A Photographic Tour of Berlin’s Wall Art

Part of the German Way Photo Galleries

In this photo gallery of a special outdoor art gallery in Berlin you’ll find examples of the Wall art that was created in Berlin after most of the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989. See more photos and information on our main East Side Gallery page.

The East Side Gallery in Berlin > East Side Gallery Timeline > Photo Gallery: The East Side Gallery

East Side Gallery – Photo 1

1. The East Side Gallery in September 2018 with tourists gathered by the Trabi section. Birgit Kinder had repainted her work (again!) in July 2018. She has been one of the most stubborn East Side Gallery artists, repainting her Trabi section many times over the years. (See her original 1990 art and how it looked in 1995, badly damaged by taggers and thoughtless wanna-be artists. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

East Side Gallery – Photo 2

2. The iconic Trabi painting by Birgit Kinder BEFORE the 2008 restoration. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

East Side Gallery – Photo 3

3. The iconic Trabi painting by Birgit Kinder AFTER the 2008 restoration (detail view). Kinder comes from East Berlin, and she had owned a Trabant (Trabi) car before the Wall fell. It served as her model for the original Wall painting. Still not safe from barbarian tagging clowns, Kinder repainted her “TEST THE REST” Trabi art in July 2018 (formerly “TEST THE BEST”). PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

East Side Gallery – Photo 4

4. Variously titled “Worlds People” (“worlds” plural) and “Wir sind ein Volk” (We are one people), this long section was painted by the Berlin artist Schamil Gimajew. The work contains phrases and sentences such as “Leb nicht dazwischen, sondern…” (Don’t live in between, but…), and other phrases promoting peaceful coexistence. Gimajew was born in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia in 1954, and moved to East Berlin in 1983 with his German wife. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

East Side Gallery – Photo 5

5. “Detour to the Japanese Sector” by the East Berlin-born artist and poet Thomas Klingenstein. His birth name (1961) is Thomas Erwin; Klingenstein is his mother’s maiden name. Erwin took an early interest in Japan and Asian studies, but because of his outspoken criticism of the GDR regime, he was not allowed to enter the university Japanese studies field he preferred. In 1980 he was arrested as a dissident by the Stasi and deported to West Germany soon thereafter. He experienced the fall of the Wall while living in Japan. He returned to Berlin to paint his “Japanese Sector” work in 1990, but he also has done art work in Japan. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

East Side Gallery – Photo 6

6. “Danke, Andrej Sacharow” (Thank you, Andrei Sakharov) was painted by Dmitry Vrubel and Victoria Timofeeva. This section of the East Side gallery honors Sakharov, a Soviet nuclear physicist, dissident, and human rights activist. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

WEB > More about the Gallery from the Berlin Wall Foundation/Stiftung Berliner Mauer (in English) – About the artists and their art.

Next | Photo Gallery: East Side Gallery – Part 2
More | East Side Gallery Timeline
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Related Pages
AT THE GERMAN WAY

• The East Side Gallery in Berlin – About the historic Wall gallery and its history
• East Side Gallery Timeline – Part 2 of the Berlin Wall Timeline
• Berlin Wall Timeline (1945-1989)
• Book Review: The Berlin Wall Today – GW Expat Blog
• Berlin Airlift – Die Luftbrücke 1948-1949
• Berlin – City Guide – Sightseeing and history in Berlin
• The Reichstag in Berlin has a fascinating history and its dome is now Berlin’s top tourist attraction.
• Our Living in Germany page features resources for those now living or planning to live in the German-speaking world.