How Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Toppled the Berlin Wall
One concert ended communism in Eastern Europe
Ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, historians have debated who deserves the most credit for the event that sparked the end of communism in Eastern Europe and the ultimate demise of the USSR. Many point to U.S. President Ronald Reagan and his “tear down this wall” speech (as well as the arms race he triggered that bankrupted the Soviet Union). Some argue that it was the policies of Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Still others insist that it was Pope John Paul II, the pope from then-communist Poland, who brought down communism (I wrote about that theory here). And surely the half million people who gathered at the wall that November played a key role.
For the past 34 years, I have believed it was the combination of the three men mentioned above (Reagan, Gorbachev, and John Paul II) who were the key figures in the fall of the Berlin Wall, but recent research proves that I was wrong. The truth has been right in front of my eyes (or more accurately, ears) all along, every single day, in fact. Like so much else in life, the answer to the question is Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.
