The Boss, the Wall and the power of rock 'n' roll

An idea that emerged in a taxi on the way home from a Bruce Springsteen concert in Berlin in 2002 has just come to full fruition - Reuters correspondent Erik Kirschbaum’s book on a little-known episode in the story of how the Wall came down in 1989.

“I had just filed a story on Springsteen criticizing George W. Bush for ostracizing Germany over its refusal to invade Iraq with the US,” Kirschbaum, pictured, said. “So I’ve been thinking about writing this book for over 10 years (it took eight of them to find a publisher) and then the last year or so writing it - after or before work and during a two-month (unpaid) leave of absence in Q2 of 2012.”

Rocking the Wall. Bruce Springsteen: The Berlin Concert That Changed the World reveals how a four-hour, open-air Springsteen concert on a warm summer evening in Weissensee, East Berlin in 1988 may have helped bring down the Berlin Wall 16 months later. Springsteen - The Boss - delivered a speech against the Wall to a record-breaking crowd of more than 300,000 delirious young East Germans full of joy and hope.

The book was published on 19 June, exactly one month before the 25th anniversary on 19 July of the wall coming down. It explores how the power of Springsteen’s music helped unleash a revolutionary spirit in Communist East Germany that contributed to the collapse of the Wall in 1989.

Kirschbaum dug deep into the files of the East German secret police, the Stasi, to unearth material about the concert. He also talked to many of those in East Germany and the United States, including Springsteen’s manager and close friend Jon Landau who organised, planned and produced the biggest Springsteen concert ever anywhere, as well as scores of people who witnessed the concert.

“Whether you believe that Springsteen’s epic concert contributed to the movement that brought down the Berlin Wall depends to a certain degree on whether you believe in the power of rock ’n’ roll,” Kirschbaum says.

“What is beyond doubt is that Springsteen’s 1988 concert in East Berlin is a glorious example of the influence that rock ’n’ roll can have on people who are hungry and ready for change. This is the untold story about that once-in-a-lifetime concert in East Berlin and the role Springsteen may have unwittingly played in helping fuel a rebellion that would bring down the Berlin Wall.”

Kirschbaum, 52, has worked for Reuters in Frankfurt, Vienna, Bonn and Berlin since joining from rival AP-Dow Jones in 1990, where he worked in New York and Frankfurt from 1988. A native New Yorker, he has been listening to Springsteen since the mid-70s. At Reuters in Berlin since 1999, he has been writing about German politics, entertainment, economics, sport and climate change. A father of four children and enthusiastic cyclist, Kirschbaum is also an advocate of renewable energy and a partner in 20 solar power plants across eastern Germany. Rocking the Wall is his third book. ■