“Are you going to Berlin? You just have to go on a graffiti tour!” I was recommended by no less than five different people when I told them I was visiting the capital of Germany. And since I myself had heard quite a bit about the kicking street art scene of Berlin, I had no doubt that I was going to sign up for such a tour as soon as I arrived.
In general, you can say that graffiti in Berlin is everywhere: on the walls of the buildings, under bridges, on the railroad cars, and even on the street signs and columns. Berlin became a graffiti power mainly because of the wall that crossed it for 29 years, On the separation period it was possible to paint only on its western side. With the fall of the wall, more and more areas were covered in graffiti, and the Kreuzberg neighborhood became the center of the city’s most vibrant street art.
The graffiti tour of Arternative
After wandering the Internet and reading recommendations on graffiti tours in Berlin, I came across the website of the Arternative Company, which in 2012 established Talia and Daniel Israelis who just completed an art degree. The truth is that I was inspired by the story of two female friends that started their business on private gallery tours for friends in London until they became an agency that publishes a number of art tours every day in several European cities. Regardless of the fact that I am in favor of female and Israeli entrepreneurship, I obviously preferred to hear the explanations in Hebrew.
Starting the Tour - What is Street Art?
The meeting point where The tour begins is at the entrance to the neighborhood of Kreuzberg, right next to the East Side Gallery, although the Gallery is not part of the tour.
Here we received a detailed explanation of the city’s graffiti types and level of legality. It turns out that ranks among the graffiti is legal and supported by the municipality, drawing ignoring him because he was considered illegal and invalid paintings really fine that may drag on the painter.
Here we received a detailed explanation of the city’s graffiti types and level of legality. It turns out that there are 3 levels of graffiti legality. There are some which are legal and supported by the municipality, some that are illegal but the inspectors ignore them and some are illegal and can get monetary fines
East side gallery
East Side Gallery is the longest gallery street art world, 1300 meters left of the Berlin Wall.
During the Tour we observe only a small part of it, but I recommend you walk the entire length of course and visit the famous painting of Erich Honecker (East German ruler) kissing Leonid Brnz’iib (Soviet President) Dmitry Vrubel painted in 1990, less than a year after the fall of the Wall.
Kreuzberg neighborhood - Welcome to the most picturesque neighborhood in Berlin
There is a particular reason why this graffiti tour focuses on the Kreuzberg neighborhood, one of Berlin’s most unique neighborhoods. The unique character of the neighborhood was created in the times of Berlin Wall, when the neighborhood was surrounded on three sides by the wall, creating an alternative atmosphere and encouraged the picturesque street on the western side of the wall. Initially Berliners did not want to live in a neighborhood surrounded by a wall, so the residents here were mainly migrant workers and refugees. Over time, the neighborhood gradually became cool hipster area.
You can not talk about street art without mentioning the term gentrification, pushing the local population of the neighborhood by higher status begins to live there, to change the nature and cause as a result of the original tenants to leave. Kreuzberg neighborhood is constantly in the process of gentrification of some kind, and graffiti works to protect the original character.
Street art particularly active here, and every day there are new paintings neighborhood, paintings and drawings is deleted arises over existing drawings. Graffiti is also a tool to remove the wealthy homes (for those who want to live in a building full of flaky?). Even restaurants have given up the war against street artists and most of them choose to paint their walls in order not to receive random graffiti doodles.
Attention to the small details
Just as happened to me on the Florentine graffiti tour in Tel Aviv, from the moment I went through the tour I never stop noticing the paintings and icons that I have so far completely ignored. While the paintings are the most in Kreuzberg, the hallmarks of their artists or sculptures appear all over the city – making the Berlin experience even cooler as soon as another artist and a unique fingerprint for the graffiti band we came to know.
Of course, you can wander alone in Kreuzberg and watch the graffiti, but the training was definitely enriching and fun. The tour lasts for two and a half hours and costs € 24, with pre-registration.
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