The leader of a German far-right movement has resigned after a photo of him posing as Adolf Hitler on Facebook went viral.

Lutz Bachmann co-founded Pegida, which stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, in October and has since organised weekly marches that have attracted up to 25,000 people.

However, the inflammatory picture, which shows Mr Bachmann with a distinctive Hitler hairstyle and toothbrush moustache, has led to him being forced out of the group.

The 41-year-old Dresden native captioned the photo with the words “he’s back”, a reference to Timur Vermes’s satirical novel of the same name.

A private Facebook conversation in which Mr Bachmann called immigrants “cattle”, “scumbags” and “trash,” was also revealed online.

His resignation comes after the movement was forced to cancel Monday’s rally because of death threats made towards Mr Bachmann.