Police armored vehicles and water cannons in parked in front of the Maritim Hotel in Cologne, where the congress of Germany's right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is set to be held.
Numerous around 600 delegates needed police protection as they tried to enter the venue where they were planning to discuss the party's lead candidates in September's national election.
Authorities had 4,000 police officers on the ground to prevent a violent escalation of anti-populist rallies by an expected 50,000 left-wing protesters.
Far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) will become a more radical, anti-Islamic party without co-chief Frauke Petry leading it into September's national election, Germany's Central Council of Muslims warned on April 20.
The AfD, which rails against Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to allow more than a million migrants into Germany since mid-2015, is due to decide on its election leadership line-up at its weekend gathering in the western city of Cologne.
Addressing the congress, Petry's co-leader Joerg Meuthen was applauded for saying the AfD would never form an alliance with those like Merkel, Social Democrat leader Martin Schulz or the Greens, whose pro-migrant stances were wrecking Germany.
Germany's anti-immigration AfD will wrap up a fractious party congress today by choosing the team to lead it into a September general election, after it dramatically sidelined its most prominent personality.
(AP Photo/Martin Meissner). Co-leader Frauke Petry walks on the podium at the party convention of Germany's nationalist party AfD (Alternative for Germany) in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, April 22, 2017.
The less well known Ms Weidel is seen as a relative moderate within the AfD, and appears to have been nominated to placate party members alarmed by the choice of Mr Gauland.
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On Sunday, the city remained relatively calm and police reported only a few small demonstrations.
Ms Petry has upset many within the party by introducing a motion in which she said the AfD should aim to join coalitions in future and govern, instead of being a "fundamental" opposition party that only made provocative statements.
Spiegel Online journalist Severin Weiland said Saturday it was now even "doubtful" whether the AfD would clear the five-per cent hurdle to representation in the national parliament.
"We want to keep our home country, keep our identity, and we are proud to be German", he said in his acceptance speech.
The 41-year-old also irked some rivals by leading an effort to expel Bjoern Hoecke, AfD's regional leader in eastern Thuringia state, after he suggested that Germany stop acknowledging and atoning for its Nazi past.
Speaking in a video message posted on her Facebook page, Petry said she had been accused of making the proposal exclusively to become the party's top candidate despite her not mentioning that idea in her motion.
Rather than be squeezed between the AfD's warring factions, analysts suggest Petry stood aside with a view to a comeback after having her fifth baby in the summer.
Petry earlier this week said she would not be the party's lead candidate in the election.
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