East Side Gallery, Open-air art gallery on Berlin Wall in Friedrichshain, Germany
The East Side Gallery is a 1,316 m open-air gallery on the longest surviving section of the Berlin Wall, along Mühlenstraße between Ostbahnhof and the Oberbaumbrücke. Its 105 paintings were made in 1990 by 118 artists from 21 countries on the wall's former East Berlin side; today only the 2009 replicas remain. Among them, Dimitri Vrubel's panel shows two suited men kissing, their faces covered with written names, beneath Russian and German inscriptions.
The project began in February 1990 after the East German artists' association VBK asked the West German BBK for help; permission came from the GDR Ministry of National Defence under Theodor Hoffmann. In spring 1990, 118 artists from 21 countries painted the wall's eastern side. The gallery was placed under monument protection in November 1991 and transferred to the Berlin Wall Foundation on 1 November 2018.
Many murals carry dedications to reunification and show symbols such as broken barriers or hands reaching across borders. Visitors pause in front of each work to read the messages left by artists from around the world.
The gallery runs along Mühlenstraße on the Spree side, between Ostbahnhof and the Oberbaumbrücke; the murals face the street, so you walk the full 1,316 m in one direction. The riverside path behind the wall is a separate green strip. A 40 m section was shifted west in 2006 for access to the Mercedes-Benz Arena, so the line of panels is not continuous.
Some works had to be restored several times after vandalism, with the artists themselves returning to the wall to renew their motifs. These restorations show how living the monument has remained and how much it continues to draw people.
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