Iggy Pop and David Bowie, 1977. Image from The Sun
In late August the city of Berlin unveiled a plaque commemorating David Bowie’s life and career. Fixed to the wall of his former home in Hauptstraße 155, where the artist lived with Iggy Pop, the porcelain marker paid tribute to some of Bowie’s most creative years. That is until it was stolen last night, in a random act of selfishness, proving why we can’t have nice things.
Originally, thousands of David Bowie fans had requested via an online petition through change.org that his previous Berlin locale change its name to “David-Bowie-straße”. However, the petition was disregarded because of a local law stating someone must be dead for at least five years before they can have a street named after them. In an effort to appease fans, the city decided to do this little gesture until further notice.
In the late 1970s, David Bowie moved into the flat located in the district of Schöneberg, which was then part of West Germany. “Life in LA had left me with an overwhelming sense of foreboding,” said Bowie in an interview with Uncut about the reasons behind his move to the German capital. “I had approached the brink of drug induced calamity one too many times and it was essential to take some kind of positive action,” he said. “For many years Berlin appealed to me as a sort of sanctuary like situation. It was one of the few cities where I could move around in virtual anonymity.” Later Iggy Pop joined him in an attempt to escape – like him – some serious drug addiction. In a recent interview about their relationship Iggy said: “A lot of people were curious about me, but only he was the one who had enough truly in common with me […] and who also had decent enough intentions to help me out.”
“Berlin was one of the few cities where I could move around in virtual anonymity.” – David Bowie
While in Berlin, the two musicians managed to take the reigns of their lives once again, and they demonstrated it through new music productions and collaborations. Bowie’s Berlin period presented the world with the albums “Low”, “Heroes” and “Lodger”, which are known collectively as the Berlin Trilogy. The albums are inspired by the experimental and minimalist scenes in Berlin at the time. With Brian Eno and Tony Visconti lending their production values, Bowie transitioned into an experimental avant-garde musical style that is now known as one of the artist’s most iconic evolutions. As a result, the plaque, features a line from the song “Heroes” that reads: “We can be heroes, just for one day.”
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