Across the wall: How Mark Reeder brought punk music to East Berlin in the 1980s

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Mark Reeder Saki Hinatsu/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Saki Hinatsu/Courtesy of the artist

Mark Reeder

Saki Hinatsu/Courtesy of the artist

In the 1980s, if you lived in East Berlin and you wanted to go see live music, the Berlin Wall meant your options were pretty limited. And then a young man from Manchester named Mark Reeder moved to West Berlin and it didn't take long for him to get curious about what was on the other side of that wall — so he started crossing the border. Mark explains it was like paying to get into a very exclusive club — one that had the hardest doormen on the planet. But once he got in, he started to get daring.

In this Sense of Place: Berlin session, Mark Reeder shares his incredible story of how he brought punk music to East Berlin — and how a secret concert helped change the course of history.