Roger Waters Investigated For 'Suspected Incitement' After Wearing 'The Wall' Costume In Berlin

Roger Waters is being investigated for “suspected incitement” by German authorities after donning a costume resembling a Nazi uniform on stage in Berlin.

Last Wednesday (17 May), Waters’ This Is Not A Drill tour hit Berlin and he wore the outfit that Bob Geldof was wearing in the 1982 Pink Floyd-related movie, The Wall. That outfit has landed Waters in a criminal investigation. You can view footage of Waters performing in the costume below.

“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 4 of the German Criminal Code),” Berlin police Chief Inspector Martin Halweg said, per The Jewish News.

The statement continued, “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.”

With a criminal investigation ongoing, Waters’ next scheduled show in Frankfurt slated for tomorrow (28 May) is uncertain. Members of the Jewish community are planning a protest outside the venue he’s due to perform in, Frankfurt’s Festhalle.

Waters has been accused of being an antisemite for his long-held, widely publicised views on the Israel/Palestine conflict. He explained in a statement on his website before the Berlin incident:

“Roger Waters stands United with the Frankfurt Jewish community, in that he too abhors anti-semitism along with all other forms of racism and discrimination.”

He added, “I am not anti-semitic. Never have been, never will be. I speak the truth about Israel/Palestine. The Israel/Palestine issue is NOT complicated. In contravention of all international law, the apartheid state of Israel engages in building settlements in territory occupied by military force, territory designated by the U.N. for a Palestinian state, and is committed to the ethnic cleansing of the non-Jewish indigenous population.”

In March, Waters teased a look at his reworked Dark Side Of The Moon release. Waters also shared a statement about his intentions behind the project, where he wrote:

“When we recorded the stripped-down songs for the Lockdown Sessions, the 50th anniversary of the release of Dark Side Of The Moon was looming on the horizon. It occurred to me that Dark Side Of The Moon could well be a suitable candidate for a similar reworking, partly as a tribute to the original work, but also to re-address the political and emotional message of the whole album.”

Roger Waters revealed he was re-recording The Dark Side Of The Moon in February.

In an interview with The Telegraph (transcribed by Brooklyn Vegan), he said, "I wrote The Dark Side Of The Moon. Let’s get rid of all this 'we' crap."

Waters added, "Of course, we were a band, there were four of us, we all contributed – but it’s my project, and I wrote it. So… blah!" As Brooklyn Vegan reports and Pink Floyd fans know, Waters is credited as the sole songwriter on three of the album's ten tracks - Money, Brain Damage and Eclipse - and credited as a co-writer on Time and On The Run.