EAST SIDE GALLERY, Murales

The famous murals that make up the East Side Gallery feature an immense variety of subjects, but they all share the same aspiration: to glorify the triumph of peace and liberty over all forms of war and division.

There are no divisions between the paintings, which thus create a single, continuous effect that cannot fail to move the observer.

You’ll surely want to take a couple of extra minutes to admire what is probably the most famous mural in the whole of the East Side Gallery, featuring two elderly men in distinguished attire kissing one another on the mouth.

The pair are Leonid Brezhnev, leader of the USSR, and Erich Honecker, third Chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic. This fraternal embrace actually took place on October 6, 1979, during the celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the GDR, and the moment was captured for posterity by the French journalist, Régis Bossu....