Did Bowie bring down the Berlin Wall?

The British rock star spent three years living in the city and a later concert there stirred opposition to the wall

You're a 29-year-old megastar with a string of hits behind you. Recklessly enjoying pop's loucher rewards, you're also a drug addict. What do you do? Head for rehab? A monastery? Die?

In 1976, if you're David Bowie, you vanish to West Berlin. For Bowie, Berlin meant German Expressionism, the art movement that exploded there in the early 20th century. That would be his cure. No star of his stature has ever done anything so extraordinary.

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is based in Berlin. His books include biographies of Jorge Luis Borges, and John Lennon and Yoko Ono. He also writes on the arts for The Economist.