Roger Waters, the former Pink Floyd frontman, has won his legal battle to perform a concert in Frankfurt after attempts to ban the event amid accusations of antisemitism.
Magistrates acting on behalf of the German city had instructed the venue two months ago to cancel the concert on 28 May, accusing Waters of being “one of the most widely known antisemites in the world”. Waters, who has always denied accusations of antisemitism, took legal action against the decision.
Frankfurt’s administrative court has now declared his right to go ahead with the event. While acknowledging that aspects of his show were “tasteless” and obviously lent on symbolism inspired by the Nazi regime, it cited artistic freedom among its main reasons for the decision.
The city has the right to appeal against the ruling.
City authorities in Frankfurt and elsewhere in Germany had objected to the concert on the grounds that a previous tour had featured as part of the stage show a balloon shaped like a pig depicting the Star of David and various company logos.
Part of their criticism related to the location of the concert, the Festhalle, in which, during the November pogroms of 1938, more than 3,000 Jewish men from Frankfurt and surrounding areas were rounded up, abused and later deported to concentration camps where many of them were murdered.
However, the court said that despite the Waters show making use of “symbolism manifestly based on that of the National Socialist regime” – the tastelessness of which it said was exacerbated by the choice of the Festhalle as the venue due to its historical background – the concert should be “viewed as a work of art” and that there were not sufficient grounds on which to justify banning Waters from performing. “It is not for the court to pass judgment on this,” a spokesperson told German media.
The most crucial point, according to the court, was that the musician’s performance “did not glorify or relativise the crimes of the Nazis or identify with Nazi racist ideology”, and nor was there any evidence that Waters used propaganda material in his show, the spokesperson added.
Criticism of the decision came from the International Auschwitz Committee, which called it “deplorable”. Christoph Heubner, the committee’s vice-president, said: “It’s not only Jewish survivors of German concentration and death camps who are left sad, bewildered and increasingly disillusioned.”
A “cause of great concern” for survivors and their families was what he called an “encroachment of antisemitism from various directions” in society.
Heubner said the court’s declaration – that to hold the concert in the Festhalle was not an offence to the dignity of the Jewish men rounded up there – was “a renewed attack on the dignity of these people and the memories of their families”.
Josef Schuster, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said he was “baffled” by the court’s decision “that a display of symbols based on National Socialism should have no legal consequences”.
In Germany, there are strict rules banning displays of Nazi memorabilia and symbols such as the swastika.
Waters has repeatedly denied accusations of antisemitism and claimed his disdain is towards Israel, not Judaism, accusing Israel of “abusing the term antisemitism to intimidate people like me into silence”.
He defended his use of the pig symbol, saying it “represents Israel and its policies and is legitimately subject to any and all forms of non-violent protest”. He said the balloon also featured other symbols of organisations he was against, such as the crucifix and the logos of Mercedes, McDonald’s and Shell Oil.