East Side Gallery, Berlin, Germany

Berlin is a cultural capital with many iconic symbols. But none are quite as moving or worthy as Berlin’s East Side Gallery.While in Berlin, I participated in one of my favorite tourist activities: New Sandeman’s Free Walking Tours. I have been on tours with New Sandeman in Prague, Madrid, Amsterdam, and Barcelona. I love these tours because not only are they free and convenient, but every tour and every guide is a bit different.

All the tours start off the same way. The tour guide introduces him or herself, explains how the tour will proceed, and then usually beginning at some strange clock tour or overcrowded plaza, the group is off to see the city.

Our tour guide, Sam, did an excellent job incorporating Berlin’s solemn history with the bright current events in Germany’s largest metropolis. I was most excited to learn about the Berlin Wall. The Berlin Wall is the barrier that divided the East and West sections of Germany from 1961 to 1989.

What I found most interesting, and what they seemed to have left out in my high school history class (or maybe I was drawing on my kilt when we went over this), is that the East and West aren’t exactly two sides. The West section of Germany was actually encased by the East. The Wall was built to surround West Germany, rather than to separate the two halves.

I was also in awe and appalled by how recently the wall was torn down. I was born in 1991, the wall was not completely demolished until 1992. Being in Berlin and hearing this history made me realize that the lessons I learned in history class aren’t history at all. Perhaps it was the distance or my naive sense of maturity growing up that made this all seem so unfathomable, but being there, seeing the wall, made it all real. Berlin is still very much experiencing and living the aftermath of the war everyday.

The most anti-climactic stop on the tour was the infamous Checkpoint Charlie. There is nothing there to see. Just a normal road, a wall with a whole lot of tiny writing, and a few enlarged images of what the Checkpoint used to be.

A much more impressive and moving way to understand Berlin is to take the metro a few stops and visit The East Side Gallery. Despite it’s exclusion from the free walking tour, it’s totally worth the extra effort. The East Side Gallery is the longest section of the Berlin Wall still standing.

Immediately following the fall of the wall, the East side was painted by 118 artists from 21 countries. This makes the East Side Gallery the largest open air gallery in the world. Since it’s initiation, some of the works have been restored and others added. 

The West side of the wall is covered in graffiti art and in my opinion was just as interesting and told just as much of a story as the East side. The art is completed in 118 different styles with varying interpretations, criticisms, and expressions of the political events leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

A clear highlight of my trip to Berlin and a place with a story to tell like no other. Where is your favorite place to experience living history? To read more about my trip to Germany, continue here.