He was addressing tens of thousands of fans at a stadium built for the 1936 Olympic Games that still bears the scars of World War II and contains relics from the country’s dark Nazi past. In July 1988, he became one of the first Western musicians to perform in East Germany, performing to a ravenous crowd of 160,000 East Germans yearning for American rock ’n’ roll and the freedom it represented to the youth living under the crumbling communist regime. Almost four decades later, Springsteen issued a stark warning: “The America that I love, the America that I’ve sung to you about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous administration."
Published at: 2025-06-11 21:42:57
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