In the 1982 musical film dramatisation of Pink Floyd’s iconic album The Wall, an authoritarian character addresses a rapturous crowd, dressed in a Nazi-style uniform bearing a red armband emblazoned with crossed hammers.
“We’re going to find out where you fans really stand / Are there any queers in the theatre tonight / Get them up against the wall … That one looks Jewish / And that one’s a c–n / Who let all of this riff-raff into the room,” the man sing-shouts to the unruly crowd.
This is Pink Floyd’s In The Flesh, a track written by the band’s co-founder Roger Waters in 1979, and iterations of this provocative performance have been displayed around the world since. But on Saturday, police in Germany – where it’s illegal to display Nazi symbols in most contexts – launched an investigation into the Nazi-style uniform Waters wore for the song at a Berlin concert held last month.
The former Pink Floyd member appeared on stage during his This is Not a Drill tour sporting a black leather trench coat bearing the same crossed hammer insignia from the rock opera – insignia that evokes the swastika. This kind of totalitarian imagery has been a trademark of The Wall for over four decades. But amid a global rise of both far-right groups and antisemitism, it is attracting increasing controversy.
Read the article by Nell Geraets in The Sydney Morning Herald.