Red triangle symbol: Germany debating a ban

A target, a sign of resistance, a badge of honor, a Nazi-era symbol — the inverted red triangle means many things to many people.

The upside-down triangle appeared in videos released by the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, to mark potential Israeli military targets, such as tanks, shortly after the Israeli invasion of Gaza.

The European Union as well as the United States, Germany and several other countries have classified Hamas as a terrorist organization. Following the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023, the German interior minister outlawed all activities of the group in Germany.

In Berlin, the triangle has been sprayed on several venues, including a techno club and a bar at which events had been held opposing antisemitism or expressing solidarity with Israel after the October 7 attacks. City police are unable to put any number on how often the symbol has been used like this.

A red triangle — though not inverted — also appears, however, in the Palestinian flag, which derives from a 1916 pan-nationalist design. When demonstrators drape the flag around their shoulders or if it is hung vertically from windows, it appears facing downward.

The triangle has been seen in various contexts at pro-Palestinian campus protests across the globe, including in the German capital. In addition, the symbol has appeared in social media posts and in anti-war demonstrations.

Call for a ban in Germany

In early July, Berlin's state assembly passed an emergency motion that sought to extend the German government's Hamas ban to explicitly include the red triangle. Using the symbols of anti-constitutional or terrorist organizations comes with a jail sentence of up to three years.

The motion put forward by Berlin's ruling parties, the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) and center-left Social Democrats (SPD), stated that "sympathizers of Palestinian terror organizations" were using it to "mark possible sites for attack, to threaten opponents and claim public space as their own."

The sign was, the motion added, a threat to public safety and order and was stirring fear, especially in the Jewish community: "The aim is to prevent the public visibility of the sign and to ensure that the use of the inverted red triangle in the context of the Middle East conflict and Hamas is punishable under law."

Germany's Interior Ministry is now considering the issue for the national level.

Red triangle: Historical symbol of persecution and pride

In Germany, the red triangle is, however, best known as a Nazi-era symbol that was later reclaimed by its victims. Although it has repeatedly been referred to as the "Hamas symbol" in recent months, it long predates the organization.

The National Federation of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime, Resistance Fighters and Antifascists, the VVN-BDA, has accused politicians of "historical amnesia." The body has also attacked Berlin's city representatives for engaging in knee-jerk politics in the fight against antisemitism and enmity toward Israel. At the same time, the VVN-BDA expressed horror at the symbol's "misuse."

From the mid-1930s, political prisoners were forced to wear cloth badges with the triangle in Nazi concentration camps. It was part of an extensive dehumanizing classification system.

"At first, the majority of political inmates were German Social Democrats or Communists and the red of the triangle referred to their party colors," Jens-Christian Wagner, the director of the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation, told DW.

Later, he explained, most were non-Germans from across the political spectrum who had opposed National Socialism or Nazi Germany's occupation of their countries.

After the end of World War II in 1945, the persecuted survivors, their relatives and supporters embraced the symbol as a badge of honor for the fight against fascism — primarily in Germany, but also right across Europe. Likewise, the gay rights movement subsequently reclaimed the Nazi pink triangle.

Wagner condemned the recent use of the triangle as "historically revisionist."

"It discredits the red triangle as a symbol for the resistance against National Socialism. If its meaning is changed and it is used to mark enemies from an antisemitic perspective, then that has to be stopped," he said.

'Symbols are inherently ambivalent'

But what do pro-Palestinian demonstrators mean when they hold up red triangles in protests against the war against Gaza, or add them to anti-war social media posts?

"Symbols are inherently ambivalent, so they are difficult to regulate," said Ralf Michaels, the director of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg. "You cannot simply assume that they mean support of terror when Palestinians use them and something else when others do."

Late last year, Germany's Interior Ministry listed the slogan "From the River to the Sea" as a Hamas symbol and banned its use in this context. Some maintain the slogan, which long predates Hamas, can only be interpreted as antisemitic and as calling for mass killing of Jews; others have described it as a call for freedom and equal rights for all people between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Pro-Palestinian protesters have since been taken to court for using the slogan online or at protests, but the legitimacy of the ban has been called into question by some courts in recent rulings. A regional court decision in June 2024 stated that "the utterance of this slogan is by no means generally punishable."

"The possible criminal nature of declarations and symbols always has to be checked individually, paying careful heed to the freedom of expression," Paula Zimmermann of Amnesty International Germany told DW.

Since the October 7 attacks and Israel's subsequent invasion of Gaza, there have been other controversial rulings in Berlin in response to events across the Middle East. These included the ban on the wearing of the kaffiyeh, the black-and-white checkered Palestinian scarf, in Berlin schools and the shutdown of the three-day "Palestine Congress" in the capital and entry bans on two of its speakers, one of which has since been overturned in court.

"There has been a conflation of being pro-Palestinian and against the war in Gaza with being antisemitic or pro-Hamas," said legal expert Michaels, pointing out that this had applied also to Jews who had expressed solidarity with Palestinians.

At Berlin's Humboldt University, the triangle was used in conjunction with the names of the city's mayor and the university president and blatant threats. Michaels called into question whether a prohibition was necessary for prosecution in such circumstances.

"If you mark civilians or people in Germany with a red triangle, the association with aggression is very strong. In that context, I would find such uses of the symbol highly problematic," he said. "I'm not sure, however, if it would be necessary to ban them specifically because even without the ban, they can be viewed as incitement to commit a serious criminal offense."

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg and Kyra Levine