Description

Essentials about the East Side Gallery in brief

The East Side Gallery is a very special Berlin sight that can only exist in this form in the German capital. With a length of 1.3 kilometers, the art mile on the banks of the Spree in the district of Friedrichshain is the longest continuous section of the former Berlin Wall that still stands today. And at the same time, the East Side Gallery is also the longest open-air gallery in the world.

The history of the East Side Gallery

Immediately after the fall of the Wall, over 100 artists from 21 countries began painting the section of the Wall. In 1990, the East Side Gallery finally opened and was listed as a historical monument just one year later. In a good hundred paintings, the artists used a wide variety of artistic means to comment on the political changes of 1989/90. The East Side Gallery sees itself as a monument to the fall of the Berlin Wall and, in general, to the overcoming of borders and conventions in societies. To this day, the gallery is the only authentic monument to reunification.

The motives of the East Side Gallery

A Trabant seemingly breaking through the concrete thanks to a clever painting technique, Honecker and Brezhnev sharing a Socialist brotherly kiss – the East Side Gallery has many interesting, funny and thought-provoking motifs to offer and is therefore also one of the most popular photo motifs in all of Berlin. As an open-air gallery, however, it is at the mercy of the weather without protection, which is why it has to be restored at regular intervals. In 2009, the entire gallery was restored, which is why only the replicas created at that time can be seen today instead of the originals.

Website

eastsidegallery-berlin.de

Opening hours

None.

Guided tours of artists are offered by arrangement (see website and phone number).

Admission fees

None.

Address

Getting there

By public transport:

U1 and U3: Stop Warschauer Straße

S3, S5, S7, S9 and S76: Stop Ostbahnhof

Bus line 300: Stop Tamara-Danz-Str.

Bus lines 347 and N1: Stop Oberbaumbrücke

By car:

The nearest parking garage is Parkhaus Ostbahnhof. There is limited parking available in the surrounding streets.