Saturday, November 07, 2009
Behind the barrier at the U2 concert (AP Photo/Gero Breloer)
What do you get when you combine a lack of cultural sensitivity and political irony? The 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down, brought to you by MTV. The music television network organized a U2 rock concert on Thursday to mark the occasion when the divide between East and West Germany finally came crumbling down—but it did so by erecting another kind of wall.
This one, a a 2-meter high metal barrier covered in white plastic sheeting, was put up so people without tickets couldn’t watch the concert in front of Brandenberg Gate. Many who came to enjoy U2 were upset when they discovered access to Pariser Platz was forbidden unless they had tickets to get through security checkpoints.
Prior to the concert, the band’s lead singer, Bono, toured the area along the makeshift fence to greet fans, during which someone shouted, “Mr. Bono, tear down this wall,” in reference to President Ronald Reagan’s famous declaration to former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to remove the original barrier that separated Germans for decades.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Outcry as Barrier Replaces Berlin Wall at 20th Anniversary U2 Concert (by Damien McElroy, Telegraph)
Berlin Celebrates 20 Years Since Wall Fell by Erecting Another for U2 (by Roger Boyes, Times of London)
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