Germany: Berlin – Berlin Wall Eastside Gallery
The Berlin Wall was built starting in 1961 to prevent East Germans escaping to the west. It ended up being 155km long with 4-meter high walls, 293 watch towers and 57 bunkers. It was all spectacularly torn down in 1989 with the collapse of communism. Today only a small section, known as the Eastside Gallery remains with about 1.3km of graffiti-covered wall. The most famous graffiti painting is by Russian artist Dimitri Vrubel depicting Leonid Brezhnev (the USSR leader) and Erich Honecker (the GDR leader) French-kissing with the letters around them saying in Russian “God help me survive among this deadly love”. Interestingly, almost all the people congregating around this painting and photographing it were Russian or spoke Russian.
