The Dschun­gel (‘Jun­gle’) orig­i­nal­ly start­ed in 1974 as a bar locat­ed at Win­ter­feldt­platz with­in the bor­ough of Schöneberg. Today, the space it once occu­pied is home to the Slum­ber­land bar.

In 1978, the Dschun­gel relo­cat­ed from its orig­i­nal loca­tion at Win­ter­feldt­platz to Nürn­berg­er Straße 50–55, quick­ly earn­ing a rep­u­ta­tion as a renowned hotspot with­in Berlin’s pul­sat­ing club scene, often likened to New York’s famed “Stu­dio 54”. This night­club remained a focal point of Berlin’s nightlife until its clo­sure in 1993, draw­ing in notable musi­cians such as Frank Zap­pa, Nick Cave or Prince. Today, the for­mer site has been trans­formed into Berlin’s Hotel Elling­ton.

The Dschun­gel, […] we used to go there often. I remem­ber a girl I met there. On her shoul­der sat a rat that was tied with a chain and it climbed all over her dress. That was pret­ty weird. […] I remem­ber two guys we kept run­ning into. They were bald and dressed as sur­geons, com­plete with rub­ber gloves and a stetho­scope around their necks. Also quite bizarre.

– David Bowie, Tagesspiegel, 2002

In his 2013 song “Where Are We Now?”, David Bowie paid trib­ute to the Dschun­gel, for­ev­er cement­ing the night­club’s lega­cy in the city’s cul­tur­al his­to­ry. While Bowie does ref­er­ence Nürn­berg­er Straße specif­i­cal­ly, sources indi­cate that he fre­quent­ed both loca­tions reg­u­lar­ly.

Sit­ting in the Dschun­gel
On Nürn­berg­er Strasse
A man lost in time
Near KaDeWe
Just walk­ing the dead

– David Bowie, “Where Are We Now?”, The Next Day, 2013

External links

• View on Google Maps (Win­ter­feldt­platz)
• View on Google Maps (Nürn­berg­er Straße)
• Offi­cial Web­site (in Ger­man)