Mural on those remains of the Berlin Wall, which have become the East Side Gallery in the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, City of Berlin, Germany
Some background information:
The East Side Gallery memorial in the Berlin borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg is a permanent open-air gallery on the longest surviving section of the Berlin Wall in Mühlenstraße between the Berlin Ostbahnhof and the Oberbaumbrücke along the Spree. It consists of a series of murals painted directly on a 1,316 metres (4,318 feett) long remnant of the Berlin Wall.
In spring of 1990, after the opening of the Berlin Wall, this section was painted by 118 artists from 21 countries. The artists commented on the political changes of 1989/90 in a good hundred paintings on the formerly unpainted side of the Wall that was facing East Berlin. Due to urban development measures, it is no longer completely preserved, and instead of the originals from then, only the replicas from 2009 exist today.
The gallery has official status as a monument, or heritage-protected landmark. According to the artists‘ initiative East Side Gallery e.V., an association of the artists involved in the project, "the East Side Gallery is understood as a monument to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful negotiation of borders and conventions between societies and people". It is visited by more than three million visitors per year.
Berlin is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it also the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. Berlin’s urban area has even a population of 4.7 million, while its metropolitan area of more than 5.3 million, which makes it the European Union’s third most populous city, according to population within the metropolitan area. The city of Berlin is also one of Germany's sixteen constituent states. Berlin is surrounded by the State of Brandenburg and contiguous with Potsdam, Brandenburg's capital.
Berlin straddles the banks of the Spree river, which flows into the Havel (a tributary of the Elbe) in the western borough of Spandau. Among the city's main topographical features are the many lakes in the western and southeastern boroughs formed by the rivers Spree, Havel and Dahme, the largest of which is Lake Mueggelsee. About one-third of the city's area is composed of forests, parks, gardens, rivers, canals, and lakes.
In 1237, the town of Koelln, which was situated on an river island of the Spree and nowadays is a central part of Berlin, was first mentioned in a document. In 1244, also the town of Berlin was documented first, which was located on the northeastern bank of the river Spree. However, archaeological excavations have proven that both settlements, which sat at the crossing of two important trade routes, already existed in the 12th century. Subsequently both towns grew together.
In 1356, the Margarviate of Brandenburg became an electorate and in 1417, Berlin became its capital. In 1539, prince-elector Joachim II Hector from the reigning House of Hohenzollern established the reformation in Berlin, which was accepted peacefully by the city’s inhabitants. But the Thirty Years’ War from 1618 to 1648 had devastating consequences for Berlin. One third of all houses was damaged and the number of citizens was halved.
In 1640, Frederick William, popularly known as the "Great Elector", took the government business over from his father. Just one year later, the suburbs of Friedrichswerder, Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichstadt were founded. Prince-elector Frederick William also pursued a policy of immigration and religious tolerance. Jewish families from Austria were rehomed in Berlin and Huguenots from France were invited, 5,000 of which settled in the city. A lot of immigrants also came from Poland, Bohemia and the state of Salzburg, which belonged to the Bavarian Circle at that time. Finally, Frederick William converted the town into a fortress with altogether 13 bastions.
When Frederick I was crowned King of Prussia in 1701, Berlin became Prussia’s capital. After the towns of Berlin, Koelln, Friedrichswerder, Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichstadt had finally merged in 1709, the total population climbed to 55,000. In the course of the 18th century, Berlin evolved into a centre of Enlightenment. After Prussia had been defeated by the French under Napoleon in 1806, King Frederick William III fled to the city of Königsberg in the very east of Prussia. Shortly afterwards the city was occupied by French troops, which stayed until 1808.
In the middle of the 19th century, the Industrial Revolution reached Berlin with all its might. Many new factories popped up outside the city walls and new important companies like Siemens, Borsig and AEG were founded. Hence, also new working class quarters emerged. Berlin was soon considered as an industrial city and the dire living conditions of the workers fostered the formation of a very strong working-class movement.
When Germany became an empire in 1871 and the Prussian King William I became its first emperor, the Prussian capital Berlin was naturally designated the capital of the new German Empire. In 1877, Berlin’s total population exceeded one million, and in 1905, the city already had two million inhabitants. After Germany had lost World War I in 1918, Germany was proclaimed to be a republic in Berlin. General strikes and uprisings in the following months were quelled violently and cost the lives of hundreds of people.
But Berlin recovered soon. In the Weimar Republic the city flourished and became the place to be in Europe. During the Golden Twenties, Berlin experienced its heyday as a major world city. Its population rose to four million and thus, Berlin became the third-largest city in the world, only outreached by New York and London.
After Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, Berlin was still the capital of Nazi Germany. Hitler and his architect Albert Speer planned to convert the city into the so-called "World Capital Germania", but fortunately most of the megalomaniac Nazi plans were never realised. However, during the Nazi era, Berlin’s great Jewish community was extinguished completely.
During Word War II, the city was widely destroyed by allied bomb raids and the street battles in the final days of the war. The Battle of Berlin ended with Hitler’s suicide in the bunker of Reich Chancellery and the Soviet capture of the city. Afterwards the town was divided into four occupation zones, three of them forming West Berlin, while the Soviet zone forming East Berlin. West Berlin became a de facto exclave of West Germany on the territory of Soviet-held East Germany, while East Berlin was made the capital of the newly founded German Democratic Republic. However, West Berlin was substituted as West Germany’s capital with the city of Bonn.
In 1948, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies’ access to their sectors of Berlin for almost a year. To carry supplies to the people of West Berlin, the Berlin Airlift was organised. American and British air forces flew over Berlin more than 250,000 times, dropping necessities such as fuel and food, with the original plan being to lift 3,475 tons of supplies daily. As this number was often met twofold by the so-called "raisin bombers", the Soviet Union lifted its unsuccessful blockade of West Berlin in May 1949.
In 1961, the German Democratic Republic commenced the construction of the Berlin Wall. The Soviet Bloc propaganda portrayed the Wall as protecting East Berlin’s population, while the West Berlin city government referred to it as the "Wall of Shame". Berlin families were suddenly separated by the Wall, but during its existence, more than 100,000 people attempted to escape. 5,000 of them succeeded, but an estimated number of 200 was killed by the Wall’s mine belt, its spring guns or the gunfire of the guards.
In 1989, a peaceful revolution ended the separation of Germany and with that also the separation of Berlin. Germany was finally reunified on 3rd October 1990. In the following year, Berlin was again declared the capital of Germany and also its seat of the government. Today, the city is a very vibrant megapolis with twelve boroughs. But Berlin’s authorities are generally classed as being inefficient and in need of modernisation. It’s also a great nuisance for many Germans, that a lot of money from other German states is transferred to the capital, where it is often used without any sense.
