According to a first court decision, the singer Roger Waters is now allowed to perform in the Frankfurt Festhalle. The Pink Floyd co-founder’s concert on May 28 should be canceled due to allegations of anti-Semitism. Waters had sued against the decision – and was right today by the Frankfurt Administrative Court.
On the other hand, the city of Frankfurt and the state of Hesse want to prevent the performance on May 28th in the Festhalle. This also has something to do with the venue, because according to the court, more than 3,000 Jewish men were rounded up, held and mistreated there in the course of the Reichspogromnacht in 1938, only to be deported afterwards.
Tasteless, but allowed
In its decision, the administrative court also referred to artistic freedom. In addition, the concert does not violate the human dignity of the Jewish men who were abused in the Festhalle and it cannot be established without a doubt that the Jews living in Germany are seriously impaired in their claim to validity and respect, the chamber explained.
It is true that the applicant – Roger Waters – obviously uses symbols based on the National Socialist regime in his stage show. Against the historical background of the festival hall, the stage show may therefore be rated as particularly tasteless. “It is not up to the court to assess this,” said a spokeswoman.
The only decisive factor is that Waters’ appearance does not glorify or relativize the National Socialist atrocities or that he identifies with the National Socialist racial ideology. “In addition, we have no evidence that Rogers uses propaganda material on his show,” said the spokeswoman.
City and state can appeal
The city and state are joint shareholders of Messe Frankfurt, which rents out the hall. In this capacity, they instructed the fair to terminate the contract with the musician. Waters took legal action against it. He filed an urgent application to gain access to the hall. The 79-year-old has previously invoked freedom of expression, and he is not anti-Semitic.
The parties can still appeal against the decision of the Administrative Court at the Hessian Administrative Court in Kassel. There has been criticism of the planned performances in several German cities for months.
The city of Munich had already decided in March not to ban the Waters concert in the Olympia Hall there. For legal reasons, it was not possible to terminate the contract with the concert organizer extraordinarily, it said at the time.
