German police are investigating Roger Waters for wearing Nazi-style clothing during a concert in Berlin

German police have launched a criminal investigation against Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters. for the Nazi-style uniform he wore to a recent concert in Berlin.

“An investigation has been opened into the costumes displayed at the concerts on May 17 and 18“, said Guard Berlin police spokesman Martin Halweg.

Display of Nazi government symbols, including the swastika or SS insignia, is illegal in Germany, with exceptions for educational purposes and in artistic contexts.

Legal terminciting the people“, which is often applied to Holocaust denial trials in Germany, makes it illegal to violate human dignity “national, racial, religious groups or groups defined by their ethnic origin“.

“It is believed that the context of used clothing may condone, glorify or justify the violent and arbitrary rule of the Nazi regime in a way that violates the dignity of the victims and therefore disturbs the public peace,” Halweg said.

At a concert at the Mercedes Benz Arena in Berlin, Waters appeared on stage as the character Pink from the rock opera The Wall during a performance of the song. in the bodywearing a black leather raincoat with a red band around his arm with two crossed hammers instead of a swastika.

In rock opera, the song marks its protagonist’s descent into a drug-induced hallucination, in which he imagines himself as a fictional fascist dictator addressing a neo-Nazi rally.

Waters _known for his pro-Palestinian activism_ He accused his detractors of “bad faith” after the wave of criticism he received for his concert in Berlin.

During the event, you could also see inscriptions in red letters on the screen with names Anna Franka Jewish teenager who died in a concentration camp, i Shireen Abu AklehPalestinian-American journalist of the Al Jazeera channel who was killed in an Israeli operation in May 2022.

“My recent concert in Berlin provoked malicious attacks from those who want to silence me because they do not agree with my political views.“, Waters wrote on his social networks on Friday.

“The aspects of my concert that have been questioned are clearly a message against fascism, injustice and sectarianism in all their forms” and any attempt to see it as anything else “is dishonest”, he added.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry accused Waters on Wednesday “of tarnishing the memory of Anne Frank and the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust.”