Roger Waters has released a statement regarding his controversial concerts in Berlin, which was heavily criticized for his wearing a Nazi-looking uniform (although it was meant to echo Bob Geldof’s fascist character Pink from 1982’s The Wall). The May 17 and 18 shows also featured an inflatable pig displaying Third Reich-style banners and a Star of David, a prop Waters has been using since 2010. Police in Germany have launched a criminal investigation into Waters’ costuming. “The elements of my performance that have been questioned are quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms,” Waters wrote on social media.
The full statement is below:
A Statement from Roger Waters on the controversy over his Berlin Concert
My recent performance in Berlin has attracted bad faith attacks from those who want to smear and silence me because they disagree with my political views and moral principles.
The elements of my performance that have been questioned are quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms. Attempts to portray those elements as something else are disingenuous and politically motivated. The depiction of an unhinged fascist demagogue has been a feature of my shows since Pink Floyd’s The Wall in 1980.
I have spent my entire life speaking out against authoritarianism and oppression wherever I see it. When I was a child after the war, the name of Anne Frank was often spoken in our house, she became a permanent reminder of what happens when fascism is left unchecked. My parents fought the Nazis in World War II, with my father paying the ultimate price.
Regardless of the consequences of the attacks against me, I will continue to condemn injustice and all those who perpetrate it.
Also during Waters’ performances at the Mercedes-Benz Arena, screens displayed the names of victims Waters believes were killed by governments, including Mahsa Amini, an Iranian woman beaten to death by the country’s “morality police”; George Floyd; and activist Sophie Scholl, a German student and anti-Nazi political activist who was beheaded via guillotine in 1943 after being convicted of high treason for distributing anti-war leaflets at the University Of Munich.
Anne Frank’s name flashed immediately before Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Palestinian-American journalist who is believed to have been killed last May by shots from Israeli soldiers during a shootout with Palestinian militants. The Jerusalem Post reported that the juxtaposition of images sparked “outrage from Israeli and Jewish activists and officials around the world.”
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