# Berlin - East Side Gallery



## Nordic_Kat (Aug 5, 2009)

We took a quick trip to Berlin over the New Years weekend. Five years ago, we were there in the summer and toured (on foot) East Side Gallery; which is a mile long stretch of the Berlin Wall that was left standing as a reminder of the Soviet oppression of the Cold War Era. In 1990 artists painted the wall. Over the years it fell into disrepair, as it was defaced with graffitti and some sections were chipped away for souveniers. A few attempts; while being underfunded, were made to restore the wall to its original 1990 state. It was only with the renewed interest and spotlight of fall 2009 being the 20th anniversary of the demolition of the wall, that East Side Gallery finally got its long deserved restoration. Here are a few pics of the before version circa 2005:














































When we first visited I took about 40 pics. Many of the paintings were in such disrepair that it was impossible to even tell what they were.

The opportunity arose to revisit Berlin over the New Years weekend. Albeit cold temperatures, this time I painstakingly took photographs of *every* painting. Unfortunately for me, in the cautionary packing due to the 12/25/09 TSA panic, I left the wide angle lens at home. This meant that to really capture the essence of the paintings as I wanted to, I had to essentially do pieced panoramas in portrait format and clone in sky and snow to complete the photographs.

There are about 106 paintings comprising East Side Gallery. From my research at least 6 of the original artists have died. The segments where the artists are no longer available have been intentionally left blank. Unfortunately, despite placards placed frequently announcing in multiple languages that defacing the wall is subject to criminal charges -- ignorant tourists and juvenile delinquents continue to push the limit.

Offered here are photographs of some of the more interesting, compelling and controversial paintings of the wall. My final album is about 102 photographs....


















































































This is just a photograph of how cold and bleak it was between the wall and the Spree Riverbank




































































































Hope you found the images as interesting as I did.....


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## Dad's Toy (Nov 14, 2009)

Excellent and fascinating pictures. I have been there twice, but never got the opportunity to actually visit the wall.


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## Dave 330i (Jan 4, 2002)

I like.


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## Solidjake (May 10, 2007)

Very very nice pics! The designs on some of them are insane and some very funny.


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## MikeCee (Apr 3, 2007)

Nordic_Kat said:


> We took a quick trip to Berlin over the New Years
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I would love to see more pictures of this segment, do you have any?

Beautiful and fascinating pictures. :thumbup:


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## Nordic_Kat (Aug 5, 2009)

MikeCee said:


> I would love to see more pictures of this segment, do you have any?
> 
> Beautiful and fascinating pictures. :thumbup:


Yes, I have a few other more detailed shots. That was a particularly difficult segment to capture as it was so massively detailed. I can either post them here or send them via PM to you.

There are many paintings that are just too huge to fully appreciate at the close distance you see them at when walking. The street it runs along is very busy so attempting to step out into the street to view the paintings is a bit perilous.


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## chicagofan00 (Feb 10, 2008)

Very nice. Thanks for sharing the pictures. Somewhere back at my dad's house I have a piece of the wall from when it was torn down.


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## Nordic_Kat (Aug 5, 2009)

Thanks to all who looked -- appreciate the comments.


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## autoJeff (Oct 1, 2009)

Thank you for sharing.


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