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The art on the Berlin Wall inspired a wave of street art both during the Berlin Wall’s duration and during its aftermath. Berlin is known today as one of the street art capitals in the world, with expansive murals painted on numerous walls throughout the city.
What was the impact of the Berlin Wall?
The Berlin wall divided families who found themselves unable to visit each other. Many East Berliners were cut off from their jobs. West Berliners demonstrated against the wall and their mayor Willy Brandt led the criticism against the United States who they felt had failed to respond.
What did the art of the Berlin Wall symbolize?
It resulted from the constant disputes of the “East” and “West” over the status of Allied occupied Berlin and Germany. It came to symbolize the Cold War and was the most “concrete” expression of the Iron Curtain that existed throughout the period.
What is the theme of the artwork on the Berlin Wall?
The outdoor gallery is actually a stretch of wall covered with 120 paintings alongside a busy road, facing a somewhat littered park and waterfront. The often politically charged works reflect the mood of a divided and then re-unified city, from the pains of oppression to the joys of freedom.
Why is Berlin full of graffiti?
The roots of graffiti culture can be traced back to West Berlin in the early 1980s, when the American-occupied sector was the reluctant melting pot of anarchist punks, Turkish immigrants and West German draft resisters.
What effects did the wall leave on the people of Germany?
Effects of the Berlin Wall With the closing of the East-West sector boundary in Berlin, the vast majority of East Germans could no longer travel or emigrate to West Germany. Berlin soon went from the easiest place to make an unauthorized crossing between East and West Germany to the most difficult.
What are the consequences of the fall of the Berlin Wall?
The fall of the wall in 1989 reunited families and allowed them to cross over to the other side of the city. A second consequence was that the fall of the Berlin Wall led to the fall of communist regimes in countries such as Czechoslovakia in December 1989.
What did the Berlin Wall symbolize and how did its destruction affect this symbolism?
What did the Berlin Wall symbolize, and how did its destruction affect this symbolism? The Berlin Wall was a symbol of the Iron Curtain, and its destruction marked the end of communist power in Germany. Unlike in most other Eastern European countries, the fall of communism in Romania involved significant bloodshed.
Is it illegal to graffiti the Berlin Wall?
Berlin is one of the world’s graffiti-capitals with tags, political slogans and street art widespread throughout the city. Unless the owner of the surface expresses permission, all graffiti is now illegal and punishable by fines up to EUR 2,000, or three years in prison.
Who tore down the Berlin Wall?
Happily for Berliners, though, the speech also foreshadowed events to come: Two years later, on November 9, 1989, joyful East and West Germans did break down the infamous barrier between East and West Berlin. Germany was officially reunited on October 3, 1990.
Why did artists draw graffiti and murals on the Berlin Wall?
While the East Wall was heavily guarded and would remain untouched throughout the Cold War, by the mid-1980s West German artists began to decorate the West Wall. The art on the Berlin Wall was often characterized by subversive symbolism that critiqued the wall and what it stood for.
What was so significant about the Berlin Wall coming down in 1989?
The Berlin Wall: The Fall of the Wall On November 9, 1989, as the Cold War began to thaw across Eastern Europe, the spokesman for East Berlin’s Communist Party announced a change in his city’s relations with the West. Starting at midnight that day, he said, citizens of the GDR were free to cross the country’s borders.
What did the fall of the Berlin Wall symbolize?
Though East and West Germany were formally reunified on October 3, 1990, the fall of the Berlin Wall served as a symbol of the country’s unification—and, for many, the end of communism in Eastern Europe and the Cold War.
What kind of graffiti was on the Berlin Wall?
For five years during the 1980s, Noir illegally painted the western side of the Berlin Wall with bold, cartoonish images of animals and human faces, evading police and border guards.
Where is the kiss on the Berlin Wall?
It’s called “The Kiss” or “The Kiss of Death.” And it is perhaps the most famous image that appears in Berlin’s East Side Gallery–a nearly mile-long mile stretch of the Berlin Wall.
Does Germany have a graffiti problem?
Berlin and other European cities seem to be more riddled with graffiti than North American ones. That is probably the result of the failure to remove tags and graffiti in public places. Europeans seem to have a higher tolerance for graffiti than North Americans.
How did the Berlin Wall effect Germany?
The rise of the Berlin Wall, and subsequent occupation of East and West Germany caused an economic disparity between the two countries. West Germany was flooded with wealthy foreign soldiers, who bolstered its economy, while East Germany, under the authoritarian rule of the Soviets, saw much worse conditions.
Does the Berlin Wall still exist?
Does the Berlin Wall still exist? Segments of the Berlin Wall still exist in modern Berlin, notably on display at the Topography of Terror museum, the Berlin Wall Memorial, and the East Side Gallery. Pieces and whole segments of the wall are also on display in museums all over the world.
Is the Berlin Wall still up?
The last original segments of the Wall at Potsdamer Platz and Stresemannstraße were torn down in 2008. Six sections were later erected in front of the entrance to the Potsdamer Platz station. Just around the corner is one of the last Watchtowers left standing in the city.
Did the Berlin Wall separate families?
Many families were divided by the Wall — either by its construction or by escapes. In the 28 years the Wall stood, at least 100,000 people escaped to West Germany from the East. But the communist regime divided people in other ways too.
What was life behind the Iron Curtain?
The Iron Curtain was a figurative and ideological wall — and eventually a physical one — that separated the Soviet Union from western Europe after World War II. The name, widely attributed to Winston Churchill, hinted that life in the USSR was secretive and very different from other western, capitalist countries.
How did the Berlin Wall worsen relations?
The wall stopped people leaving East Berlin, preventing further damage to the economy. Showed the West that communism would remain in East Berlin and that Germany could not be united under Western control. International relations: Tensions increased between the USA and the Soviet Union after the Berlin Wall was built.
