Posted July 21, 2013

Posted July 21, 2013

Suddeutsche Zeitung reports that Jonathan Meese, artist, sculptor, performance artist and theatre director, is in court to defend his artistic applications of the Hitlergruß or “Hitler Salute”. German Law 86a forbids the use of Nazi symbols and gestures except when used in an historic context, educational applications or in an artistic context.

Attorneys for Meese offered to bring into the court many experts to testify on the laws regarding what constitutes art and artistic expression. The Judge who is hearing the case declared that such expert testimony is unnecessary.

Meese must subscribe to the assertion that there is no such thing as bad publicity. Jonathan Meese has been engaged to create the production of Parsifal for the 2016 Bayreuth Parsifal which replaces the highly controversial production of the late Christoph Schlingensief. You can view Mr. Meese’s art on his website www.jonathanmeese.com  or view a YouTube video of Meese explaining what constitutes art www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2YLZc_gDMM

http://www.sueddeutsche.de/panorama/anklage-wegen-kunstaktion-meese-gib…

Cut and paste to translate.google.com for a very rough English translation.