Berlin Police investigate Roger Waters for incitement

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Police in Berlin said Friday that they have opened an investigation of Roger Waters on suspicion of incitement over a costume the Pink Floyd co-founder wore when he performed in the German capital last week.

Images on social media showed Waters firing an imitation machine gun while dressed in a long black coat with a red armband. Police confirmed that an investigation was opened over suspicions that the context of the costume could constitute a glorification, justification or approval of Nazi rule and therefore a disturbance of the public peace.

Authorities in Frankfurt tried to prevent a concert there scheduled for May 28, but Waters challenged that move successfully in a local court. In Munich, the city council said it had explored possibilities of banning a concert but concluded that it wasn’t legally possible to cancel a contract with the organizer. His appearance there on Sunday was accompanied by a protest attended by the local Jewish community’s leader.

Last year, the Polish city of Krakow canceled gigs by Waters because of his sympathetic stance toward Russia in its war against Ukraine.

Roger Waters was seen dressing in an outfit resembling that of a Nazi SS officer during recent live performances in Germany.

The former Pink Floyd musician, 79, also projected the name of Anne Frank on a giant screen during the shows, along with several other names of contemporary figures including George Floyd and Shireen Abu Akleh

Abu Akleh, a correspondant for Al Jazeera, was shot and killed last year while covering a raid by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on a Palestinian refugee camp. After initially blaming her killing on Palestinian shooters, Israel then said it was possible the bullet had come from an Israeli gunmen.

A number of separate investigations, including by The New York Times, The Washington Post and the UN, concuded that Abu Akleh had been killed by Israeli forces. Some reports, including those by the Palestinian Authority and CNN, concluded that her killing had been targeted and deliberate. Israel has denied this.

Water’s decision to associate the name of Anne Frank with that of Abu Akleh has proved contentious, with some deeming the comparison “antisemitic”.

The musician’s show opened with a statement that read: “On a matter of public interest: a court in Frankfurt has ruled that I am not an antisemite”

Just to be clear, I condemn antisemitism unreservedly.”

Earlier this year, Waters became embroiled in a row with his former bandmate, David Gilmour, and Gilmour’s wife, the writer Polly Samson, who accused Waters of being being “antisemitic to your rotten core”, in an online row over Israel and the Ukraine war.

In the extraordinary attack on Twitter in February, Samson also claimed her husband’s former bandmate was a “Putin apologist”, saying: “Enough of your nonsense”.

Waters responded on his official account saying he was “aware of the incendiary and wildly inaccurate comments made about him on Twitter by Polly Samson which he refutes entirely”, adding: “He is currently taking advice as to his position.”