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Rocking The Wall: Bruce Springsteen: The Untold Story of a Concert in East Berlin That Changed the World Paperback – June 1, 2013

by
Erik Kirschbaum (Author)
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Erik Kirschbaum (Author), Herbert Schulze (Photographer)
4.5 out of 5 stars 43 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 144 pages
  • Publisher: Berlinica Publishing LLC (June 1, 2013)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1935902741
  • ISBN-13: 978-1935902744
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.3 x 8.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,212,181 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFrom One Who Was There...
By Mike Spengler on August 6, 2013
Format: Hardcover
This review is in part a response to Edward Ruppenthal's "most helpful critical review". I was in the horn section for the 1988 "Tunnel Of Love" tour, and so was part of the East Berlin concert. I've been in touch with author Erik Kirshbaum and have sent him my recollections from before, during, and after the concert. It's possible he might include my memories in a future updated version- either e-book or print.

Having said that, I found Erik's book to be well-written and detailed as befitting a fine journalist working with sources at hand. Quite a bit of what he's written dovetails with my recollections, and there is quite a bit that is new information to me. His interview-based thesis that the concert inspired a lot of younger East Germans to become more actively hopeful about change is well-argued, although I find myself more in agreement with Jon Landau's thoughts about it (pg.126-paperback edition). It was fun reading the updated memories of the young woman who was brought onstage for "Dancing In The Dark" (pg. 103). I'm sure all 200,000-plus people who were there remember her... I do...:-)

My only (very) minor quibble with it is the lack of an index- which just reflects my being the son of writers. For not just Bruce fans, but for historians recalling the changes of the last half of the 20th Century, it is a valuable work...
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5.0 out of 5 starsInteresting interplay between art and people
By bill gonch on June 8, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
The fall of the Berlin wall is one of those events that is frustratingly under analyzed and misunderstood. The real question is: how did a people who were formed by the defeat of Naziism and subject all of their lives to what was most likely the most organized and repressive regimes ever seen, quickly rise up, free themselves from oppression and tear down that damn wall? There is an entirely fictional history that tries to connect the event with a speech by Ronald Regan on June 12th 1987. I say false, because the speech was almost unnoticed at the time, and was given to a small audience while over 500,000 Germans were protesting against Reagan. Kirschbaum draws out a another interesting connection backed up by interviews with many people who were there at the time. On July 19, 1989 Springsteen gave a concert in East Berlin. Springsteen was one of the first rock stars to give a concert in East Berlin. So many people wanted to go, that eventually the organizers just opened the gates. Likely, about 300.000 attended the live concert. For many of the people this was a transformational event.

Springsteen, avoided becoming entangled in the pro and anti politics. Between two songs he gave a very brief speech explaining why he was there. He connected with with people and a year later the wall was down. Kirschbaum does not overplay his cards, but the interviews with people who lived through these times are touching and telling.

This is a concise and well written book and most people who are fans fo the boss or interested in contemporary history will find it interesting. Recommended.
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5.0 out of 5 starsSpringsteen -- the background music for discontented East Germans
By Tom Heneghan on August 13, 2013
Format: Paperback
The history of great events in written in several phases. First come the journalists, who knit together as many facts and as much analysis as they can on the fly to answer the burning question "what's happening?" When the dust settles, some journalists and historians with quick reflexes produce books that stand back and put the event into greater perspective, usually with new details and insight the frontline reporters could not have had. After that come further waves of history writing, some taking an ever wider perspective and some drilling down into details of the event. The best of the latter reflect some of the former.

