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NollendorfstraßE 17

a writer’s room

This is the plaque on the house at Nollendorfstraße 17 where Christopher Isherwood lived during most of his time in Berlin. Unfortunately it is incorrect.

Christopher Isherwood did arrive in Berlin in March of 1929 but only for a weeks holiday to visit his friend WH Auden. He visited the city three times in that year and it was in November that he chose to stay indefinitely. His first permanent residence was in a room in an apartment at Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science at In Der Zelten in the Tiergarten district of the city. He stayed there until October of 1930, when he briefly moved in with his boyfriend’s family to Wassertorstraße , near Hallesches Tor. From there, a month later, he moved into an apartment at Admiralstorstraße, near Kotbusser Tor.

It wasn’t until December of 1930 that he moved into the boarding house of Fraulein Thurau at Nollendorfstraße 17.