Germany’s Foreign Ministry says David Bowie is “now among heroes” and is thanking the one-time West Berlin resident for “helping to bring down the wall.”
The ministry’s post on its Twitter feed includes a link to a video of Bowie performing “Heroes,” which contains the line “I can remember/Standing, by the wall.”
The ministry wrote: “Good-bye, David Bowie. You are now among #Heroes. Thank you for helping to bring down the #wall.”
Bowie lived in West Berlin in the late 1970s. Mayor Michael Mueller said Monday that “Heroes” became “the hymn of our then-divided city and its longing for freedom.”
Mueller said that that “Berliners are mourning a musical genius and one of their most famous fellow citizens.”
Bowie’s performance of “Heroes” was also a highlight at a concert for rescue workers after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.
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Tributes poured in for the singer on Monday after the announcement of his death after an 18 month battle with cancer. British astronaut Tim Peake tweeted about his sadness from outer space aboard the International Space Station, saying “his music was an inspiration to many.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted that Bowie’s death is “a huge loss.” He wrote he had grown up listening to and watching Bowie and called the singer a “master of reinvention” and a pop genius who kept on getting it right.
The Rolling Stones wrote they were “shocked and deeply saddened to hear of the death of our dear friend David Bowie. As well as being a wonderful and kind man, he was an extraordinary artist, and a true original.”
Bowie, the other-worldly musician who broke pop and rock boundaries with his creative musicianship, nonconformity, striking visuals and a genre-bending persona he christened Ziggy Stardust, died of cancer Sunday. He was 69.
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