Former Pink Floyd Singer Roger Waters Under Investigation For Wearing Nazi Costume At Berlin Concert

While performing the song “In the Flesh?” in Berlin, Roger Waters dressed up in a costume that resembled a Nazi SS uniform. Martin Halweg, a spokesman for the German police, said that they were investigating Waters on “suspicion of incitement to public hatred” under German laws against antisemitism and promoting Nazi imagery.

In a Facebook post, Waters criticized the “bad-faith attacks” and labeled those investigating him as people who want to “smear and silence” him for his “political views and moral principles.”

Waters said that “In the Flesh?,” which comes from the Pink Floyd album The Wall, was written as a satire about fascism. He noted that this Berlin performance was not the first time he performed the song wearing the costume.

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Waters has been subjected to accusations of antisemitism in the past. These claims mostly stem from his pro-Palestine and anti-Israel views. During the tour, he presented names of people killed by fascism on stage, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The former Pink Floyd singer was condemned for projecting the names of Anne Frank and Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American journalist who was killed in 2022 while covering an Israeli attack in the West Bank.

This caused protests over Waters’ shows in Munich and Frankfurt. His concert in Frankfurt was particularly controversial because it took place at Festhalle, a venue where German Jews were sent during the November pogrom in 1938. The mayor of Frankfurt attempted to cancel the show, but a court ruled in favor of Waters, allowing him to perform.

During the concert, a man ran on stage with an Israeli flag. Afterward, Waters stated that he would not wear his costume out of respect “for the people who are concerned about desecration of this place.”