The situation had been slowly escalating for months. Pasty-looking teenagers would turn up at the door of a self-described "Youtube star", harass him by throwing eggs at his house or ordering a pizza to his door, and then post the video online.
The object of the hate was a young man who posts videos to the social media site under the name "Drachenlord" (dragon lord). According to the Münchner Merkur, Drachenlord (real name Rainer W.) had incited the anger of online "haters" through his provocative videos. He had then made the foolhardy decision to post his address online and challenge his enemies to come and sort out their differences with him in person.
For months, police had to turn up at Rainer W.'s house in Altschauerberg to protect him against intimidation or harassment.
On Monday evening the bizarre online feud came to a head. Close to 10,000 people signed up online for a demonstration to be held on Monday in front of his house with the central demand that Rainer W. retire from Youtube. Threats were made online to "burn down his bolthole."
Local authorities, worried by the potential for violence, issued a three-day ban on demonstrating in the tiny village of 40 inhabitants.
Nonetheless, over 150 young people turned up from as far afield as Dresden. In videos posted online, the teenagers threatened arson and unspecified things that would be "much worse."
As the crowd size grew throughout the day, police issued over 150 expulsion orders. But the situation continued to escalate into the evening, with some people setting off fireworks near Rainer W's house and others starting a fire in a nearby field.
The fire services were called in to the put out the fire. Riot police were even withdrawn from a football match between Borussia Dortmund and Greuther Fürth to help cope with the crowd.
Eventually the police used the tactic of kettling, where they surround demonstrators and refuse to let them out, to control the crowd. Bayerische Rundfunk reported by the late evening that he situation had once again calmed down.
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