One of the things I appreciate about Berlin is its refusal to look bleak or boring. Yes, there are a lot identical Communist blocks made up of lazy, post-war architecture. Yet buildings are not Berlin’s identity; they are just the canvas.
Any street art tour of Berlin must begin with the original wall of expression, the Berliner Mauer – the Berlin Wall. Bold images by Thierry Noir and other street artists turned something terrible into something beautiful. Remnants of the Wall are still spread over the city, and this long stretch along the Spree is a frequently-visited outdoor gallery.
The familiar block lettering of New York City subway graffiti shows up in parks and under bridges, spicing up the bleak winter. The equal-opportunity mixture of intentional art, lettering practice and scribbles makes sure everyone’s voice is seen in the writing on the wall.
Graffiti has a long history as a method of delivering messages of political dissent, as seen here at Alexanderplatz. The writers who scale buildings to deliver such messages are athletes and climbers just as much as rebels or artists.
As with many other cities in the world, Berlin is experiencing a wave of gentrification and, about which long-time residents are understandably up in arms. As you might expect, street art is a natural place for messages about displacement, like this one: “Live, work and play: we use this space together, so don’t displace us.”
Sometimes, the messages are a little more subtle without the text. This apple, exploding like a bomb, will hopefully rain down food for the hungry. Is there enough to go around?
– Benign and playful images like this one exist alongside more radical ones. This one, just outside a park, seems to say there’s space for everyone.
Nearly endless construction is a hallmark of Berlin, which is worrisome to many. Berlin has no traditional skyline, since most buildings are between three and six stories tall, and 40% of the city’s surface area is covered by parks. The Fernsehturm, the TV Tower (seen atop the robot’s head), was the tallest building in Germany when it was built in the 1960s, and is still visible from most places in the city. Naturally, this massive wave of construction could change all of these things, which make Berlin magical.
I love the texture and seeming randomness of so many street artists, kids, flyer-posters and trouble-makers seeming to work together on a collage of city. This collection near Hackescher Markt is a great place to see the chaos wrapped up into an unbroken chain.
In some way, the clean lines and precision of this collage seem to echo the randomness of Hackescher Markt.
In Kreuzberg, it’s hard to find a front door not marked with seemingly random tags. Unlike most other cities, it doesn’t seem to be a priority for either authorities or private owners to remove these scribbles. In some way, it feels like a conversation, where everyone is free to have their say, make their noise, chip in their two cents. It’s sort of like a soundscape of the neighborhood – except in color and text.
Since Banksy brought stencils into the vocabulary of street art, they have become a common tool of expression. I love that they create a canvas for montage and collage, just like this one.
No matter how subtle, street art leaves its impression all over Berlin.
Emily Manthei is an American journalist, travel writer and filmmaker currently living in Berlin. Previously a long-time Angeleno, she has written US News and World Report’s travel and real estate guides to Los Angeles, and she has covered destinations from Central America to Eastern Europe for travel sites like Trip101, Opeeqo and Entertainment Voice, among others. Currently, she is taking her short film Vergangenheitsbewältigung to film festivals. More at www.emilymanthei.com, or @emmimanthei on Instagram.
