Burning Down the Haus

Punk Rock, Revolution, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall

By: Tim Mohr

Narrated by: Matthew Lloyd Davies

It began with a handful of East Berlin teens who heard the Sex Pistols on a British military radio broadcast to troops in West Berlin, and it ended with the collapse of the East German dictatorship.

Punk rock was a life-changing discovery. The buzz-saw guitars, the messed-up clothing and hair, the rejection of society and the DIY approach to building a new one: In their gray surroundings, where everyone's future was preordained by some communist apparatchik, punk represented a revolutionary philosophy - quite literally, as it turned out.

But as the East German punks became more numerous, more visible, and more rebellious, security forces - including the dreaded secret police, the Stasi - targeted them. They were spied on by friends and even members of their own families; they were expelled from schools and jobs; they were beaten by police and imprisoned. Instead of backing down, the punks fought back, playing an indispensable role in the underground movements that helped bring down the Berlin Wall.

The story of East German punk rock is about much more than music; it is a spellbinding cultural and political history that also serves as a rallying cry against authoritarianism everywhere.

©2018 Tim Mohr (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

We have no plan and we like it that way!

Loved this! Mohr’s writing is like PJ O’Rourke or Gonzo from 90s Rolling Stone.

Mohr is my contemporary as is the German punk scene. We Americans Boomers and Gen X forget a whole section of German society grew up on the other side of the wall.

We need to be scholars of events that happen in our own lifetimes in addition to the past.

My favorite mantra from the.book is “##€¥ the rules! ##€¥ the system! We will do what we like or nothing at all. We have No Plan and we like it that way!”

A transformational leadership credo!

East Berlin comes alive from the punk

This is a terrific view into the spirit of the East Berlin punk culture! Tim Mohr does a great job of telling the personal stories of those who helped free East Berlin from the fascist dictatorship. The reader really helped the words come alive. Well done. Don’t die in the waiting room of the future!

Punk rock and history

I loved this book!!!!!!!!!! Reader is great too. I recommend to fans of history and or punk rock

LOVED!

Great stories, extremely well-researched, very vivid. Recommend for music fans and anyone who hates fascism.