German police fired tear gas and water cannons to keep apart groups of far-right supporters and thousands of counter-demonstrators trying to hinder their rally in the eastern city of Dresden, police said.
Hundreds of left-wing protesters tried to break through police barriers, hurling rocks and fireworks at officers who responded with baton charges, tear gas and pepper spray.
About 1,000 far-right supporters were at three court-approved rallies or on their way there by early on Saturday afternoon, police said.
A far larger number of counter-demonstrators – supported by unions, democratic parties and civil society groups – were in the city trying to prevent the rallies from going ahead. Three protesters were arrested.
Dresden authorities said earlier this week it expects at least 3,000 far-right supporters from Germany and elsewhere and around 20,000 counter-demonstrators to gather.
The annual protest rally constitutes one of Europe’s biggest far-right gatherings, usually held earlier in February to commemorate the anniversary of a deadly Allied bombing at the end of the Second World War.
Raids by British and US bombers on February 13 and 14 1945 set off firestorms and destroyed the centuries-old city centre.
In 2008, a panel commissioned by German state officials found that the firebombing killed up to 25,000 people – lower than scholars’ previous estimates.
City officials, state politicians, unions and civil society groups each year hold rallies – hugely outnumbering the far-right supporters – protesting against far-right attempts to exploit the city’s painful past.
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