David Bowie in Berlin during the filming of 'Just a Gigolo'
The single and presentation video of this album, 'Where are we now' , ends with u n Bowie almost hermit in recent times . He goes back in time to reminisce about his Berlin years, with references to the central Potsdammerplatz and "a man lost in time" near the emblematic KaDeWe department store, the largest in Europe with 60,000 square meters of surface area. The former occupied Tacheles house (Oranienburger Strasse 54) and the Siegessäule angel presiding over the gigantic tiergarten They also appear in the image.
In 1977 the British decided to leave Los Angeles and move to Berlin to get rid of cocaine. Drawn by the innovative sounds of kraftwerk , the historical relevance of the Weimar Republic, the spirit of the decadent cabaret of the 30s and the fictionalized chronicles of Christopher Issherwood , he settled in Schöneberg together with Iggy-Pop . They lived in the Hauptstrasse 155 , now a wide untouristy avenue if it weren't for the hipsters and "white duke" fans who routinely hang around the area.
A few meters away, in the Neues Ufer coffee (Haupstrasse 157), they still celebrate Bowie's birthday every January. In a past life it was a lively gay bar where the two musicians were often seen. Although it retains a similar clientele, today it is a quiet neighborhood cafe, one for spending a Sunday afternoon in the company of good coffee and an extensive selection of magazines - from the German edition of GQ to the most recent issues of Wallpaper-.
Bowie's Berlin goes through the nostalgia of Tacheles
Bowie at Hansa Studios
Bowie enjoyed relative anonymity in the city . In her he found liberation, purity and entertainment, according to his own words. It was the perfect place to build his ambitious Berlin trilogy with which he at times reached a musical paroxysm. With a team made up of Brian Eno, Tony Visconti and Carlos Alomar, he recorded part of this triple work in the Hansa Studios (Köthener Strasse 38) . His great milestone was born in this room in Kreuzberg 'Heroes' . U2 , Nick Cave , Nina Hagen and many others also recorded there: it offered the highest quality sound at ten times the cost of Abbey Road. All the tours dedicated to the British stop at the studios.
Without leaving the neighborhood you will find one of the usual clubs on the Bowie and Iggy night route. The SO36 (Oranienstrasse 190) was once the German answer to the CBGB . The space is constantly reinventing itself and continues to be one of the hot spots in the lively area of bars, clubs and cocktail bars that surrounds the Kottbusser Tor metro stop. Not far away was another of his favorite places, the Coffee Exile of which nothing remains, since it has become Horváth (Paul-Lincke-Ufer 44a), one of the most popular restaurants in the city.
To end the night in the disappeared Dschungel on Nürnberger Strasse , it was necessary to move to the distant and well-to-do neighborhood of Charlottenburg. On one of those trips inside an S-Bahn (German public transport) car **Iggy Pop wrote 'The Passenger' **. Now Bowie sings on his new single to Dschungel , the nocturnal jungle in the form of a discotheque where they alternated with the painter Martin Kippenberger. His fascination with the place is perhaps explained by knowing that it was previously the Ellington Hotel , the favorite of the illustrious during his beloved Weimar Republic. Not far away is another of his landmark venues, between the posh and the bohemian, the paris-bar (Kantstrasse 152), which is still open.
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