“Lots of small people in lots of small places doing lots of small things can change the face of the world.” This is written on what remains of the Berlin Wall. And that’s exactly what happened. It was not the rulers of the world but the regular people of Berlin who took down the Wall in 1989. An approximate 1-kilometre-long section of the wall has been preserved, which now – colourfully painted – forms the East Side Gallery. A vibrant and vivid protest.
Berlin and the Wall are inextricably linked. This tangible symbol of the Cold War was demolished with great enthusiasm after the fall of the Wall and later sold piece by piece by the destitute DDR (German Democratic Republic) authorities. Part of the Wall is still intact, such as along the Spree on Mühlenstraße where 1,316 metres of hideously reinforced concrete was converted in 1990 by 116 artists from 21 countries into the world’s longest open-air gallery.
“In spite of the protest by David Hasselhoff, 23 metres of the Wall were demolished to build a luxury hotel”