Rocking the Wall. Bruce Springsteen: The Berlin Concert That Changed the World

Rocking the Wall explores the epic Bruce Springsteen concert in East Berlin on July 19, 1988, and how it changed the world. Erik Kirschbaum spoke to scores of fans and concert organizers on both sides of the Berlin Wall, including Jon Landau, Springsteen's long-time friend and manager, to unearth this fascinating story. With lively behind-the-scenes details from eyewitness accounts, magazine and newspaper clippings, TV recordings, and even Stasi files, as well as photos and memorabilia, this gripping book transports you back in the middle of those heady times shortly before the Berlin Wall fell and gives you a front-row spot at one of the biggest and most exciting rock concerts ever, anywhere. It takes you to an unforgettable journey with Springsteen through the divided city, to his hotel, and his dressing room at the open air concert grounds in Weissensee, where The Boss, live on stage, delivered a courageous speech against the Wall to a record-breaking crowd of more than 300,000 delirious young East Germans full of joy and hope. Their thunderous reaction to his speech was so intense that it even briefly brought tears to Springsteen's eyes. And their tremendous, powerful cry for freedom became the final nail in the coffin of the Communist regime and subsequently helped fuel the uprising that brought down the Wall. Inside this book is as clear a statement of the power of this music as anyone, ever, has come up with. - Dave Marsh An illuminating and impressively detailed examination of a frequently overlooked moment in the nexus of rock music and political liberation. I learned a great deal and enjoyed doing so. -Eric Alterman Erik Kirschbaum, a native of New York City and long-time Springsteen fan, has lived in Germany for more than twenty-five years and in Berlin since 1993. He is a correspondent for the Reuters international news agency and has written about entertainment, politics, sports, economics, as well as disasters and climate change in nearly thirty countries. He is a devoted father of four, an enthusiastic cyclist, a solar power entrepreneur and an unabashed crusader for renewable energy. Rocking the Wall is his third book. Berlinica offers English-language books from Berlin, German; fiction, non-fiction, travel guides, history, Jewish life, art and photography, as well as books about nightlife, cookbooks, and maps. It also offers documentaries and feature films on DVD, as well as music CDs. Berlinica caters to history buffs, Americans of German heritage, travelers, and artists and young people who love the cutting-edge city in the heart of Europe. Berlinica's current titles are A Tramp in Berlin. New Mark Twain Stories, by Mark Twain and Andreas Austilat, Berlin Berlin Dispatches From the Weimar Republic, by Kurt Tucholsky, Jews in Berlin, by Andreas Nachama, Julius H. Schoeps, and Hermann Simon, Wings of Desire-Angels of Berlin, by Lothar Heinke, The Berlin Wall Today, by Michael Cramer, Wallflower, a Novel, by Holly-Jane Rahlens, Berlin For Free, by Monica Maertens; Berlin in the Cold War, by Thomas Flemming, The Berlin Cookbook, by Rose Marie Donhauser, the music CD Berlin-mon amour, by chanteuse Adrienne Haan, and two documentaries, The Red Orchestra, by Stefan Roloff and The Path to Nuclear Fission, by New York filmmaker Rosemarie Reed.…