The Sunday Times - UK (2021-12-19)

6 December 19, 2021The Sunday Times

Travel Europe

The Thin White Duke would

have turned 75 next month.

Matt Charlton explores the

haunts and hangouts that

shaped his time in the city

Bowie’s favourite place for

steak frites in Berlin, below

B

erlin was David

Bowie’s home

for three years

after he arrived

in 1976 from Los

Angeles, emaciated and spent.

Pre-Omicron there were big

plans to mark what would

have been his 75th birthday

on January 8: parties, street

art and celebratory music,

even an official stamp.

There’s no doubting the

city’s influence on Bowie

(his “Berlin trilogy” of albums

— Low, Heroes and Lodger —

were mostly made here) and

no question that his influence

continues to reverberate

through every shady, brutal

corner of the metropolis that

attracted U2, Depeche Mode,

the Pet Shop Boys and

Nick Cave in his wake.

Bowie’s contribution to

the city’s history was no

small matter — “Thank you

for helping to bring down the

wall,” the German foreign

office tweeted when he died

in January 2016. For now,

putting on our red shoes

and dancing the blues is

prohibited, but Berlin will

boogie again — it always

does. Meanwhile, here is

how you can follow in the

path of the Starman.

PARIS BAR

CHARLOTTENBURG

“A city made up of bars for

sad disillusioned people to get

drunk in,” Bowie once said,

and there is a ring of truth to

it — Berlin is a gritty, dark

place where you can be

whoever you want to be

in the shadows.

And he certainly

enjoyed time at

the edgier

haunts,

including SO36 in Kreuzberg

and the long-closed Dschungel

on Nürnberger Strasse. His

main hangout, though, was

Paris Bar, which he claimed

served the best steak frites in

Berlin. It may have been an

oversight, but he could have

mentioned its crème brûlée

too (parisbar.net).

HAUPTSTRASSE 155

SCHÖNBURG

A plaque and stencilled

graffiti dedicated to Bowie’s

memory stand outside an

unremarkable door in an

unassuming district of central

Berlin. A place of pilgrimage

since his death, this was

Bowie’s apartment, and fresh

flowers and heartfelt messages

are still placed there today.

When he lived here the

district was the centre of

Berlin’s LGBTQ community.

Iggy Pop was his flatmate for

a few months, before moving

into his own place across the

hall. Neues Ufer, a gay club

a few doors down, was a

regular hangout for the pair

(neuesufer.de).

BRÜCKE MUSEUM DAHLEM

At the edge of the city, where

trees start to outnumber

buildings, this museum

commemorates the Brücke

expressionist collective, a

huge influence on the artwork

for the Heroes album, and its

title track. “Inspired by its

alienation of form, it was for

[Bowie] at the same time

a highly sensitive depiction

of what it means to be a

modern artist,” the curator

Lisa Marei Schmidt says.

The Brücke painting Lovers

Between Garden Walls by Otto

Müller is thought to have

been the inspiration for the

Heroes lyric “I can remember

standing by the wall... ”, and

not — as had been supposed —

Bowie witnessing a romantic

clinch at the Berlin Wall

from a studio window

(£5; bruecke-museum.de).

HANSA RECORDING

STUDIOS KREUZBERG

A working studio, this is where

Bowie recorded most of his

Berlin trilogy. A short walk

from Potsdamer Platz — which

Bowie namechecked in Where

Are We Now?, one of his final

releases — the studios are in

Fresh flowers and

heartfelt messages

are still placed

outside Bowie’s

apartment

ULLSTEIN BILD, SPREEPHOTO.DE, GIE KNAEPS/GETTY IMAGES; SCOTT WILSON, IAIN MASTERTON/ALAMY

BOWIE

BERLIN

IN