The Sunday Times December 19, 2021 7Hauptstrasse
155Paris BarBahnhof
Zoo
Hansa
Recording
StudiosReichstagGanymed
BrasseriePotsdamer
PlatzBERLIN1 mileprisoner to the West, and
where Bowie and Iggy Pop
chewed over Brecht’s “epic”
theatre style — later a
significant influence on the
staging of Bowie’s live shows.
These days you can still order
a fantastic cassoulet here,
and you probably won’t be
bugged (mains from £13;
ganymed-brasserie.de).Berlin, above and below leftA city highway and, bottom, the Brücke Museum in DahlemBAHNHOF ZOO TIERGARTEN
Ten years before U2 had a hit
with Zoo Station, Bowie
provided the soundtrack to
the film Wir Kinder vom
Bahnhof Zoo, mostly with
tracks from his Berlin trilogy.
The station and adjacent zoo
are just round the corner from
the high-end department store
KaDeWe and close to the site
of the Dschungel nightclub
(once Berlin’s equivalent of
New York’s Studio 54) — Where
Are We Now? namechecks
them both (£14; zoo-berlin.de).REICHSTAG TIERGARTEN
Now returned to its intended
use as the lower house of the
German parliament, the
Reichstag was left derelict
after a fire in 1933. In 1987
Bowie staged part of his Glass
Spider tour here. Many of the
sound-system speakers were
pointed towards East Berlin,
where a sizeable crowd was
gathering. Resplendent in a
bright-red jumpsuit Bowie
announced: “We send our
best wishes to all our friends
on the other side of the wall.”
From the other side of the
Death Strip a cheer went up
(bundestag.de).Matt Charlton was a guest of
25 Hours Bikini Berlin, with
views of the zoo (room-only
doubles from £136;
25hours-hotels.com), and
the music-themed nhow, which
has guitars that guests can
borrow (B&B doubles from
£94; nhow-hotels.com), as
well as Visit Berlin (visitberlin.
com) and easyJet (easyjet.com)A hologram of
him strikingposes can be seen
in the studio
windowthe graffiti-daubed punk
district of Kreuzberg, which
at the time rubbed up
dangerously close to the wall.
Look for the hologram of an
older Bowie striking various
poses in the window on the
right (hansastudios.de).
BERLIN MUSIC TOURS
A sign in the left window of
Hansa Studios implores
visitors not to request an ad
hoc look around, so instead
get in touch with Berlin Music
Tours — your first and last call
for all things music in Berlin
(and there is a lot of it). Thilo
Schmied arranges exclusive
visits inside the studios that
can be combined with a Bowie
bus tour or walk. If you’re
bitten by the music bug there
are also tours of Berlin’s rock
and punk music sites from
the Seventies and Eighties or
its legendary techno scene.
Schmied’s tours have been
paused while Germany’s
Covid restrictions are in place
(from £16; facebook.com/
BerlinMusicTours).
GANYMED BRASSERIE
FRIEDRICHSHAIN
Bowie often crossed the
border at Checkpoint Charlie
to eat at the sophisticated
French restaurant and Berlin
institution Ganymed — he
might also take in a play at
Brecht’s Berliner Ensemble
next door. In the now-
trendy neighbourhood of
Friedrichshain, Ganymed was
a meeting place where the
high-ups of the ruling socialist
party might discuss selling a