 Petitions against the NPD's activities in Nußbach were set up by former mayor Rudi Zapp in local shops and were quickly filled with signatures.When the NPD announced only a week after their nighttime gathering that they would hold a demonstration on 24 February 2002, local residents decided to stage a counterdemonstration.While the neo-Nazis held their gathering at the former public house, several hundred citizens – their numbers were bolstered by demonstrators from other nearby villages – demonstrated against them, waving banners with messages such as “"Nußbach lässt sich nicht knacken"” (“Nußbach will not crack”).