Berlin Graffiti Culture

All around Berlin there seems to be Art. Graffiti art, Wall Art, Fashion - you name it, Berlin has it.

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.

But while the west face of the Berlin Wall was blanketed with graffiti, the east face was orderly and gray. The notorious Stasi police kept graffiti under wraps, and writers in East Berlin risked imprisonment.

All that changed, of course, with the fall of the wall in 1989, which opened up vast new blank walls virtually overnight. Artists, musicians and young people flooded East Berlin, heralding a shift in the youth culture from west to east.

David and I have enjoyed seeing a lot of art around Prenzlauer Berg and its surrounds, we have included a few snaps below.

Update from David: Added the Banksy-looking dog at the end as well.