Residents of the northern Bavarian town of Wunsiedel went onto the streets to stop a neo-Nazi march commemorating the 17th anniversary of the death of Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy, who had been jailed for life in 1946. Carrying colourful balloons that read: "Wunsiedel is colorful, not brown," several hundred people opposed to the march had gathered on Saturday to show neo-Nazis that they were not welcome in their town. Brown is a colour associated with the Nazis in Germany because of the brown shirts they wore as part of their uniforms. According to police estimates, more than 2,000 neo-Nazis had gathered in Wunsiedel for an annual march to honor Rudolf Hess who hanged himself aged 93 in a Berlin prison on August 17, 1987.