The Daily Swarm

Reuters:

John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan made powerful speeches directed against the Berlin Wall from inside the capitalist enclave of West Berlin during the Cold War and the two American presidents have been given their due credit by historians for the roles the two famous speeches in 1963 and 1987 might have played in the events leading up to the collapse of the Cold War barrier on Nov. 9, 1989.

But it’s quite possible that another American may have actually had a more direct influence on the Berlin Wall’s demise — Bruce Springsteen . He may well have played a more important role in galvanising a generation of East Germans fed up with living behind a Wall, a contribution that I would argue has been largely overlooked by historians.

The American rock icon put on a stirring concert in front of a record-breaking crowd of 160,000 in East Berlin 20 years ago — on July 19, 1988. That was 16 months before the Wall collapsed and at a moment when Communist East Germany was in the throes of change — Mikhail Gorbachev’s “perestroika” reforms had been let out of the bottle in the Soviet Union but hardline East German Communist leaders wanted little to do with those reforms.

The East German Communists had nevertheless let Springsteen in for his concert in 1988 after his earlier attempts to perform had been thwarted. But they angered the American by putting the label “concert for Nicaragua” on tickets and posters. So half-way through his three-hour concert, which was broadcast on tape delay by East German TV, Springsteen stopped for a short speech:

“It’s great to be in East Berlin,” Springsteen said in German as he introduced “Chimes of Freedom”. “I want to tell you, I’m not here for or against any government. I came here to play rock ‘n’ roll for you East Berliners in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down.”

American Conservative:

In one of the most ridiculous examples of unbridled hyperbole, Reuters has decided that singer Bruce Springsteen is the one responsible for bringing down the Berlin Wall and ending the Cold War. Yes, that’s Bruce “Scorn in the USA” Springsteen, one of the most anti-American rockers on the scene. I know what you’re thinking, “But what about Ronald Reagan?” Forget it, man, it’s Bruce all the way as far as Reuters is concerned. Maybe it was his gravely warbling that Joshua-like brought those walls tumblin’ down, maybe his caterwauling is what turned the trick, but, quite despite any common sense and in a childishly, foolish and overly simplistic review of history, Reuters is sure that Bruce is the hero of Berlin. It is a great example of reductio ad absurdo if there ever was one, not that Reuters is aware of it.

This Reuters piece is so filled with nonsense, so blind to all the complicated political and social influences that really ended the Cold War, that it is hard to know where to start reviewing it. I can but shake my head at its simple minded analysis.

Seriously. Reuters really means it. Oh, don’t confuse them with all that economic and political history gobbledegook. It was one concert that ended a generation of communist oppression not the might of the US and its president determined to destroy the “evil empire.” It was “Thunder Road” and “Born to Run” sung in that less then melodic Springsteen style that brought the end to the Cold War.