The provocative stunt in the northern city of Essen involved actors - some black, some in headscarves - resisting requests by another actor dressed as a bus conductor for them to leave the "German area" and sit at the back of the bus, local newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung reports . Signs posted around the front of the vehicle said specific seats were reserved "for those with a valid German identity card", and one told "foreigners and asylum seekers" to use only the back rows. The scenario - apparently inspired by pre-civil rights era racial segregation in the southern United States - was filmed using hidden cameras for the local TV channel WDR , with the bus company's permission.

It was repeated over the course of a day, and each time the real passengers' reactions were consistent - it never took more than 30 seconds for someone to intervene. "They are people like anyone else" and "what kind of crap is this?" were some of the outraged responses. "I was born in 1935 and don't want the Nazi brown shirts back," one elderly man told the "conductor". According to the show's producer, women were particularly quick to stand up for others.