When Erik Kirschbaum, one of my Reuters colleagues from the 1990s, told me about his idea for "Rocking The Wall: Bruce Springsteen: The Untold Story of a Concert in East Berlin That Changed the World," I was intrigued. As the Reuters chief correspondent for Germany in 1989, I wrote one of those first drafts of history, pumping out the news hour after hour after the Berlin Wall opened. My colleagues and I followed the story for several more years, learning more and more about the once opaque communist system and how it fell apart. The first wave of books came out in the early 1990s, giving far more details and insight into the politics that led to the peaceful revolution of 1989 and the way the two halves of Germany organized and carried out their reunification. My book "Unchained Eagle: Germany after the Wall," published in 2000, retold the story from the top-down political perspective.Read more ›
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4.0 out of 5 starsWell Researched
By Man of La Book on August 30, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition
Rock­ing the Wall: Bruce Spring­steen: The Berlin Con­cert that Changed the World by Eric Kirschbaum is a non-fiction book about a 1988 Spring­steen con­cert in East Berlin, Ger­many. Mr. Kirschbaum got the idea for the book in a taxi com­ing back from a 2002 Spring­steen con­cert in Berlin, when the cab dri­ver told him about the incred­i­ble night which changed the country.

This is a short book and a fast read. It is espe­cially poignant for those of us who actu­ally remem­ber a place called East Berlin.

I call New Jer­sey my home state, it's under­stand­able that Bruce Spring­steen is a mega star there, heck, I knew peo­ple who went to school with him. What's amaz­ing is that this local boy became a huge mega star not only in the coun­try, but for a while was the biggest rock star on the planet.

The first few chap­ters give an over­all, and quick, his­tory of East Berlin and the oppres­sion the peo­ple felt. The chap­ters set up the sig­nif­i­cance of Spring­steen being allowed to play behind the Iron Cur­tain. While sev­eral peo­ple seem to take credit for this spec­tac­u­lar event, it seemed that they were all work­ing par­al­lel and the stars of soci­ety and his­tory were sim­ply aligned for this to take place.

At the same time that Springsteen's pro­mot­ers requested per­mis­sion to play in East Berlin, the Free Ger­man Youth group came up with the same idea. Spring­steen, a lib­eral singer who did not sup­port the cur­rent Amer­i­can Pres­i­dent (Rea­gan), was seen as a way to appease Ger­man youths into believ­ing that change is around the cor­ner (in a social­ist, com­mu­nist, repres­sive way). The con­cert was sold to the com­mu­nist author­i­ties as a fund raiser to Nicaragua.Read more ›
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Great book, very interesting, tells a fascinating story.

Published 1 month ago by Linda Brix
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Great product, great service.

Published 11 months ago by Mary Westbrook-Geha
2.0 out of 5 starseasy reading with little new information

Kirschbaum tells a nice story but at the end of the day its a journalist writing a story. It is not a book written by a researcher or even trying to use an historian point of view. Read more

Published 14 months ago by David lifschitz
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

This is I believe my favorite book about Bruce so far and I have many of them!!!!!!!!!

Published 20 months ago by DERBS
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Wonderful untold history about faith,fate and ideology -- a tribute to the power of rock 'n roll...loved it!

Published 21 months ago by Ellie Deegan
3.0 out of 5 starsNever Knew

I am a big Springsteen fan but never knew about this particular concert so I bought the book to read the story. While interesting, it became somewhat repetitive. Read more

Published 22 months ago by Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 starsAmazing story

An story no told, even in Dave Marshall On Tour, with solid documents and a credible and lovable conclusion. Crear.

Published 23 months ago by Amaranto
5.0 out of 5 starsGreat book about a great moment in Bruce's career

The fans deserved a book like this; the concert was great; the reason was noble; the book was missing! (And the pictures are very nice too.)

Published on February 26, 2014 by Vitor França Galvão
3.0 out of 5 starsThe Concert that did not Change the World but

Live Aid 1985, Woodstock 1969, the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show 1964 – more than just musical performances. Read more

Published on February 21, 2014 by gerardpeter
5.0 out of 5 starsBruce Rocks

I have been following Bruce Springsteen's music and life since 1978. Somehow this phase of his concert tours escaped me and having this gem of a book by Erich Kirschbaum has been... Read more

Published on February 19, 2014 by Gypsy yogini

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