Police said that they had deployed over 1,500 officers on the Saxon capital's streets – as many as if a 30,000-strong demonstration had been going ahead.
They had orders to send anyone gathering outdoors home, and reported breaking up at least one group of people gathering at the city's Theaterplatz.
Earlier in the day, an anti-Pegida demonstrator's attempt to have the ban on open-air demonstrations lifted was rejected by a city court.
But Pegida organizers say that they'll be back next Monday in large numbers.
The largest demonstrations outside Saxony took place in Munich, where 11,000 people – half as many as last Monday - demonstrated against Pegida under the motto "Dance the Pegida – a workers' carnival".
In Braunschweig, police said they had to cancel a Pegida demonstration before it began as the situation was "too dangerous".
Around 250 members of the Pegida offshoot 'Bragida' were surrounded by 5,000 counter-demonstrators.
In Magdeburg around 600 members of 'Magida' were opposed by 6,000 marchers, with the two groups kept apart by large numbers of police officers, and similar scenes were repeated in Leipzig.
Berlin's counter-demonstration was much smaller than the 4,000 reported last week, with just a few hundred pro- and anti-Pegida demonstrators facing off.
And further demonstrations against Pegida offshoots took place in smaller towns across Germany including Würzburg, Nuremberg, Flensburg, Düsseldorf, Kassel, Osnabrück, Wiesbaden, Stralsund, Saarbrücken and Suhl.
SEE ALSO: Isis threat stops Monday Pegida march
Comments