The East Side Gallery is an open-air gallery stretching over 1 kilometer, painted on the remains of the Berlin Wall from Ostbahnhof to Oberbaumbrücke
At 1.3 kilometers, the East Side Gallery is the longest open-air gallery in the world. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, 118 artists decorated the gray wall that stood as a symbol of the Iron Curtain dividing Europe, transforming it into a colorful gallery with messages of peace and freedom.
The gallery contains 105 paintings and is painted on what used to be the inner wall. The actual border to West Berlin was the riverbank on the other side of the Spree, and the obstacles preventing escape to the West therefore looked a little different here.
Although the many paintings are on the inner wall, the Berlin Wall along Mühlenstraße consists of the same sections that were used for the border wall elsewhere in East Berlin.
Photo by Chrissie Sternschnuppe@Flickr. CC BY-SA.
Before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, street art was also common on the wall, but it was on the western side. No one in East Berlin was allowed to get close enough to the wall to paint on it.
The east side of the wall was just gray.
This changed when artists transformed the 1.3 kilometers along the Spree with colorful messages of world peace when the Cold War finally came to an end.
Photo by Chrissie Sternschnuppe@Flickr. CC BY-SA.
The transformation of the Berlin Wall from a barrier dividing Europe into an open-air gallery displaying political messages is symbolically powerful. This makes the East Side Gallery arguably the most popular place to experience the Berlin Wall.
One painting in particular attracts attention, and that is the Fraternal Kiss, which is based on a press photo from 1979 showing the two presidents Brezhnev and Honecker kissing each other.
Photo by Chrissie Sternschnuppe@Flickr. CC BY-SA.
The East Side Gallery begins at Ostbahnhof and stretches all the way to Oberbaumbrücke. It doesn’t matter whether you start at one end or the other.
Behind the East Side Gallery at the end of Ostbahnhof, there is a park with signs telling the story of the Berlin Wall, and here you will find five more sections of the wall covered in art.
Photo by Chrissie Sternschnuppe@Flickr. CC BY-SA.
Today, both the wall and the art at the East Side Gallery are protected, and the Berlin Wall Foundation conducts tours and is maintaining the gallery.
Where:
Mühlenstraße from Ostbahnhof to Oberbaumbrücke
10243 Berlin
Family friendly: Yes
Price: Free
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