The House of David Bowie in Berlin, Germany

On a Berlin street, an ordinary apartment building at Hauptstraße 155—sandwiched between a tattoo parlor and a physiotherapy clinic—holds outsized cultural significance. From nineteen seventy-six to nineteen seventy-eight, it was home to David Bowie during a transformative period: he'd fled Los Angeles to escape drugs and depression, drawn by Berlin's avant-garde music scene and Weimar cultural history. In the seven-room apartment on the building's first floor, Bowie created the Berlin Trilogy—Low, Heroes, and Lodger—albums that remain iconic decades later. Iggy Pop lived with him for a time; Bowie composed and produced what many consider Iggy's finest work, The Idiot and Lust for Life. The song Heroes, per Atlas Obscura, was inspired by a couple kissing in front of the Berlin Wall just blocks away—it became the ultimate West Berlin anthem. Today the building bears a commemorative plaque installed in twenty sixteen, though efforts to rename the street for Bowie have stalled in Berlin's bureaucracy. An unremarkable facade, but the birthplace of three iconic albums.

Listen to this story

Hear this and more stories in a personalized audio briefing.

Open The Chonkerton