Eric Cohen would describe Bowie as an “existential tourist” 26 as he appears to be searching for
something meaningful within himself through his experiences within the space of Berlin. Bowie
is searching for something real and I would argue that this makes him more of a pilgrim rather
than a tourist as he finds himself surrounded by the artefacts of Germany’s rich, yet conflicted
past, thus attaching a more personal meaning to space. However, I would also argue that it is
the behaviour of Bowie's fans that attach the idea of Berlin as a sacred space, rather than the
actions of Bowie himself. The various myth’s surrounding Bowie’s life in Berlin is what
constructs the meaning. His fans piece together fragments of various myths and spaces in an
attempt to attach a personal, meaningful narrative to the space, in which the spirit of David
Bowie is at the centre.
By the time Bowie arrived in Berlin he was a hugely successful, influential household name.
He had attached all of his art up to this point, to the characters that he would assign to add to
the performative elements of his previous tracks. However, I would argue that he began to
attach his art to the ‘sacred’ space of Berlin as it was his main source of influence at the time.
He became attached to the creative scene in Berlin and attached a more personal narrative to it
as he started to turn his attention towards modern art and getting clean, one of the most
significant places during this process reinvention for Bowie was the Brücke Museum in Berlin.
He saw a lot of himself mirrored in the city. The suffocating air of Cold War hung heavily over
the desolate landscape of Berlin, which of course can be read as a metaphor for what Bowie
had lost as a result of his celebrity status. In some respects, Bowie was trying to form his
identity in the same way as post-Nazi Berlin. He abandoned his excessive lifestyle in order to
26
Sean Redmond, Enchanting David Bowie (Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2015).