East Side Gallery

East Side Gallery
Established	1990
Location	Mühlenstrasse (Mill Street); Berlin, Germany
Type	Art gallery

The East Side Gallery is an international memorial for freedom. It is a 1316 m long section of the Berlin Wall located near the centre of Berlin on Mühlenstraße in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg. The actual border at this point was the river Spree. The gallery is located on the so-called "hinterland mauer", which closed the border to West Berlin.

Description[edit]

The Gallery consists of 105 paintings by artists from all over the world, painted in 1990 on the east side of the Berlin Wall. The East Side Gallery was founded following the successful merger of the two German artists' associations VBK and BBK. The founding members were the speche of the Federal Association of Artists BBK Bodo Sperling, Barbara Greul Aschanta, Jörg Kubitzki and David Monti.^[1]^[2]

It is possibly the largest and longest-lasting open air gallery in the world. Paintings from Jürgen Grosse alias INDIANO, Dimitri Vrubel, Siegfrid Santoni, Bodo Sperling, Kasra Alavi, Kani Alavi, Jim Avignon, Thierry Noir, Ingeborg Blumenthal, Ignasi Blanch i Gisbert, Kim Prisu, Hervé Morlay VR and others have followed.

The paintings at the East Side Gallery document a time of change and express the euphoria and great hopes for a better, more free future for all people of the world.

In July 2006, to facilitate access to the River Spree from O2 World, a 40-meter section was moved somewhat west, parallel to the original position^[3]

A 23-meter section was scheduled to be removed on March 1, 2013, to make way for luxury apartments. None of the artists whose work will be destroyed were informed of these plans.^[4] The demolition work actually started on March 1, 2013. According to German news FOCUS, authorities were not aware of the start of the demolition. Due to the involvement of protesters, demolition was postponed until at least March 18, 2013.^[5]

Remediation[edit]

Two-thirds of the paintings are badly damaged by erosion, graffiti, and vandalism. One-third have been restored by a non-profit organization which started work in 2000. The objective of this organization is the eventual restoration and preservation of all the paintings. Full restoration, particularly of the central sections, was projected for 2008. Remediation began in May 2009.

The restoration process has been marked by major conflict. Eight of the artists of 1990 refused to paint their own images again after they were completely destroyed by the renovation. In order to defend the copyright, they founded "Founder Initiative East Side" with other artists whose images were simply copied without permission.^[6] Bodo Sperling launched a test case in the Berlin State Court in May 2011, represented by the Munich art lawyer Hannes Hartung and with the support of the German VG Bild-Kunst. The Court will address the question of whether art should be listed as destroyed and then re-copied without the respective artists' permission. The outcome of the trial will be a landmark declaration for European art law.^[7]^[8]

Artists[edit]

Last winter days 1990, painting #17 Siegfrid Santoni, painting #18 Bodo Sperling

Condition of the Mural on July 25th 1991

Condition of the mural in 2005

Dimitri Vrubel during restoration in June 2009

Condition of the mural in 2009 after restoration

Featured here is a depiction (painting #25) of Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker kissing as painted by Dmitri Vrubel. On the left is the condition of the painting in 1991 and at the right is the condition after restoration in 2009. The Russian words at the top read "God! help me stay alive"; and continue at the bottom "Among this deadly love."

Detour to the Japanese Sector in August 1990 while a watchtower still stands in the background

Please respect this historic work of art (A note of 2005)

Some heads by Thierry Noir

A popular slogan graffitied on one of the sections of the East Side Gallery, reading: "No more wars. No more walls. A united world."

A slogan stating: "Many small people, who in many small places, do many small things, can alter the face of the world."

