After the news we had to wake up to today, I’ve decided to write this article. I’ll be presenting you David Bowie’s Berlin. His house, his studio, his favourite bars and some super useful information you’ll find in this guide. All with addresses, maps and photos.
Browse through what David Bowie used to do in Berlin.
In the three years David Bowie lived in Berlin in the 70s recording the “Berlin Trilogy”, he left his mark on the city. When I say “Berlin Trilogy” I’m referring to Low (1977), Heroes (1977), and Lodger (1979).
Read more: Did David Bowie’s song “Heroes” help with the fall of the Berlin Wall?
Lots of cities are famous for their art and culture, but just a few special ones come with their soundtrack, right? From Lou Reed to Iggy Pop, Atari Teenage Riot to Depeche Mode, Nick Cave to all the minimal techno DJs… Berlin’s image is shaped by the creative and unique music created in the city. And this is not new to me or for you.
But for a lucky generation who lived in here in the late 70s, the spirit of David Bowie dominates the air of Berlin more than any other artist. At the very peak of his career in the late 70s, Bowie moved to Berlin mainly to get away from drugs and crazy fame. Bowie played, lived and loved in this city while he worked on three albums.
David Bowie’s years in Berlin were together with Iggy Pop in an apartment in Schöneberg. Next to it is Bowie’s favourite gay-friendly bar that exists until today. But let’s start this guide correctly.
What to see, where to go at David Bowie’s Berlin
A Visit to Hansa Studios
David Bowie recorded at the famous Hansa Studios. The studio is not far from the reconstructed Potsdamer Platz, but for the story, I’m about to tell you, please imagine the wall instead of the giant skyscrapers made of glass.
Heroes are one of Bowie’s most famous songs. It tells the story of a young couple who are so driven to be together that they would meet every day under a gun turret on The Berlin Wall.
Bowie found the inspiration for the lyrics on the affair between his Tony Visconti, his producer at the time, and backup singer Antonia Maass, who would kiss “by the wall” in front of Bowie as he looked out of the Hansa Studio window during a smoke break.
Bowie didn’t say anything about Visconti’s role in inspiring Heroes until 2003 when he confessed to Performing Songwriter magazine:
“I’m allowed to talk about it now. I wasn’t at the time. I always said it was a couple of lovers by the Berlin Wall that prompted the idea. Actually, it was Tony Visconti and his girlfriend. Tony was married at the time. And I could never say who it was (laughs). But I can now say that the lovers were Tony and a German girl that he’d met whilst we were in Berlin. I did ask his permission if I could say that. I think possibly the marriage was in the last few months, and it was very touching because I could see that Tony was very much in love with this girl, and it was that relationship which sort of motivated the song.”
At Hansa Studios Bowie recorded only 2 of his world-famous Berlin Trilogy, the last album as just composed in the city but was produced with Brian Eno in Switzerland and New York City. So from Heroes, Low and Lodge, only the first two are part of this historical place.
Another cool story about the albums Bowie did here in Berlin is the story about the song Warszawa that we tell you all about it here at “David Bowie’s Warsaw: How Warszawa Came to Be”. A super exciting story that later changed the perception of how people saw Poland’s Capital Warsaw.
Hansa Studios – which used to overlook the Wall – remains operational and it is exceptionally relaxed about letting people visit. Who would have thought, huh?
I never manage to get inside, but I know people who did. Some tours can take you into the oak-panelled Tonstudio 2, the studio where Bowie recorded Low and Heroes and produced The Idiot for Iggy Pop.
David Bowie’s flat and his favourite bar
David Bowie used to live on Hauptstraße 155 in Schöneberg. He shared his flat with Iggy Pop, and both of them spent a load of time in a beautiful gay-friendly café next door. We even wrote an article just about where he used to live in Berlin. Anderes Ufer back in the day and Neues Ufer now.
This place is still open, and you can sit down, drink something and admire the permanent exhibition of Bowie’s photos on the wall. I have to add that Neues Ufer holds the title of the worst coffee I had in a long time, so make sure you skip the espresso. If you would like to see the building where he lived and maybe get a very vague vibe of what it was David Bowie’s Berlin, we recommend a Berlin tattoo artist whose tattoo studio is on Hauptstraße 155!
Read More: Unknown things about David Bowie in Berlin
Bonus Video: Below you can see a short video from my visit to the small memorial people did in front of his house on Hauptstraße 155 in Berlin. It is not much but if you subscribe to our channel, you’ll have loads of content about Berlin from now and before. This can be really helpful if you decide to do this David Bowie’s Berlin tour.
Where David Bowie used to hang out
Not a lot changed since the days of Bowie and Iggy in S036, the mythical venue in the heart of Kreuzberg; the pair were regulars. David Bowie’s Berlin seems far in the past, but the reality is that, even though Berlin is changing, some things take longer to adjust.
SO36 was Berlin’s version of New York’s CBGBs. Today the area around Oranienstrasse, between Görli and Mortizplatz, reminds a lot of those hectic days when Kreuzberg was a Turkish enclave behind the Wall.
