Expert: Laura Brierley - 5/20/2005

Question
can you please tell me the exact reason of why david bowie has moved to Berlin and if there's any conection between this and the rumoures of the hitler sigh.
oh and i really don't understand anything in refering to this topic,so maybe you could tell me about this a little.
i will love to read  where exactly it happened,did he really did the Hitler's sigh and if he did
what for?
thenks a lot:)


Answer
Taking one point at a time...

1) Bowie in Berlin

Bowie doesn't live there now, he's in New York these days.  He did move there in the late seventies when he produced the three albums known as the Berlin Trilogy, Low, Heroes and Lodger.  He spent a lot of time over there coming off cocaine, a serious addiction of his for years, which was seriously affecting his health (so much so thathe never ate and was fed ice cream, milk and peppers by his manager, Coco).  He spent time over there with Iggy Pop, trying to get clean.  One of the reasons for this was that he was divorcing his first wife Angie, who was alos in a drug-induced mess, and wanted custody of their son.  I don't think he chose Berlin for the reason that he was interested in Dictatorship.

2) The infamous gesture

Bowie, dressed smartly with slicked back hair in his Thin White Duke period, managed to stand up in a long black car at, I think, Victoria Station in London (but this would need checking, I'm away from home and don't have my books handy) and give what looked very much like a Hitler Salute, one arm outstretched.  This may just have been an unfortunate wave captured at the wrong point by the photographers, but the picture not-the-less exists.  It's questioned as to whther this is conscious or not.  He did give an interview at one point praising Dictatorships and stating that Britain needed one to get it up and running properly, and that he thought he could do a great job...how far this was tongue in cheek and a joke is unclear.  It must be remembered that he was, at this point, living on cocaine and very much detached from reality.  He certainly doesn't still support such right wing views - and remember, he's done a lot of odd things over the years for publicity purposes (the announcement that he was gay in the early 70's, later denied, the dress in The Man Who Sold the World period, etc etc) and told us pre-reality tour that part of ho he entertained us was lying to us (interview with the Sunday Times Month CD rom - check it out on Ebay).