Excerpt:
Business leaders, the political class and average Germans are pushing back against a growing anti-immigrant movement, saying it threatens the values and image the country fought hard to establish since the war.
At counter-demonstrations and on social media, opponents have mobilised against the far-right group which claims Germany is being overrun by Islamic extremists.
President Joachim Gauck, who was a pro-democracy pastor in communist East Germany, devoted his annual Christmas speech to a forceful appeal for compassion and openness toward asylum seekers.