Oskar: (Hans Bierbrauer)
Narenda K. Jain: Die sieben Stufen der Erleuchtung
Fulvio Pinna: Hymne an das Glück
Kikue Miyatake: Paradise Out Of The Darkness
Günther Schaefer: Vaterland
Georg Lutz Rauschebart
César Olhagaray: No title
Jens-Helge Dahmen: Pneumohumanoiden
Gábor Simon: Space Magic
Siegrid Müller-Holtz: Gemischte Gefühle
Ursula Wünsch: Frieden für Alles
Oliver Feind, Ulrike Zott: No title
Ana Leonor Rodriges
Muriel Raoux, Kani Alavi: No title
Muriel Raoux: Les Yeux Ouverts
Ditmar Reiter: No title
Santoni: Trilogie-Maschine Macht
Bodo Sperling: The Trans-formation of the penta gram to a peace star in a big Europe without walls
Barbara Greul Aschanta: Deutschland im November
Willi Berger: Soli Deo Gloria
André Sécrit, Karsten Thomas: Du hast gelernt, was Freiheit ist
Theodor Chezlav Tezhik: The Big Kremlin's Wind
Catrin Resch: Europas Frühling
Irina Dubrowskaja: Die Wand muss weichen wenn der Meteorit der Liebe kommt
Dmitri Wrubel: Mein Gott hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben
Marc Engel: Marionetten eines abgesetzten Stücks
Alexey Taranin: No title
Michail Serebrjakow: Diagonale Lösung des Problems
Rosemarie Schinzler: No title
Rosemarie Schinzler: Wachsen lassen
Christine Fuchs: How's God? She's Black
Gerhard Lahr: Berlyn
Karin Porath: Freiheit fängt innen an
Lutz Pottien-Seiring: No title
Wjatschleslaw Schjachow: Die Masken
Dmitri Vrubel: Danke, Andrej Sacharow
Jeanett Kipka: No title
Gamil Gimajew: No title
Jürgen Große: Die Geburt der Kachinas
Christopher Frank: Stay Free
Andreas Paulun: Amour, Paix
Kim Prisu (Joaquim A. Gocalves Borregana): Métamorphose des existences lié par un mobile indéfini
Greta Csatlòs (Künstlergruppe Ciccolina): Sonic Malade
Henry Schmidt: Vergesst mir die Liebe nicht
Thomas Klingenstein: Umleitung in den japanischen Sektor
Karsten Wenzel: Die Beständigkeit der Ignoranz
Pierre-Paul Maillé: No title
Andy Weiß: Geist Reise
Gabriel Heimler: Der Mauerspringer
Salvadore de Fazio: Dawn of Peace
Gerald Kriedner: Götterdämmerung
Christos Koutsouras: Einfahrt Tag und Nacht freihalten
Yvonne Onischke (geb. Matzat; Künstlername seit 2005 Yoni): Berlin bei Nacht
Peter Peinzger: No title
Elisa Budzinski: Wer will, daß die Welt so bleibt, wie sie ist, der will nicht, daß sie bleibt
Sabine Kunz: No title
Jay One (Jacky Ramier): No title
Klaus Niethardt: Justitia
Mirta Domacinovic: Zeichen in der Reihe
Patrizio Porrachia: No title
Ines Bayer, Raik Hönemann: Es gilt viele Mauern abzubauen
Thierry Noir: Ohne Titel
Teresa Casanueva:^[9] Ohne Titel
Stephan Cacciatore: La Buerlinca
Karina Bjerregaard, Lotte Haubart: Himlen over Berlin
Christine Kühn: Touch the Wall
Rodolfo Ricàlo: Vorsicht
Birgit Kinder: Test the Rest
Margaret Hunter, Peter Russell: Ohne Titel
Peter Russell: Himmel und Sucher
Margaret Hunter: Joint Venture
Sándor Rácmolnár: Waiting for a New Prometheus
Gábor Imre: Ohne Titel
Pal Gerber: Sag, welche wunderbaren Träumen halten meinen Sinn umfangen
Gábor Gerhes: Ohne Titel
Sándor Györffy: Ohne Titel
Gruppe Stellvertretende Durstende
Laszlo Erkel (Kentaur): You can see Infinity
Kani Alavi: Es geschah im November
Jim Avignon: Miriam Butterfly, Tomas Fey: Doin it cool for the East Side
Peter Lorenz: Ohne Titel
Dieter Wien: Der Morgen
Jacob Köhler: Lotus
Carmen Leidner: Niemandsland
Jens Hübner, Andreas Kämper: Ohne Titel
Hans-Peter Dürhager, Ralf Jesse: Der müde Tod
Jolly Kunjappu: Dancing to Freedom
Susanne Kunjappu-Jellinek: Curriculum Vitae
Mary Mackey: Tolerance
Carsten Jost, Ulrike Steglich: Politik ist die Fortsetzung des Krieges mit anderen Mitteln
Brigida Böttcher: Flora geht
Ignasi Blanch i Gisbert: Parlo d'Amor
Kiddy Cidny: Ger-Mania
Petra Suntinger, Roland Gützlaff: Ohne Titel
Andrej Smolak: Ohne Titel
Youngram Kim-Holdfeld: Ohne Titel
Karin Velmanns: Ohne Titel
Rainer Jehle: Denk-Mal, Mahn-Mal
Kamel Alavi: Ohne Titel
Kasra Alavi: Flucht
Ingeborg Blumenthal: Der Geist ist wie Spuren der Vögel am Himmel
Youngram Kim

In popular media[edit]

The gallery was seen in Wolfgang Becker's movie Goodbye, Lenin!
The gallery was featured in the 5th leg of The Amazing Race 6.
The gallery was featured in English indie/rock band Bloc Party's single Kreuzberg taken from the album A Weekend in the City
Panel 32, Gerhard Lahr's "Berlyn", is seen in Anton Corbijn's video for U2's song One.