Berlin Wall "Our lives have lost their spirit...we can do nothing to stop them." On 6 June 1987, David Bowie, who earlier for several years lived and recorded in West Berlin, played a concert close to the Wall. This was attended by thousands of Eastern concertgoers across the Wall, followed by violent rioting in East Berlin. According to Tobias Ruther, these protests in East Berlin were the first in the sequence of riots that led to those of November 1989. Although other factors were probably more influential in the fall of the Wall, on his death, the German Foreign Office tweeted "Good-bye,
Berlin Customs Wall Berlin Customs Wall The Berlin Customs Wall (German: "Berliner Zoll- und Akzisemauer" literally "Berlin customs and excise wall" ) was a ring wall around the historic city of Berlin, between 1737 and 1860; the wall itself had no defence function but was used to facilitate the levying of taxes on the import and export of goods (tariffs) which was the primary income of many cities at the time. The wall was erected after the old Berlin Fortress was demolished in 1734; the walls of the latter had already started to crumble and its military function was questionable. Frederick William I