East Side Gallery

East Side Gallery – © visitBerlin.de / Koch

An East German Trabant car, which appears to be breaking through the concrete. Honecker and Breschnew locked in a kiss of brotherly, socialistic love. With the East Side Gallery, a segment of the Berlin Wall has been turned into the longest open air gallery in the world.

The Kunstmeile, or art mile in English, is located along the banks of the river Spree in Frie-drichshain is 1316 metre long is also the longest segment of the Berlin Wall that is still standing. Right after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the East Side Gallery was painted by 118 artists from 21 dif-ferent countries. Using various artistic means, the artists commented on the political events that took place in 1989 and 1990 in over 100 works of art found on the eastern side of the wall.

In the course of the years, many of the images became greatly weathered and, in 2009, forty of these works of art were restored.

Informations for school classes
The East Side Gallery artist run initiative offers tours for school classes. Conversations with an artist can be booked on request. Individual discount prices apply to school classes – please ask.

A visit to the East Side Gallery helps bring children much closer to German and Berlin history in a much more striking way.

Sport and Music

Also interesting, however, are the immediate surroundings of the East Side Gallery, where, especially in the summer, many bars and cafés invite families to take time out. O2 World, opposite the East Side Gallery, is a venue for sporting and music events, Madonna has appeared there and the Eisbären, Berlin's hockey team, has also celebrated its championships here. The East Side Gallery is not only a symbol of hope and friendship, but also of freedom, especially for artists.