Roger Waters wins legal case to perform in Frankfurt
The former Pink Floyd mastermind Roger Waters has won his legal battle to perform in Frankfurt as scheduled following the German authorities’ attempts to cancel the event. The bid for cancellation was posed on the grounds of Waters’ alleged antisemitic symbolism.
Two months ago, magistrates working on behalf of Frankfurt instructed the venue to cancel the concert on May 28th after accusing Waters of being “one of the most widely known antisemites in the world”. In response, Waters filed a suit against the decision and flew to the German city anyway.
Frankfurt’s administrative court has now declared Waters’ right to perform, despite acknowledging that aspects of his live show were “tasteless” and patently inspired by the Nazi regime. However, in the name of artistic freedom, Waters was within his rights to perform the concert as planned. Frankfurt now has the option to appeal the decision made by the administrative court.
The concerns were triggered mainly by a segment of Waters’ recent live repertoire in which he displays a pig-shaped balloon decorated with a Star of David and a selection of major company logos. The Frankfurt date was a particular point of contention because the concert venue, the Festhalle, had borne witness to the atrocities of Kristallnacht in 1938.
The court added that despite Waters’ controversial “symbolism manifestly based on that of the National Socialist regime,” the concert should be “viewed as a work of art,” and there were no grounds on which to justify a cancellation.
“It is not for the court to pass judgment on this,” a spokesperson told German media shortly after the verdict. They added that the performance “did not glorify or relativise the crimes of the Nazis or identify with Nazi racist ideology”.
The International Auschwitz Committee condemned the decision as “deplorable”, while Christoph Heubner, the committee’s vice-president, added, “It’s not only Jewish survivors of German concentration and death camps who are left sad, bewildered and increasingly disillusioned.”
Amid the furore, Waters publicly denied accusations of antisemitism, stating that he wished to target Israel rather than Judaism as a whole. He accused the country of “abusing the term antisemitism to intimidate people like me into silence.”
Waters added that the symbolic pig balloon “represents Israel and its policies and is legitimately subject to any and all forms of non-violent protest”. As well as the Star of David, the pig is adorned with the crucifix and famous company logos, including those of Mercedes, McDonald’s and Shell Oil.
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