In 1989, the chant “we are the people” excited people all over the world. It was the slogan of the popular demonstrations in East Germany that brought down the Berlin Wall and ended the cold war.

Almost 30 years later the same chant is once again being heard on the streets of eastern Germany — but in a new and disturbing context. It has become the rallying cry for anti-immigration demonstrators, linked to the far-right.

In Chemnitz, a small town in eastern Germany that has become the flashpoint for the protests, one retired teacher and demonstrator explained to me last Thursday: “I was on the frontline in 1989 and it’s exactly the same spirit today. The same deep anger against the government.” Another retiree recalled that in 1989 the East German government had called the demonstrators “an out-of-control mob” and added, “the Merkel government is using exactly the same language now”.