Anti-Nazi Protests

Shouting "Nazis out," roughly 400 demonstrators whistled and booed the 500 NDP members who gathered on a drizzly Saturday afternoon at a hall in Berlin's northern Reinickendorf neighborhood.

The rally was called for by local leftist and conservative lawmakers against the far-right group, which remains a minor player in national politics. Opponents earlier failed to prevent the NPD from using the Berlin hall for its party congress this weekend.

"We want to show clearly that our society, in its immense majority, doesn't want neo-fascism and neo-Nazis," said Walter Momper, a Social Democrat and speaker of the regional Berlin parliament and a former mayor of the German capital.

Jewish leader thanked crowd

Berlin Jewish community leader Gideon Joffe also thanked the demonstrators for coming out in numbers "to show the NPD what we think of them" -- even though the rally was far smaller than initially expected.

So far, the NPD has secured seats in two regional parliaments -- including in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania where Chancellor Angela Merkel's constituency is located. It captured 7 percent of the vote there in September elections. But it has no representatives in Germany's Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.

Police turned out in large numbers Saturday against possible clashes between NPD members and protesters. Demonstrators last year blocked an NPD parade around the city to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II.

German politicians, however, have so far failed to ban the extremist group.