Roger Waters Wore A Nazi-Like Outfit On Stage, And While Pink Floyd Fans See The Meaning Of It, Others Are Outraged

A video of Roger Waters is really turning heads on Twitter.

The video — filmed at one of the Pink Floyd artist’s recent performances in Berlin, Germany — shows the musician in an all-black outfit that features a red, Nazi-like armband. He was then handed a fake gun, which he fired towards the audience. The International Legal Forum CEO Arsen Ostrovsky shared the video on Twitter and wrote, “Wow, this is @rogerwaters imitating a Nazi, while at a concert in … Berlin. This is just unhinged Jew hatred and Holocaust distortion. The man is vile beyond words.”

As The Independent notes, Waters is now under investigation by Berlin police for the incident. Police chief inspector Martin Halweg said, “The State Security Department at the Berlin State Criminal Police Office has initiated a criminal investigation procedure regarding the suspicion of incitement of the people (140 Paragraph four of the German criminal Code). The context of the clothing worn is deemed capable of approving, glorifying or justifying the violent and arbitrary rule of the Nazi regime in a manner that violates the dignity of the victims and thereby disrupts public peace. After the conclusion of the investigation, the case will be forwarded to the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office for legal assessment.”

The situation has made Waters a trending topic on Twitter today (May 26). However, there’s some additional information worth noting here.

A contextual note added to Ostrovsky’s tweet explains the meaning behind the moment, saying, “The clip shows part of Waters’ performance of The Wall, in which he portrays an authoritarian fascist. It is a critique of fascism and to present it as ‘Jew hatred and Holocaust distortion’ is a mischaracterisation of the performance and its message.”

Others have spoken out in support of Waters as well. One Twitter user wrote, “Nobody actually believes Roger Waters dressed as a Nazi at a concert. Everyone knows it’s from The Wall. Anyone who didn’t know this was corrected immediately and knows it now. They’re just pretending they don’t know this to advance a political agenda.” Another tweeted, “This is literally a reenactment from Pink Floyd’s album & film The Wall. Can’t believe people don’t understand that. Maybe research your sh*t before you spread disgusting out of context things like this.”

In its aforementioned report, The Independent also noted, “After opening the show with a statement saying he ‘condemns antisemitism unreservedly’, Waters performed while wearing a long black jacket, gloves, and a red armband adorned with hammers, rather than the Nazi swastika. He also projected the name of Holocaust teen diarist Anne Frank on a giant screen during the shows, along with several other names of contemporary figures including George Floyd, a Black man killed by Minnesota police in 2020, and Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot and killed last year while covering a raid by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on a Palestinian refugee camp.”

This all comes after a Waters concert in the German city of Frankfurt was canceled earlier this year. A statement from city officials read, “The background to the cancellation is the persistent anti-Israel behavior of the former Pink Floyd frontman, who is considered one of the most widely spread antisemites in the world. He repeatedly called for a cultural boycott of Israel and drew comparisons to the apartheid regime in South Africa and put pressure on artists to cancel events in Israel.”