Berlin, Aug 20 (IANS): Neo-Nazis marched in the streets of the German capital to mark the 30th anniversary of the death of Rudolf Hess, Adolf Hitler's deputy, US, the media reported.

Helmeted police in riot gear stood guard on Saturday as right-wing demonstrators converged here, a week after a white supremacist rally turned deadly in Charlottesville, reports CNN.

About 500 people on each side turned out, the police said.

Convicted at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, Hess served a life sentence at Spandau Prison and was the sole inmate there from 1966 until his death in 1987.

Nazi sympathisers revere Hess because he never renounced his beliefs decades after the fall of the Third Reich.

One of Saturday's banners read, "I do not regret anything", Hess' last words before his sentencing at Nuremberg.

Another banner disputed the account that Hess committed suicide at age 93: "It was murder. Enough with the suicide lie".

However, strict laws in Germany ban Nazi symbols and hate speech.

Rally organisers told the demonstrators not to play marching music and to walk silently to the site of Spandau Prison, razed after Hess' death. Every 25th person could carry an imperial German flag.

They were not allowed to wear Nazi attire or display a swastika, the Nazi symbol.

Anti-fascist counter-protesters chanted "war criminal" at demonstrators, shouted "all Berlin hates the police" and advanced toward officers, reports CNN.

Residents played loud music from balconies countering the demonstrators, such as a Michael Jackson song declaring, "It don't matter if you're black or white".

A black woman held up a sign with a heart, prompting neo-Nazis to shout "go home". She replied, "Berlin is my home."