Berlin: David Bowie in 1970s West-Berlin

About this tour

Having just completed Nicolas Roeg’s The Man who Fell to Earth, David Bowie chose to leave his previous life behind and settled in West-Berlin. The reasons for that move are manifold, and you’ll hear all about them during the introduction to our tour. One of them, however, was his fascination with the emerging electronic sound, where not just Düsseldorf, but also West-Berlin, was instrumental. So, until he found his own flat, Bowie was offered a place to hang his hat on in Tangerine Dream’s founder Edgar Froese’s apartment. Forever on the search of new inspirations, Bowie found them in abundance in the city he called home between 1976 and 1978. How Berlin influenced and left its mark on this great artist, is not just evident in his legendary “Heroes”, but also when listening to songs like “Boys Keep Swinging”, “Yassassin” or “Neuköln”, which he deliberately misspelt. How these songs are related to his life in West-Berlin will be discussed during our tour.

The tour starts at the Martin Gropius Bau, where in 2014, the legendary David Bowie exhibition was shown. From there, it continues to Potsdamer Platz, eternalized in Bowie’s 2012 “Where are We Now”, and will take you past the Hansa Studios deep into the City West, past the KaDeWe, the former locations of the Dschungel as well as Chez Romy Haag. All places where David Bowie used to hang out a lot. Next, we will board a bus to get to David Bowie’s Berlin home, where the tour ends.