/biz/ - Business & Finance

A Michael Jackson concert in the middle of the Berlin Wall

On June 19, 1988, Michael Jackson brought the disruptive force of his Bad World Tour to the city that in Europe still had the deepest and most obvious wound left by World War II: Berlin, divided in two by a wall, which became the quintessential symbol of the denial of freedom and democracy.


But that show was more than just a live pop music event.


The show took place next to the west side of the Wall, on the grounds of the Platz der Republik,in front of the Reichstag building, in front of an audience of 57,000 spectators.

On the other hand, however, the East Berlin authorities tried to obscure it by organizing a counter-concert with popular artists, conducted by ice skating champion Katarina Witt and with the participation of Bryan Adams and the Big Country: it was necessary to prevent at all costs that that music "forbidden" by an American artist and therefore ideologically associated with capitalism, could reach the ears of the population who lived on the side of the Wall.


And here the incredible happened: Jackson's team purposely turned the speakers to the east, the voice of the King of Pop reached the eastern part of the city.


So gradually, more and more young people began to gather to hear the King of Pop on the east side of that day-to-day Wall, in front of the Brandenburg Gate.


The police tried in vain to disperse them, violently attacking journalists and cameramen who were trying to record this historic event.

Those Germans resisted with great courage, claiming their right to listen to the music of their generation.


In the early hours of the next morning, about thirty people were arrested by East German security forces.


"We provided additional lighting and audio equipment so something could be seen and heard from the other side,"said Jim Waits, one of the Bad World Tour's lighting technicians.
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