Berlin is an artistic city, a city that not only boasts with countless small galleries and world-famous art museums such as the Alte Nationalgalerie, but also with graffiti artworks on its walls.

Discover Berlin's colorful history through iconic street art!

Artists come from far away, because the city not only offers an infinite amount of space for their art, but street art is also absolutely presentable and profitable here. They are commissioned by hotels, companies, associations and above all by art festivals and paid to let off steam in the city. Over the years, huge masterpieces have been created on the walls of Berlin's houses, attracting countless art connoisseurs and onlookers. Here we have compiled a list of some of the most famous street arts in Berlin.

"My God, help me to survive this deadly love"

"My God, help me survive this deadly love" is a graffiti painting on the Berlin Wall by Dmitri Vrubel, one of the most famous graffiti paintings of the Berlin Wall. The 1990 painting shows Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker in a fraternal embrace and is the reproduction of a photograph that captured the moment in 1979 during the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic. By subway either to Ostbahnhof (S-Bahn) or to Warschauerstraße. Walk along Mühlenstraße. You can't miss it. The mural is in the middle of the East Side Gallery. Normally many tourists take pictures here, so be patient.

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Where: East Side Gallery

Graffiti Artwork - "Astronaut Cosmonaut"

Away from the East Side Gallery and the RAW grounds, at the Warsaw Bridge, you will find the most famous murals in the districts of Mitte and Kreuzberg. One of the most famous is the mural "Astronaut Kosmonaut" 2007 by the French artist Victor Ash between Kottbusser Tor and Görlitzer Bahnhof. The very detailed portrait of a space traveller with outstretched arm floats in black and white.
Ash chose this motif as a symbol for the Cold War and the space races of the USA and Russia. It is fitting that the work is also located on the former border of the US and Soviet sectors.

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Where: The mural is on the firewall of the residential building Oranienstraße 195 and can be seen from the corner of Mariannenstraße and Skalitzer Straße.

Bildquelle: jakni (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Astronaut (3105662516).jpg), „Astronaut (3105662516)“, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/legalcode

Graffiti Artwork „Under the Hand“

Another famous graffiti in the middle is the 2014 photorealistic mural "Under the Hand" also known as CASE Maclaim. Andreas von Chrzanowski, who was responsible for painting these massive hands in February 2014, was born in Thuringia.  He is considered a pioneer of the photorealistic street art movement. To see the mural CASE Maclaim Unter der Hand selbst, go to Heinrich-Heine-Straße underground station - the picture is on the side of the building at the corner of Brückenstraße and Köpenicker Straße.

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Where: U-Bahnhof Heinrich-Heine-Straße - the picture is on the side of the building at the corner of Brückenstraße and Köpenicker Straße.

Our Berlin Tip:

Experience Berlin's street art scene first hand with local artists.
Be a part of Berlin’s rich artistic community! Learn the story of graffiti in Berlin on a walking tour, seeing the latest and best examples of Berlin street art. Later, make your own urban masterpiece in a hands-on workshop with real local artists.
More information can be found here.

“Uprising of colours” in Kreuzberg

The largest street art project created by several artists can be seen at the Gleisdreieck. The mural "Uprising of Colors" is part of a series in which South American and German artists create political street art. The huge mural on the outside wall of the Mercure Hotel Berlin Mitte was created by the three Latin American graffiti artists Shamaniko, Hechiza and Somos and the German artist UKI.

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Where: On the facade of the Mercure Hotel in Berlin Mitte

Bildquelle: Jochen Teufel (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wandbild_Aufstand_der_Farben_(2010).jpg), „Wandbild Aufstand der Farben (2010)“, Größe, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/legalcode

Graffiti Artwork JR Mural

The JR mural was part of a project by the French street artist Folding the City, which was completed in April 2013. JR published gigantic black-and-white portrait photos at 15 locations in the city. JR chose to portray older people to illustrate how they and the city have experienced change and transformation. A year after their completion, only a few of the murals are still intact, most of them torn or weathered, barely recognizable, and reflect the cycle of constant change and upheaval that the cityscapes are experiencing.

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Where: This mural is hidden. Take a walk from Alexanderplatz towards Prenzlauer Allee, past Soho House and McFit. Walk past these buildings and look back to Alexanderplatz. You will experience a beautiful surprise!

Bildquelle: OTFW, Berlin

Steak Art Mural at the Berliner Wall

Designed by Marcus Haas, realized by Xi-Design aka Die Dixons.  Not only directly at the wall monument, but also on the former death strip this wall painting shows the divided Berlin. A knife with the inscription "Berlin 1961-1989" cuts through the flesh in the form of Berlin, thus virtually violating the city.

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Where: Brunnenstr 50, 10115 Berlin (Bernauer Str. corner Brunnenstr)

Our Berlin Tip:

Take a walking tour of the Berlin Wall.
Starting from Bornholmer Straße, a place steeped in history it was here that the first Berliners from East and West met and rejoiced together on the day the wall fell and the unified German nation was reborn. Walking along the former death strip, you will see traces of the wall, sometimes only detectable by experts. Discover how these traces are being documented and learn the strange history of the cherry trees that grew the length of the wall.
More information can be found here.

Discover Berlin's colorful history through iconic street art!