Colour pictures of Mr Abdullah Ocalan hung like bunting between the windows of the Greek consulate in Berlin yesterday as dozens of Kurdish protesters chanted slogans demanding the PKK leader's release.
On the square outside the consulate, rows of riot police observed the demonstration as ambulances and fire brigade trucks waited nearby.
By late afternoon, some of the police officers were equipped with fire extinguishers to prevent a repetition of an incident in which a Kurdish protester doused herself with petrol and then set herself alight.
The woman was being treated in hospital last night for severe burns.
Kurdish protesters occupied Greek diplomatic missions in 10 German cities, seizing six hostages in Bonn and Leipzig.
Consulates in Cologne and Duesseldorf were wrecked and protesters marched through the streets of Hamburg and Frankfurt overturning cars and smashing shop windows.
Police turned water cannon on demonstrators at the Frankfurt consulate who were armed with petrol bombs, and in Stuttgart 1,000 protesters were prevented from marching through the centre of the city.
The interior minister, Mr Otto Schily, appealed to the protesters to leave the buildings they were occupying and to release all hostages.
He announced more stringent security measures at Germany's airports, and passengers flying on Greek and Kenyan airlines faced long delays.
Intelligence agencies predicted that the protests, which appear to have been co-ordinated throughout Europe, could continue for days and could escalate.
"The situation is very tense and dangerous. And it can change by the hour," according to an intelligence spokesman in the state of Lower Saxony.
Germany has the largest Kurdish exile population in Europe, numbering 400,000 people. Police estimate that the PKK can mobilise up to 50,000 supporters throughout the country.
Dr Helmut Kohl's government banned the PKK in 1993, following a series of arson attacks on Turkish banks, travel agents and shops.
But relations between the Kurdish movement and the state have improved steadily in recent years following a decision by Mr Ocalan to end extremist acts within Germany.
Prosecutors now describe the PKK as a criminal organisation rather than a terrorist group, and recent trials of PKK members have ended with guilty pleas and light sentences.
Mr Ocalan still faces German charges of ordering the murder of a renegade PKK member and orchestrating arson attacks on Turkish businesses.
But Bonn declined to request the PKK leader's extradition when he was arrested in Rome last November, thus precipitating the odyssey that ended in Nairobi yesterday.
Mr Gerhard Schroder's government feared that bringing Mr Ocalan back to Germany to face trial could trigger violent protests and tension between Kurds and Turks.
It appears that Bonn's failure to call Mr Ocalan to account may unleash greater violence. Police fear that, once the present wave of protests ends, the PKK may renew its attacks on Germany's Turkish community.