An image from August 1984 shows Freddie Mercury standing beside Gerry Stickells in Munich, Germany—a city that would come to represent one of the most intense and defining chapters of Mercury’s life.
“Flamboyant.” “No other word describes Freddie Mercury better,” writes author Nicola Bardola in the introduction to his biography Mercury in Munich: His Best Years. On November 24, 1991, the extraordinary artist died from complications related to AIDS, just one day after publicly confirming that he was HIV-positive. Until that announcement, Mercury had kept his illness private, despite widespread rumors. Born Farrokh Bulsara in Zanzibar in 1946, he was famously guarded about his personal life and disliked speaking to strangers, once admitting that he hated talking to people he didn’t know.
That desire for privacy is one of the reasons Mercury felt so at ease in Munich, where he lived intermittently between 1979 and 1985. German writer and scholar Nicola Bardola devoted an entire book to this period, opening it with a quote from Mercury himself: “I’ve found a place called Munich where I can really walk the streets.”
By the time he settled there, Queen had already topped the UK charts with “Bohemian Rhapsody” in 1975 and were well known in Germany. Yet despite his fame, Mercury was largely left alone in Munich. There, he found refuge and underwent a profound artistic awakening.
“Freddie changed a lot in Munich,” Bardola explained in an interview with DW. Mercury first visited the city in 1974 for Queen’s first concert in Germany and quickly realized its appeal. He was especially drawn to Munich’s dynamic music scene, particularly Musicland Studios, founded in the early 1970s by legendary composer Giorgio Moroder. Queen’s first recording there was “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” which went on to become the band’s first number-one hit in the United States. As Bardola notes, “In a way, they conquered America from Munich.”
Four Queen albums were recorded at Musicland Studios: The Game (1980), Hot Space (1982), The Works (1984), and A Kind of Magic (1986). The studio also hosted recordings by artists such as Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and Donna Summer.
Munich’s appeal went far beyond music. Mercury was deeply attracted to the city’s liberal attitude toward homosexuality. By that time, his romantic relationship with Mary Austin had ended, and although he had confided in her about being gay, he had not publicly come out. In Munich’s Glockenbachviertel district—internationally known then and now for its LGBTQ+ community—Mercury cautiously explored a life of greater freedom.
“There, you could live freely and move freely, without fear of persecution, as in other cities,” Bardola explains. The neighborhood’s many gay clubs, bars, and nightclubs became places Mercury loved to visit.
In Munich, Mercury lived his sexuality openly. He partied, formed a near-marital relationship with club owner Winnie Kirchberger, and immersed himself in the local gay scene. He also developed a close friendship with actress Barbara Valentin, who had once been seen mainly as a sex symbol before being cast in serious roles by filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Valentin recalled Mercury’s eating habits with humor, describing how he “ate like a little bird” and once referred to meatballs served with roast pork as “f***ing footballs.” While he was restrained at lunchtime—favoring champagne and caviar—he also took up bodybuilding in Munich, becoming noticeably stronger and more muscular. That lifestyle, Bardola notes, sometimes required a hearty pork knuckle.
In Mercury in Munich, Bardola explores a chapter of Freddie Mercury’s life that previous biographies had only touched on briefly. He also interviewed eyewitnesses who had never spoken publicly before, including Wolfgang Simon, the cameraman behind Queen’s videos for “One Vision” and “Living On My Own.”
The latter video was partly filmed during Mercury’s 39th birthday party at the Old Mrs Henderson Club, an event Simon attended. Witnesses described the celebration as a decadent farewell—“the last rock ’n’ roll party” and an early goodbye to Munich. For years, the video was banned for allegedly promoting promiscuity. Today, it stands as a historical document, capturing Mercury as he may have wished to be remembered: alive, extravagant, and utterly unique.
In 2020, the city of Munich honored Freddie Mercury by naming a street after him in Neuhausen’s so-called creative quarter. It was a fitting tribute to a place where he once felt truly at home—and where he is still not forgotten.