Bruce Springsteen concert in East Berlin in 1988

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Springsteen during his performance

The Bruce Springsteen concert on July 19, 1988 in East Berlin was the largest concert event in the history of the GDR and in the career of the American rock musician Bruce Springsteen . At least 160,000 spectators took part in the event on the Weißensee Velodrome. Occasionally the concert is attributed to having contributed to the fall of the wall .

prehistory

Springsteen's first stay in the GDR took place in 1981. During a European tour he took his guitarist at the time, Steven Van Zandt, from West Berlin to the east. In his autobiography, published in 2016, he describes the visit as depressing, the system there was "a slap in the face of humanity".

In 1987 he released the album Tunnel of Love and then went on the Tunnel of Love Express tour through the US and Western Europe. For the first time, a performance was also planned in the GDR, where cultural policy had loosened so much that concerts with western musicians were accepted. The fact that concerts by world-famous bands on the west side of the wall, such as Pink Floyd , had previously attracted numerous listeners from the GDR to the east side also played a role . In June 1988 the Central Council of the FDJ declared : "Rock concerts with tens of thousands of visitors have proven to be an effective form of mass political work by the FDJ among the youth of the GDR." The FDJ functionaries who organized the concert had received approval because they stated to want to take advantage of it politically. According to the ticket, it was supposed to be a “concert for Nicaragua ” without Springsteen knowing about it; the ninth anniversary of the Sandinista revolution was to be celebrated. Corresponding banners were attached to the stage before the start of the concert. According to cultural functionary Hartmut König , the US embassy tried to persuade Springsteen to cancel the concert on the day of the concert.

From June 16 to 19, 1988, a festival had already taken place on the velodrome, at which, among others, the British rock singer Joe Cocker performed in front of 85,000 spectators.

The pre-sale of a total of 100,000 or 160,000 tickets for the Springsteen concert took place exclusively in East Berlin; Cards were also distributed to companies in the GDR. Entry cost 20 marks , including a 5 pfennig culture tax. Many interested people from distant places went to the concert without a ticket. According to the specifications of the planners, 20,000 cards should go to the FDJ and security organs, and 1000 each to all FDJ district leaders . In addition, 1500 " agitators " should be used.

The band

Bruce Springsteen (vocals, guitar, harmonica) was accompanied by his E Street Band , which consisted of the following musicians:

as well as the Horns of Love :

  • Mario Cruz (saxophone)
  • Eddie Manion (saxophone)
  • Max Pender (trumpet)
  • Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg (trombone)
  • Mike Spengler (trumpet)

procedure

Since there were no more maps, numerous people streamed past FDJ files and fences onto the site. The total number of viewers is given as 160,000, 200,000, 300,000 or up to 500,000. Before the concert, Springsteen's manager Jon Landau ordered that the banners hung by the FDJ should be taken down. Video screens were used for the first time at concerts in the GDR .

The concert started at 7:07 pm with Badlands and lasted almost four hours. After a little over an hour, Springsteen took a piece of paper out of his pocket and read aloud in German: “It's good to be in East Berlin. I am not here for or against any government. I have come for you Rock'n'Roll to play for you East Berliners in the hope that one day be torn down all barriers. "Then he played Chimes of Freedom by Bob Dylan . Before the concert, Springsteen's management had defused the message after Springsteen originally wanted to talk about walls instead of barriers.

At the concert, self-made USA flags were waved. During the play Dancing in the Dark , a young woman from the audience came on stage, danced with Springsteen and fell into his arms.

The Deputy Chairman of the State Council of the GDR, Egon Krenz , was present from 8:10 p.m. to 8:33 p.m. , according to the minutes of the Ministry for State Security .

