June 9, 2025 - Berlin - Berlin Trip

Nikolaus Braun - Berliner Straßenszene 1921

The highlight of our morning was a visit to the final relocation site of the Berlinische Galerie (said to be a former uranium mining site that produced nearly 100 atomic bombs for the USSR). This gallery is an unique and totally engrossing experience showing how a strong impressionistic movement prior to WWI transformed into bleak expressionism and then, under strict Soviet constraints, had to go underground – with the recently displayed artworks only recently coming to light.

Also, the museums’ rich photographic gallery (from Zeiss and other well established East German companies) showed the city before and during various stages of the war, and documented the amazing contributions of talented East German women in designing and rebuilding East Berlin, despite being totally walled off after 1961 from all the ongoing West Berlin redevelopment.

The four of us went our separate ways in the gallery and we agreed to meet in the lobby at a later time. With less artistic knowledge than the others, I utilized the offered audioguide to enhance my visit. I was not previously familiar with any of the artists but enjoyed learning about them. If you want to learn more about the artwork in the gallery, HERE is a link to an audioguide featuring many of the artists and their works.

After our gallery visit, we headed back to our hotel for a short interlude before we again ventured off to the East Wall Gallery. At 1316 meters long (4,317 feet), this open-air art gallery on the banks of the Spree in Friedrichshain is the longest continuous section of the Berlin Wall still in existence. Immediately after the wall came down on 9 November 1989, 118 artists from 21 countries began painting the East Side Gallery, and it officially opened as an open air gallery on 28 September 1990. Just over a year later, it was given protected memorial status. In more than a hundred paintings on what was the east side of the wall, the artists comment on the political changes in 1989/90.

Here are a few of my favorites:

It Happened in November

The Persistence of Ignorance

Wall Jumper

The three pictures above are in order:

It happened in November by Kani Alavi

Karsten Wenzel was born in Ilmenau (East Germany) in 1965 and is a qualified typesetter. In 1988 he moved to East Berlin. After the fall of the Wall, he studied painting in Berlin. He now works as a freelance artist and teacher. His painting “Die Beständigkeit der Ignoranz” (The persistence of ignorance) criticizes the blindness of rulers and the public.

Gabriel Heimler was born in Paris in 1964. He grew up in France and with his grandparents in Hungary. Heimler studied art in Paris before moving to Halle in East Germany, then in 1988 to West Berlin. His painting “Mauerspringer” (The Wall Jumper) addresses the possibility of overcoming borders.

The most famous one seems to be by Russian artist Dmitry Vrubel. He was born in Moscow (Soviet Union) in 1960. His acclaimed Wall painting “Mein Gott, hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben” (“My God, help me to conquer this deadly love”) captures a kiss between the communist heads-of-state Honecker and Brezhnev.

You can view all of the works and information about them by clicking HERE

After viewing all the paintings in the East Side Gallery, we headed downriver toward the Oberbaumbrücke.

The Oberbaumbrücke connects the districts of Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg, separated by the Spree River, and is considered the most beautiful bridge in Berlin

It's now one of the symbols of Berlin and of German reunification

The name Oberbaumbrücke stemmed from the heavy tree trunk, covered in metal spikes, that was used as a boom to block the river at night to prevent smuggling. (Baum means tree in German, but can also mean boom as in this case; thus the name means something like "Upper [Upstream] Boom Bridge")

In 1724, the Oberbaum bridge was a simple wooden dam where ships had to pay their customs duties. During the day, tolls were levied on the bridge, at night the Spree crossing was closed with a nailed tree trunk

The architect and government official Otto Stahn (1859–1930) designed it in the North German Brick Gothic style of a city gate with many decorative elements, such as pointed arches, cross vaults, and coats of arms.

The two towers were inspired by the Middle Gate Tower (Mitteltorturm) in the northern Brandenburg city of Prenzlau.

When looking at the red-brick Oberbaum Bridge, the two towers in the middle arch of the bridge catch the eye. They are intended to remind us of the bridge's former function as a customs station and are partially different. While one tower has an octagonal ground plan on the upper floor, the other tower is round. The square tower bears the Berlin bear on top, the round one the Brandenburg eagle

When the Berlin Wall was built, the Oberbaum Bridge was closed to car and rail traffic. Between 1961 and 1989, the bridge was a border crossing that could only be used by pedestrians

During the Cold War, the Oberbaumbrücke became a symbol of the divided city. It was one of the few crossing points between East and West Berlin open to pedestrians, and it was heavily guarded by both sides

Reconstruction began in January 1992, with the war-damaged parts of the bridge rebuilt. It opened to pedestrians and traffic on 9 November 1994, the fifth anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall.

Looking through one of the arches of the bridge further downriver, you can see "Molecule Man". The Molecule Man is a thirty meters high metal sculpture designed and executed by the American sculptor Jonathan Borofsky Molecule Man – Berlin.de that has been braving the elements in the Spree River near the Oberbaum Bridge since 1999.

The 45 ton heavy water sculpture consists of perforated aluminum plates and shows three human silhouettes that turn towards each other and meet in the middle.

Molecule Man is a series of aluminium sculptures by Borofsky, installed at various locations around the world, including Germany and the United States. He was born December 24, 1942 and lives and works in Ogunquit, Maine.