German theater's swastika stunt cleared as free speech

Organizers say satirical play ‘Mein Kampf,’ a caricature of Hitler’s youth, aims to show how easily people can be corrupted

BERLIN, Germay — German prosecutors on Wednesday cleared a performance of a satirical play named after Adolf Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” that promises free entry to spectators who wear a swastika.

The theater in the Bavarian lakeside town of Constance says it aims to show how easily people can be corrupted but the approach sparked numerous legal complaints.

Local prosecutors however on Wednesday said the premiere could go ahead on Friday, which marks Hitler’s birthday in 1889, as well as the controversial swastika campaign.

The theater says on its website that those who pay for a ticket will be asked to wear a Star of David “as a sign of solidarity with the victims of Nazi barbarism.”

Picture taken on April 17, 2018 at the theatre in Constance, southern Germany, shows a poster advertising a theater play named after Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf, written by George Tabori and staged by Serdar Somuncu. (AFP PHOTO / dpa / Felix Kästle)

Under German law, publicly displaying swastikas and other Nazi symbols is illegal, unless it is done as part of an artistic performance covered by constitutional guarantees of free speech.

Berlin Jewish teen Adam Armush, right, interviewed by Kan’s European correspondent Antonia Yamin, in Berlin, April 18, 2018. (Twitter screen capture)

The region’s German-Israeli Society has called for a boycott of the play named after the book which Hitler wrote in prison years before taking power.

The play by Hungarian George Tabori, who died in 2007, is a caricature of Hitler’s youth, according to the theater.

German political and religious leaders have raised fears about a resurgence of anti-Semitism by far-right groups and some immigrants hostile to Israel.

Antisemitischer Angriff in #Berlin – ein Mann schlägt mit einem Gürtel auf einen Mann ein und bezeichnet ihn wiederholt als "Yahudi" (arabisch für "Jude"). #Antisemitismus pic.twitter.com/YCHVgCF1ox

— Jüdisches Forum (JFDA e.V.) (@JFDA_eV) April 17, 2018

In the latest case, a viral online video showed a Berlin attack on two young men wearing kippas, traditional Jewish skullcaps, who were assaulted by three young men, at least one of whom spoke Arabic.

Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Germany “bears a responsibility to protect Jewish life” more than 70 years after the end of the Holocaust in which the Nazis murdered six million European Jews.