The concert was staggered on GDR radio on DT64 and on the second channel of GDR television . Springsteen's speech was cut out.

effect

The concert was said to have had an impact on the fall of the wall 16 months later. In 2013, the American Erik Kirschbaum published his work Rocking the wall: the Berlin concert that changed the world , in which he advocates this thesis. Also Gerd Dietrich , a former historian at Berlin's Humboldt University , said: "Springsteen's concert and speech contributed more broadly to the events that led to the fall of the wall. [The concert] excited people for more and more change. [...] It showed people how enclosed they really were. ”Thomas Wilke, expert on the influence of light music in the GDR, stated that the concert changed the feelings of GDR citizens.

Shortly after the concert, the GDR group Sandow wrote the song Born in the GDR , which alludes to Springsteen's Born in the USA and the audience singing along. The song says: "I have seen 160,000 people who sang so beautifully, they sang so beautifully: 'Born in the GDR'" The irony about the supposed national pride was often misunderstood.

Others

As early as 1986, the GDR record label Amiga had released a license album with songs by Springsteen, which corresponded to the 1984 album Born in the USA .

The concert was accompanied by the biggest traffic jam in GDR history. The FDJ functionary and later left-wing politician Roland Claus was responsible for the files .

The day after the concert, Springsteen signed autographs in East Berlin. According to his own statements, he was "surrounded" by people of all ages. On July 22nd, Springsteen continued the tour in the West Berlin Waldbühne with a similar setlist .

The starting point of the television film Polizeiruf 110 , published in 2018 : For Janina is a fictional murder that happened immediately after the return trip from the Springsteen concert.

Film documentaries

  • Cold War of Concerts - How Bruce Springsteen Rocked the East. Arte, 2013, 50 minutes.
  • My Summer '88 - How the Stars Rocked the GDR. MDR, 2013, 88 minutes.

literature

  • Erik Kirschbaum: Rocking the wall: the Berlin concert that changed the world. 2nd Edition. Berlinica Publishing Company, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-1935902829 .
    • German translation of the 1st edition as Rocking the wall - Bruce Springsteen in East Berlin 1988 - The legendary concert. Berlinica Publishing Company, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-1935902782 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Erik Kirschbaum: Memories of how Springsteen rocked Berlin. reuters.com from July 16, 2008, accessed December 10, 2017
  2. ↑ a b c d e Andreas Conrad: His biggest concert: Boss Ost. tagesspiegel.de from October 15, 2016, accessed on December 9, 2017
  3. ↑ Kate Connolly: The night Bruce Springsteen played East Berlin - and the wall cracked. The Guardian, July 5, 2013, accessed December 10, 2017
  4. ↑ a b c d e Did Bruce Springsteen kick a hole in the Berlin wall? ndtv.com, July 14, 2013, accessed December 9, 2017
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g h Steffen Gerth: Stars and Stripes over East Berlin. spiegel.de from July 19, 2008, accessed December 9, 2017
  6. ↑ Notification before the start of the concert ( Memento from December 10, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) at highbeam.com (English)
  7. ↑ Hartmut König : Let's wait for the future. Autobiography. New Life, Berlin 2017, ISBN 9783355500432 . Excerpts from books.google.de
  8. ↑ a b c Michael Pilz: How Springsteen made the wall shake. welt.de from July 19, 2013, accessed on December 10, 2017
  9. ↑ Illustration of an admission ticket at ddr-museum.de, accessed on December 10, 2017
  10. ↑ a b c Thomas Purschke: How the "Boss" rocked the GDR. svz.de from July 19, 2018, accessed on November 15, 2018
  11. ↑ Kate Connolly: The night Bruce Springsteen played East Berlin - and the wall cracked. The Guardian, July 5, 2013, accessed February 19, 2019
  12. ↑ Born in the GDR - Sandow go on tour and release best-of-album. mz-web.de from November 9, 2015, accessed on December 9, 2017
  13. ↑ Lyrics at songtexte.com, accessed December 10, 2017
  14. ↑ Catalog entry at liedderzeit.de, accessed on December 9, 2017
  15. ↑ Setlist of the concert on July 22, 1988 at setlist.fm (English), accessed on December 16, 2017
  16. ↑ Description at programm.ard.de, accessed on December 10, 2017
  17. ↑ Description ( Memento from December 12, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) at mdr.de