Hotels near East Side Gallery

The East Side Gallery is the longest surviving section of the Berlin Wall - a 1.3 km open-air gallery on the east bank of the Spree near Ostbahnhof. Painted in 1990 by 118 artists from 21 countries, it includes Dmitri Vrubel's iconic My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love (the Brezhnev-Honecker kiss) and Birgit Kinder's Trabant breaking through the Wall.

The gallery is free, open 24/7, and walkable in about 30 minutes. Restoration in 2009 saw most artworks repainted by the original artists. Crowds peak from 11am to 4pm; weekday mornings are emptier and offer better photos of the major panels.

Pro Tip: Walk from Ostbahnhof to Warschauer Strasse for the full 1.3 km, then cross the Oberbaumbrucke into Kreuzberg for lunch at Markthalle Neun (Tuesdays / Thursdays for Street Food Thursday).