SO36 during Berlin’s biggest street fest: May Fest
Amazing street-art share space with designer shops as surviving examples of the district’s working-class roots. Put also a pinch of punk rock into this pot. You can almost touch the thick atmosphere and the lack of anything too corporate over the area—an admirable collection of an old family business, button stores, record shops and flower shops. To understand more of the regions and neighbourhoods in Berlin, check our post explaining a bit of them.
We’ll always have Paris
For such famous fellows, David Bowie and Iggy Pop lived relatively modestly in Berlin. But when they wanted to splurge, they often went to Paris Bar, a very expensive French cafe in Charlottenburg.
Spent some time in Paris last night, surrounded by different languages and amazing food 👌🏾
This restaurant is where the notorious Rolling Stone interview happened. The interview where the journalist described the cafe as a scene from Degas’ The Absinthe Drinkers and Iggy Pop got so wasted that he ended up rolling around in the ice outside.
The classy Paris Bar continues to serve * the best steak frites in town.
*according to Bowie
First as Dschungel, now as Ellington Hotel
One particular factor about why Bowie loved Berlin so much is that nobody cared about him here. He dressed in baggy trousers and dowdy shirts and enjoyed the Berliners’ lack of interest in him. David Bowie’s Berlin was all about the freedom that was denied to him in LA. No one bothered him on the street.
There was one night, on an impulse, he crawled onto a cabaret stage to sing a few Sinatra songs. The audience, with their bad reputation for being tolerant, shrugged and demanded him to step down.
Well, what do you want? They had come to see a different act, right? Berlin was for Bowie “a city that’s so easy to ‘get lost in – and to ‘find’ oneself too.”
Where are we now?
And speaking of where are we now, a fresh tip for people interested in Bowie and the history of Berlin is to take a moment to visit places like Platz des 9. November 1989 – the place where the wall fell back in 1989 and part of the lyrics of this new David Bowie’s song called “Where are we now?”. The Bösebrücke in Bornholmerstr is mentioned by Bowie when he sings:
“Twenty thousand people
Cross Bösebrücke
Fingers are crossed
Just in case
Walking the dead”
And if you’re going all the way up north, please mind the area around with loads of cherry trees at Bornholmerstrasse. Besides being one of the most excellent places in Berlin during spring, with pink and white cherry flowers all over you, it is very curious the reason why the cherry trees are there.
Years ago, in the 90s, a Japanese TV show asked for donations to plant cherry trees where the wall used to be. The Japanese people were dazzled by the unification of both sides of this fantastic city called Berlin. And who can blame them? Those people contributed over a million dollars to plant almost 10.000 trees into different areas of the city.
The picture above is from Bornholmerstrasse during the celebration of the 25th years of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, back in 2014. We even wrote an article about Lichtgrenze as it was called.
David Bowie’s house gets a memorial plaque.
A memorial plaque in front of the house where David Bowie lived with his friend Iggy Pop. It was there that Bowie wrote his Berlin Trilogy, the way that critics and fans called the albums Low, Heroes and Lodger.
The white porcelain panel stands in front of Hauptstraße 155, and it was unveiled by Michael Muller, the mayor of Berlin. He even mentioned how Heroes was the unofficial anthem to Berlin. We were there during the week it was unveiled, and you can see how it looks here.
Also, we are looking forward to seeing how, by 2021, the street where his old apartment stands could be renamed David Bowie Strasse. Let’s hope this really happens! By law, the streets in Schöneberg can only be named after a person five years after the person’s death.
Neukölln and Neuköln
Neukölln is now one of the trendiest areas in Berlin, but back in the 70s, not a lot was going on there. Bowie, for some unknown reason – at least to me – liked this side of town a lot. I heard that he used to want to take the bus and explore what was then West Berlin. He used to take the train to the U-Bahn station Neukölln and walk without direction from there.
He liked the area so much that he even has an instrumental song called Neuköln, with just one L. This instrumental piece was written by David Bowie and Brian Eno for the album Heroes and can be described as an ambient mood piece.
I believe that Neuköln is his way to interpret the nostalgia and loneliness of the Turkish immigrants who made up a large proportion of the area’s population – and still do. Some people describe it as the Cold War being viewed through a bubble of blood. Guess you will have to listen to it and see which one makes more sense.
We wrote an entire article talking about Neuköln and, if you like the song, you should take a look here.
This is our last stop on this tour of David Bowie’s Berlin. If you’re ever in town, reach me on Discord or talk to me on our Facebook group, and maybe we can do some of these places together. Also, I hereby invite you to give us a like on our Facebook and follow us on Instagram. Each and every help counts to keep me doing those articles and videos you all like so much.
David Bowie is such an inspiration to me and today, 11th of January 2016, is the day when his death was announced to the world. Whatever I can do to keep him alive, I’ll do!
Cover photo "David Bowie Live" is a photo by Roger Woolman. "Thin White Duke" photo is a photo by Jean-Luc Ourlin. We explicitly say that the photos are not for any commercial purposes. And they are not from us or to sell. The only reason are mainly to inspire people about David Bowie's life and art. Any copyright complaints please contact us by email on the contact page. Thanks.
Ps: None of the images above are ours. We found it on the web and gave the proper credits. If we’re breaking any copyright laws by doing this, please let us know, and we will take the images down. All the best.
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