A country divided for over 28 years, the Berlin wall was a symbol of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain between Soviet-led Communism and the democracies of the West. Then came Rock music. During this time in East Germany, Rock n Roll was labeled as counter-propaganda and a weapon of NATO policy used as psychological warfare to distract the young from political issues. It worked.
The official view of the East German officials was that popular music was nothing more than a dangerous American cultural weapon designed to corrupt its young people, turning them away from socialist ideas. The cultural, economic, and political freedoms expressed through Western popular music were of great concern, so as the Cold War developed, the state officials took a hard line towards popular music. But the youth could only be held down for so long.
All over the Eastern Bloc, resistance to rock was being worn down. In 1987, David Bowie, Genesis, and the Eurythmics were performing on the same lineup in West Berlin. Radio in the American Sector announced the time of the concert well before the event, with the concert planners pointing the speakers over the wall so the citizens of East Berlin would be ready and could enjoy the concert. When East German security forces tried to disband the crowd of fans assembled by the wall, the fans responded with riot, chanting “tear…
