In Dresden, a broad resistance against the asylum and xenophobic Pegida movement formed on Sunday.
Several alliances had called for counter-demonstrations and protest marches towards the city center.
Several hundred people from the TU Dresden set off at noon.
"In our university we live together that is based on respect for those who think differently, those who are living and who look", explained the rector of the TU Dresden, Ursula Staudinger, at a demonstration registered by the TU.
Dresden - Mayor Dirk Hilbert (FDP) had also called in advance to take to the streets on Sunday for diversity, cosmopolitanism and peaceful coexistence.
A protest march had also set off from Dresden's Neustadt in the direction of the city center.
The "Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the West" (Pegida) had gathered in the early afternoon on Dresden's Altmarkt to celebrate their seventh birthday, including Pegida founder Lutz Bachmann.
According to estimates, almost 1,000 people had gathered in front of the stage.
Significantly more, around 2500 to 3000 protesters, gathered within earshot and sight and protested loudly - with whistles, rattles and saucepans as drums.
The police had separated the two camps with barriers and a wide alley, and numerous police officers were on site.
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Pegida has been observed by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution in Saxony as a "proven extremist endeavor" since May.
Bachmann has long been considered a right-wing extremist.
dpa