‘The gesture speaks for itself’: Germans respond to Musk’s alleged Nazi salute
Some say it was an unambiguous Nazi salute, while others are uncertain and argue the focus should be on Musk’s stated support for the far-right.
There were angry reactions across Europe to Elon Musk’s apparent use of a salute banned for its Nazi links in Germany, where some condemned it as malicious provocation or an outreach of solidarity to far-right groups.
Michel Friedman, a prominent German-French publicist and former deputy chair of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, described Musk’s actions – at an event after Donald Trump’s swearing in as US president – as a disgrace and said Musk had shown that a “dangerous point for the entire free world” had been reached.
Friedman, who descends from a family of Polish Jews, hardly any of whom survived the Holocaust, told the daily Tagesspiegel he had been shocked when watching the inauguration live on television, adding that as far as he was concerned Musk had unambiguously performed the Nazi “Heil Hitler” salute, despite attempts to downplay it.
“I thought to myself, the breaking of taboos is reaching a point that is dangerous for the entire free world. The brutalisation, the dehumanisation, Auschwitz, all of that is Hitler. A mass murderer, a warmonger, a person for whom people were nothing more than numbers – fair game, not worth mentioning,” Friedman said.
Charlotte Knobloch, the president of the Jewish community in Munich and Upper Bavaria, described the gesture as “highly disconcerting”. But she said it was not as significant as Musk’s recent attempts to meddle in German politics, where he has endorsed the far-right Alternative für Deutschland ahead of next month’s federal election.
“Far more worrying are Elon Musk’s political positions, his offensive interference in the German parliamentary election campaign and his support for a party whose anti-democratic aims should be under no illusions,” she said in a statement.
Musk made the gesture as a speaker on stage before Trump’s arrival in Washington’s Capital One arena on Monday. He heartily thanked Trump supporters before holding his right hand on his heart and stretching it in a sharp and quick upwards movement. Then he turned around and repeated the gesture in the other direction, saying: “My heart goes out to you.”
The billionaire tech entrepreneur, who is leading Trump’s department of government efficiency, later responded to criticisms of his behaviour on X, tweeting: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is soo tired.”
Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, said he considered Musk’s support for the extreme right unacceptable as he was asked how he thought Europe should respond to the tech billionaire, particularly in the light of his AfD endorsement. The co-leader of the AfD, Tino Chrupalla, was among the members of Europe’s far-right political class to be in Washington for Trump’s inauguration.
“We have freedom of speech in Europe, and everyone can say what he wants, even if he is a billionaire,” Scholz said. “What we do not accept is if this is supporting extreme right positions and this is what I would like to repeat again.”
Scholz also called for “cool heads” in response to the Trump administration.
Musk responded on X, writing above a post about the chancellor’s remarks: “Shame on Oaf Schitz!”
A Berlin judge, Kai-Uwe Herbst, told the Berliner Zeitung that a deliberate diagonal right arm thrust in the air is sufficient evidence on which to bring a charge against someone under German law.
But he added it would also be necessary to prove malicious intent, and that the individual concerned knew that this was a Hitler salute.
Herbst, who has dealt with myriad cases of people using the Nazi salute, said: “Sometimes these are drunken football hooligans, sometimes pro-Palestinian demonstrators who wish to provoke.” Mostly, he said, the cases he saw were with the intention to provoke rather than to spread Nazi ideology.
Benedict Mick, an expert in criminal law, said to determine whether the salute was meant as a neo-Nazi gesture “would depend on the overall context”.
The US Anti-Defamation League said Musk’s gesture had not been a Nazi salute. Instead, it said Musk had “made an awkward gesture in a moment of enthusiasm”, in a post that added: “All sides should give one another a bit of grace.”
Others in Germany urged caution as commentators argued about whether the gesture and its similarity to a Nazi salute was deliberate or not.
Lenz Jacobsen, a journalist, wrote in Die Zeit in a piece headlined A Hitler salute is a Hitler salute is a Hitler salute: “Whoever on a political stage, making a political speech in front of a partly far-right audience, elongates his arm diagonally in the air both forcefully and repeatedly, is making a Hitler salute. There’s no such ‘probably’ or ‘similar to’ or ‘controversial’ about it. The gesture speaks for itself.”
Miriam Hollstein, the chief reporter for Stern magazine, wrote on X that the salute was a distraction from other controversial issues to do with Musk and had received unnecessary attention. “Sorry, no way was that a Hitler greeting and it was also never intended as one,” she wrote. “Stop the nonsense. There are enough real things about which one can criticise Musk.”
Friedman appealed to Musk to show political responsibility. “Was the hand movement an expression of his political identity?” he asked.
Almost all of Friedman’s family died in the Nazi Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, the 80th anniversary liberation of which is on Sunday. Only Friedman’s parents and his grandmother were saved, thanks to the Sudeten German entrepreneur Oskar Schindler.
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