Street art in Berlin

There is no fixed definition for street art — and sometimes opinions differ as to what counts as art and what does not. What all sorts of street art have in common, however, is that they are freely accessible and located in public spaces. So they make the perfect open-air gallery — especially good for visiting in the coronavirus era.

Most noticeable are the murals on sides of apartment buildings or shops and along freestanding walls. This also applies to remnants of the Berlin Wall, which long divided the city in two. The best-known examples of this are the brightly painted concrete blocks of the iconic East Side Gallery — a long section of street art-covered wall that is one of Berlin's most famous sights today.

Large-scale wall murals are not only found at the East Side Gallery. Artists both anonymous and world-renowned have also immortalized themselves on the former American listening station on Teufelsberg hill. Among the ruins extra walls were even put up to provide more space for their art.

Artists from around the world have been commissioned for large projects like in Märkische Allee. These two images were taken at the second "Berlin Mural Fest" which took place in 2019. The organizers invited 10 international artists to Berlin and the canvasses — residential buildings — were provided by a real estate company. After two weeks, eleven new eye-catching works had gone up.

Many wall paintings carry political messages. One of them is "Astronaut Cosmonaut" by Victor Ash, who addresses the Cold War and Space Race between America and the Soviet Union. The work's location, in the central Kreuzberg district close to the former Berlin Wall, was important to him. The space hiker image, 22 by 14 meters large, has been on display on a residential wall since 2007.

This graffiti shows the "World Tree" from 1975. At that time, artist Ben Wagin created one of the first large murals in Berlin. In the 1970s, the Berlin Senate sponsored such projects and competitions. Like many other works, the "World Tree" also disappeared behind a new building. However, there is an exact copy of it.

After its predecessor was built over, an exact copy was made in Moabit. The "World Tree II". Young street artists gave it a new home and set an example for the preservation of their works.

One of the many kinds of street art is lettering. In parts of Berlin there is hardly a wall without it. Mostly they are the artists' names, often known as "tags." The spray-paint artists who create tags want to make their names known in the scene and beyond. Any surface can be turned into a canvas — which is mostly illegal.

Another frequently spotted variety of street art is stickers. They stick to every corner and many street signs and feature all sorts of designs: lettering and pictures, round and square, simple and cheap. Adhering stickers on Berlin street signs is actually prohibited, but that doesn't stop some creative minds from putting their miniature works of sticker art there anyway.

Street art is not always big and noticeable: you really have to look for these little cork figures. They sit atop street signs and signposts in Berlin and are considered mini-installations. Made of various materials, the miniature figures appear alone or as part of small sculptures, plastic collages and more.

Officially it is called the "Museum for Urban Contemporary Art." In 2017, the city opened its first street art museum in Schöneberg. It has shown works from world-renowned artists and newcomers. Its facade is also decorated with urban art. Through moving facades, the exteriors of the building's four floors exhibit a changing selection of artworks.