German anti-Islam movement Pegida looked in disarray yesterday, losing its second leader in a week when Kathrin Oertel, who took over after the founder quit for posing as Hitler, also resigned, and the group cancelled its next rally.

The Dresden-based group, whose weekly marches in the city have rattled the German political establishment, announced on its Facebook page that Oertel and another board member were stepping down, due to threats, hostility and media hounding.

Oertel, a 37-year-old mother-of-three became Pegida’s national figurehead after founder Lutz Bachmann resigned a week ago on news that he was subject to official investigations.

Pegida said Oertel had quit “due to the massive hostility, threats and career disadvantages”, adding: “Even the strongest of women has to take time out when at night photographers and other strange figures are sneaking around outside her house.”

Another board member faced massive problems because his business had lost public contracts, Pegida said, adding its cause remained “good and just”. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had warned people not to be manipulated by the group, cautioning some of its members have “hatred in their hearts”.

Bachmann announced his resignation a week ago after the top-selling daily Bild carried a front-page photo of him with a Hitler moustache and haircut that he had posted on Facebook.

This, and reports that he had called refugees “scumbags”, prompted prosecutors to investigate him for inciting hatred.

The 42-year-old convicted burglar put Pegida, which stands for Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West, onto the political agenda by leading weekly rallies in the eastern city of Dresden to defend what he calls “German” values.