Bruce Springsteen lashes out at financiers and bankers at Berlin concert

A tour which will see him bring his anti-banker message to 15 countries, began on May 13 in Spain, which is struggling with its crushing debt load.

Even though Germany has managed to come through the crisis better than others, the largely working class city of Berlin is struggling with double-digit unemployment and low wages.

Springsteen has been a significant figure in the city since his 1988 concert in East Berlin, when he spoke out against the Berlin Wall in front of 160,000 people.

His new campaign against financial greed is resonating with European audiences as it already has done with American ones.

Matthias Beck, 46, a carpenter from Leipzig, who was at the Berlin show, said: “I think it’s great the way he’s taking on the banking industry, he’s got it dead right. There’s hardly anything good about banks. They take advantage of the little people, and it’s always hard to find someone who’ll take responsibility when it all goes wrong.”

Kathleen Wapp, 42, a doctor’s assistant from Wolfsburg, said: “The financial world has caused us all a lot of our problems and Springsteen has always been a critical spirit, that’s what I like about him. I like the way he’s not afraid to put a critical light on the key issues.”

One of Springsteen’s songs “We Take Care Of Our Own,” a recession-themed anthem released in January, has been picked up as a campaign song by President Barack Obama and will be played at rallies. Mr Obama reportedly secured permission to use the song after a 10-minute phone call with Springsteen.

In February Springsteen said he still supports Mr Obama, for whom he actively campaigned in 2008, but said the president had been “more friendly to corporations than I thought he would be,” and that there were not enough working class and middle class voices heard in the administration.

Springsteen said: “I would like to have seen more activism in job creation sooner than it came. I would like to have seen people helped out, seen some of these foreclosures stopped somehow.”

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