Berlin Photo Gallery - East Side Gallery

The Berlin Wall used to weave around the city and many spots have been preserved and turned into tourist attractions. I counted 4 popular ones - Checkpoint Charlie, Tränenpalast, the memorial at Bernauer Strasse near Nordbahnhof, and the East Side Gallery. All are not within walking distance of one another, a testament of just how pervasive this barrier was during the Cold War. The East Side Gallery is a 1.3km section of wall along the Spree river that has been transformed into an art gallery. I started from the Ostbahnhof side and walked towards Warschauer Strasse, both of which are S-bahn stations. Most of the Berlin Wall that divided the city for 28 years was torn down following reunification. This is probably one of the rare long sections that have been kept intact and repurposed into a huge outdoor art gallery. However, the wall facing the river is mostly decorated in graffiti. Many of the works have QR codes for you to scan to learn more. On the left, this work shows a Trabant produced by a Communist government-run company driving through oppression. The busiest place on the strip was in front of this kissing image between East German leader Erich Honecker and Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev, symbolizing their ideological bond. When the Berlin Wall went up in 1961, a granary became caught up in the middle of the border strip. Being an important flour producer, the employees still worked right on the border, passing this gatehouse built into the wall.