Tag: Gordon Welters

Gordon Welters for The New York Times BERLIN — A criminal investigation into an artist who built a partial replica of Germany’s national Holocaust memorial next to the home of a far-right politician has been formally closed, more than 16 months after it began but less than a week after its existence became public. On Thursday, a letter was released from more than 100 prominent German cultural figures, academics and politicians expressing “disbelief” at the investigation, which employed a legal provision more often used to monitor gangs, extremist groups and terrorist cells. The letter demands an apology and an explanation from those who undertook the investigation, and calls on them to disclose any political links: Martin Zschächner, an attorney for the state of Thuringia who was in charge of the case, has been accused by the left-wing politician who uncovered the inquiry of being soft on far-right offenders. The outcry has come after a public discussion about right-wing activists in positions of public authority, and after several publicized cases of extremists among police and army officers. The weekly newspaper Die Zeit has reported that during the course of the investigation, Mr. Zschächner donated 30 euros, about $34, to Alternative for Germany, the far-right party represented in Thuringia’s State Assembly by Björn Höcke, the target of Mr. Ruch’s artwork. In a phone interview with The New York Times last week, he said the investigation was not political, but had been prompted by the collective’s own statements about another part of the work: a fake spy room, open to the public, in which Mr. Ruch and his colleagues pretended to monitor Mr. Höcke’s home with old electronic equipment. “On their internet page they said they wanted to spy on him, so the question is whether that happened or was planned,” Mr. Zschächner said. But the party is poised to make significant advances in the state election this coming October. While he was firm that the investigators were just following normal procedure in opening the case, he did say the length of time it had remained open was problematic, especially because other judicial investigations over the artwork were soon dropped. “This is something we otherwise only see in countries like Turkey or Russia — autocratic countries where art is criminalized, where artists, journalists and scientists who do not conform to the government are branded as terrorists and traitors,” said Shermin Langhoff, the artistic director of the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin and one of the authors of the letter.