Revealed: how Stasi tackled Jackson 'threat'

(AFP/Getty Images)

Germany's Bild newspaper is reporting that a 1988 Michael Jackson concert in West Berlin prompted security concerns for East Germany's secret police.

The top-selling newspaper today published a message from the files of the former Stasi. It said East German officials thought the Jackson concert in front of the Reichstag could be used to test the authorities east of the Berlin Wall.

The Stasi wanted to keep people away from East Berlin areas where they could hear Jackson's West Berlin concert. To do that, the Stasi proposed broadcasting the show in a stadium with a two-minute time delay so any "political provocation" could be censored.

The plan never took place. Instead, East German authorities staged a crackdown on Jackson fans in their territory during the concert.