Those in neighbouring flats patiently endured Gildo's occasional Sinatra impersonations into the early hours. They divided their time between Gildo's country house and his one-bedroom flat in Munich. Bit by bit, the picture builds up of someone used to the limelight, unable to cope with ageing and with declining audience numbers. Meanwhile, his fans, most of them middle-aged women, are left to decide which is more of a shock - that their beaming idol was a suicidal depressive; or that the famous heart-throb was gay and that his 26-year old secretary, Dave Klingeberg, was his loverGildo's seven-year relationship with Dave Klingeberg had been harmonious for the most part, particularly in the early years.

One rumour has it that Gildo's toupee slipped off during a drunken rendition of "The Last Sirtaki", and that he beat a hasty retreat as the audience dissolved in laughter. His life, which was orchestrated by the entertainment industry, had been an elaborate deceit. And the tabloids, which had happily peddled stories of his glamorous exploits for years, now ply their readers with lurid details. So Gildo's fans find themselves learning about a boozy has-been, crushed by the magnitude of a career in free-fall, driven to suicide after a disastrous swan-song at, of all places, an out-of-town furniture store. His organs ruptured, he suffered extensive internal bleeding, and died two days later of what the German doctors diagnosed as a "broken heart".Now Germans are being presented with uncomfortable truths The mega-star was, like his Dorian Gray appearance, a fake. But Rex Gildo, who was in his early sixties when he killed himself last month, had been every bit as important a part of the German cultural landscape as, say, Cliff Richard or Tom Jones is in Britain's. His speciality was Schlagers: treacly songs about blue skies and innocent love in a world where life is one long celebration. For decades, this was post-war Germany's most popular musical genre - and Rex Gildo was its greatest star.

He was the blue-eyed boy from Bavaria's southern climes, beguiling and charismatic, with exceptionally good looks, a perpetual tan, and a deep, resounding voice. He scarcely seemed to age beyond his forties, and he continued to show his strong white teeth when he smiled, which was much of the time.But on the night of 23 October, a Saturday, he leapt out of the window of his smart second-floor Munich apartment. "Why did he do it?" his fans plead in the virtual wilderness; to which the rest of Germany adds the scarcely less poignant question: "Who was the real Rex Gildo?" Gildo was a superstar, who rose to fame on the crest of Germany's economic miracle. Few of his 25 million record sales went abroad, and none of his 30 films travelled successfully.

Their idol is gone, suddenly and tragically, and now a torrent of shocking posthumous revelations threatens to swamp his memory. REX GILDO'S followers grieve over the ether in their thousands, pouring mournful megabytes on to his Internet condolence page. By Rem Koolhaas/ OMA1998 HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTFoster's apotheosis.1999 JEWISH MUSEUM, BERLINHybrid memorial/ museum by Daniel Libeskind.1999 LORD'S MEDIA CENTREThe machine aesthetic, by Future Systems.1999 MILLENNIUM DOMERichard Rogers'siconic form.2000 TATE MODERN, BANKSIDEHerzog & de Meuron'stimely interventions in a former power station MF. This opens up endless possibilities for architects to make wilfully shaped new buildings at affordable prices. The next decade is going to be fun and the Architecture Foundation has already coined the perfect term for it: "the noughties".THE DECADE'S BEST BUILDINGS1991 SAINSBURY WING, NATIONAL GALLERYRobert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown's neoclassical design.1997 GETTY CENTER, LARichard Meier's billion-dollar building for art.1997 PETRONAS TOWERS, KUALA LUMPUR Cesar Pelli's record-breaking towers.1997 GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM, BILBAOFrank Gehry's shiny abstract.1998 PRIVATE VILLA, BORDEAUXThe complexity of a city in a single house. The chaotic form illustrates how computer-controlled mass production technology is capable of turning out customised components so that every part of a building can be different. The building was designed using CATIA software, the French programme used to develop fighter planes.