it terms the "Islamification" of the city.
Police had banned Pro Cologne from marching Friday evening to multi-ethnic neighborhoods, saying that riot police would not be able to keep order.
The German Interior Ministry spoke out Friday against the rally, saying the planned gathering of "populists and extremists harms the co-existence that the city and Muslim citizens have striven for."
The mosque, close to a soaring telecommunications tower in a district on the edge of town, is to have a dome 37 meters high and two minarets stretching up 55 meters. It will serve Turkish-speakers whose current mosque is too small for the congregations.
(Deutsche Welle)
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