RACIST group Pegida co-founder Lutz Bachmann yesterday laughed off a photo of himself posing as Hitler.

Mr Bachmann claimed that he had posted the photo on Facebook as a joke.

“One has to be able sometimes to make fun of oneself,” he told German newspaper Bild.

German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel said: “Anyone in politics who poses as Hitler is either a total idiot or a nazi.”

He reiterated the government’s call for people to stay away from Pegida’s weekly demonstrations in Dresden.

“Reasonable people do not follow idiots and decent people don’t follow nazis.”

Pegida organiser Rene Jahn said the group’s leadership would take action.

Father Paul Spaetling has been banned from preaching after making comments about Islam and attending a far-right rally in Duisburg on Monday.