After Frankfurt cancelled Roger Waters' scheduled show, with the city council calling him "one of the world's most well-known antisemites," an administrative court has ruled that he'll be allowed to perform after all, The Guardian and Deutsche Welle report. In its ruling, the court says that despite his show being "tasteless" and making use of "symbolism manifestly based on that of the National Socialist regime," it should be "viewed as a work of art."
The ruling emphasized that the performance "did not glorify or relativise the crimes of the Nazis or identify with Nazi racist ideology," and there was no evidence that Waters used any propoganda in it. "It is not for the court to pass judgment on this," a spokesperson said.
Waters has been insistent that he would play the show regardless of the ruling, writing on Facebook:
My lawyers are taking steps to ensure that my concerts in Munich and Frankfurt in May 2023 take place as contracted. Human rights and freedom of speech for all peoples under German law must prevail, which is why I’m taking this stance to ensure the will of the few will not prevent me from performing in Frankfurt and Munich.
I am taking the unprecedented step of appealing to the law to protect me from the unconstitutional actions of two authorities which seem to rely upon the fundamentally false accusation that has been made against me; namely that I am antisemitic.
I want to state for the record and once and for all that I am not and never have been antisemitic and nothing that anyone can say or publish will alter that. My well publicised views relate entirely to the policies and actions of the Israeli government and not with the peoples of Israel. Antisemitism is odious and racist and I condemn it, along with all forms of racism unreservedly.
I am not going to and do not need to keep making my position clear on this issue. I am confident that truth and the law will prevail and that these authorities will not succeed in denying any of my basic human rights.
The show in question happens on May 28 at Festhalle.