Waters Hopes His Berlin ‘Wall’ Will Bind, Not Divide, Nations

Roger Waters says the upcoming performance of Pink Floyd’s rock opera “The Wall” in Berlin “will be the rock music theater event of not just the year or the decade but perhaps of the millennium.”

Waters, a founding member of the ground-breaking rock group Pink Floyd, believes that the $8-million mega-concert could serve as a milestone in international relations.

The performance, set for July 21 at Patzdamer Platz near the site of the Brandenburg Gate, features the construction and demolition of an 80-foot-tall, 600-foot-long wall. The benefit will launch a five-year campaign to raise $800 million for the Memorial Fund for Disaster Relief.

“I want Russians, Germans, Americans building the wall and tearing it down, as a symbolic act of collaboration and the aims of the Memorial Fund, which is to get the armed forces freed to do disaster relief work when they have time off from training or polishing their boots,” Waters said in a telephone interview from London.

“The Wall,” which hasn’t been staged in nine years, sold 19 million albums worldwide and features an elaborate parade of giant puppets, inflatable characters and, in this performance, military planes and helicopters. About 150,000 are expected to attend, Waters said.

Due to join Waters on stage in Berlin are Sinead O’Connor, Van Morrison, Thomas Dolby, The Band, Bryan Adams, The Scorpions, the East Berlin Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra, the East Berlin Radio Choir with James Galway and the Marching Band of the Combined Soviet Forces of Germany.

Waters said the choice of the site--he also considered Red Square and Wall Street--is as important as the music of “The Wall” itself, which chronicles alienation and rebellion.