Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters investigated by German police after dressing as Nazi during Berlin concert

Pink Floyd bassist Roger Waters is being investigated by German police for hate speech after dressing as a Nazi during a performance in Berlin.

Waters, 79, wore a long, black trench coat adorned with red bangles and metal badges on his collar reminiscent of an SS officer while taking the stage at the Mercedes-Benz arena last week.

Third Reich-style banners also hung from the stage during the performance, while an inflatable pig decorated with the Star of David floated above the audience.

And now Berlin police have said they are investigating Waters for his choice of clothing, which “could be used to glorify the Nazi regime.”

“We are investigating on suspicion of inciting public hatred because the clothing on stage could be used to glorify or justify the Nazi regime and thus disrupt public order,” said police spokesman Martin Halweg.

“The clothing resembles the clothing of an SS man,” Halweg added.

Waters is a well-known pro-Palestinian activist who has been accused of holding anti-Jewish views. As part of his ‘This is Not a Drill’ tour, he has floated an inflatable pig depicting the Star of David during his concerts in recent weeks.

At last week’s concert, a screen behind Waters displayed the names of Anne Frank and Abu Akleh, an Al Jazeera journalist who was fatally shot last year while covering an Israeli army raid on a Palestinian refugee camp.

Germany’s Orthodox Jewish Rabbinical Association has called for a ban on Waters’ performances in Germany, but the rocker continues to deny being anti-Semitic and only speaks out against Israeli politics.

And some city officials have unsuccessfully tried to ban Waters from performing in Germany because of his controversial views.

During his appearance last week, Waters attempted to draw comparisons between Nazi Germany and modern-day Israel while doubling down on his criticism of the country’s treatment of Palestinians.

Throughout the show, humanoid pigs and shady businessmen were “pulled the strings.”

At one point, he even pretended to fire a machine gun at the crowd in his Nazi-inspired uniform – which was worn by the members of a fascist organization in the 1982 Pink Floyd film The Wall, which tells the story of a rocker.

A crucifix-shaped screen also showed the names of Anne Frank, who was reportedly killed in Germany because she was Jewish, and Abu Akleh, the Al Jazeera journalist who was reportedly murdered because she was Palestinian.

The Israeli Defense Forces have denied any involvement in her assassination.

Waters also sang “Lay Down Jerusalem (If I Had Been God)” as the screen behind him flashed “F$%& the occupation,” according to Bell Tower News reporter Nicholas Potter, who witnessed the spectacle last week.

He would later transform into a kutiya, a symbol of Palestinian resistance to Israel as the words “Palestinian rights” appear on screen.

And after a short pause, an inflatable pig flew through the concert hall with demonically lit eyes and adorned with the logo of an Israeli arms company and Jewish stars.

The appearance came after Waters won a legal battle to perform in Frankfurt, Germany, where magistrates had labeled him “one of the most widespread anti-Semites in the world.”

In Germany, there are laws prohibiting the display of Nazi memorabilia and symbols such as the swastika.

Waters will play his last German concert in the western city of Frankfurt on Sunday evening, and protesters plan to demonstrate outside the venue.

The Frankfurt city council tried to stop the concert, but a court ruled against them, citing artistic freedom, though a judge noted that aspects of his show were “tasteless” and clearly based on images of the Nazi regime.

Waters then began the performance in Berlin with an on-screen statement: “On a matter of public interest: A court in Frankfurt has ruled that I am not an anti-Semite.

“To be clear, I unreservedly condemn anti-Semitism.”

But his actions were condemned by Jewish leaders and even by several world governments.

Uwe Becker, the anti-Semitism commissioner for the regional state of Hesse, told the daily Frankfurter Rundschau that Waters promoted “hate and incitement against Israel” with his shows.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which aims to educate the public about the Holocaust, tweeted: “Shame on the authorities of Frankfurt and the Mercedes Benz arena in Berlin – a place from which Jews were deported by the Nazis – because they the anti-Semite #RogerWaters have given this venue for his concert with no care/concern for the Jewish community.”

And the Israeli government tweeted: “Good morning to everyone except Roger Waters who spent the evening in Berlin (Yes Berlin) desecrating the memory of Anne Frank and the 6 million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.”

Meanwhile in the UK MP Christian Wakeford spoke out against Waters’ forthcoming appearance in Manchester.

He filed a motion to ban the concert, citing emerging “anti-Jewish sentiment” in the country.

Waters has repeatedly denied allegations of anti-Semitism, saying his contempt is with Israel and not the Jewish people.

In a recent interview with the German magazine Berliner Zeitung, he claimed that Israel was involved in “genocide” and compared the events to Britain’s behavior “during our colonial period.”

He said: “We thought we were inherently superior to the indigenous people, just like the Israelis in Palestine. Well, we weren’t and neither were the Israeli Jews.’

Waters then defended Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine.

“The main reason for supplying arms to Ukraine is surely profit for the arms industry,” he said in the February interview.

And I wonder, is Putin a bigger mobster than Joe Biden and all those who have presided over American politics since World War II? I’m not so sure. Didn’t Putin invade Vietnam or Iraq? Did he?’

Those comments were criticized online by Polly Samson, the wife of Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour, who accused Waters of being “anti-Semitic” to his “rotten core” and labeled him a “Putin apologist and a lying, thieving, hypocritical taxpayer. -avoidant, lip-synching, misogynistic, jealous-megalomaniac.’

Her husband, Gilmour, 77, liked and retweeted her comments, saying that “every word” is “arguably true.”

In the aftermath, Waters’ team released a response from his own Twitter account, stating: ‘Roger Waters is aware of the inflammatory and wildly inaccurate comments Polly Samson has made about him on Twitter, which he fully refutes.

‘He is currently being advised about his position.’