The Iconic Art Of Berlin's East Side Gallery

Twenty-five years ago, as the Berlin Wall fell, the world embraced the symbolic reunification of East and West Germany with open arms. Reunification would be costly, and politically delicate; however, for the cost of paint and the free labor of more than 100 freedom-loving muralists, an artistic undertaking in the months after the wall fell has become a monument to Germany’s progress.

The East Side Gallery is a three-quarter-mile stretch of the former wall, now a jubilant and contemplative dedication to the mood during early reunification. It is along The Spree, a river that formed a natural division of the two sides of Berlin.

The management of this monument is also delicate in its own way. In 2009, a restoration process spearheaded by The Künstlerinitiative (Artists Initiative) East Side Gallery e.V. provoked ire among some of the original muralists. The artists were asked to repaint their aging artwork, or allow someone else to repaint it for them -- sparking a copyright dispute. Some artists said they felt the city had profited enough off artwork that was never meant to last forever.

As the sheen of graffiti over the wall attests, not everyone sees the work as fine art: “Nobody was that great a painter. There was more heart to it than anything,” American artist Mary Mackey told the Los Angeles Review of Books in 2013.

And yet, in 2013, hundreds showed up to protest the removal of a section of the gallery to make way for the construction of luxury condos along The Spree. Joining the protesters was David Hasselhoff, who famously sang “Looking for Freedom” in front of the wall two months after it fell. The construction project was subsequently halted.

Here are five iconic works of the East Side Gallery:

1. “My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love” also known as “The Fraternal Kiss” by Dmitri Vrubel shows USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev and East Germany leader Erich Honecker locking lips:

2. Thierry Noir's "Ohne Titel" or "Some heads":

3. Kani Alavi's work “Es geschah im November” or “It happened in November” depicts the crowd he saw from his window the night the wall fell. Alavi is a leader of the Artist's Initiative.

4. Jim Avignon's "Doin’ It Cool For The East Side" originally adorned a stretch of the gallery. However, instead of repainting it in 2009, in 2013 he painted an entirely different design over it--a controversial move:

5. The Trabant was an iconic car of East Germany known for its awful fumes. Here it is depicted by Birgit Kinder as bursting through the wall: