Pictures on the Wall – A Berlin Street Art Guide

Walking the capital of Germany is akin to strolling through a vast outdoor art gallery, with striking works created by globally renowned icons or anonymous local sprayers seemingly everywhere you look. Keep your eyes peeled and you’ll spot everything from vast trompe-l’œil murals and vividly decorated fragments of the Berlin Wall to cheeky, Banksy-style stencils in doorways or tiny, dada-esque sculptures affixed to street signs. And while street art is officially illegal in Berlin, the city would be a lot less colourful without it.

Find out more about the city history of this cutting-edge art form, some of the famous graffiti artists who have immortalised themselves on its walls and the best areas to set out on your own free Berlin street art tour.

The story of street art in Berlin is inseparable from the vast concrete structure which snaked through the city from 1961 to 1989, dividing it in two and demarcating the front line of the Cold War. While residents of communist East Berlin were prohibited from venturing near the Berlin Wall (and were expected to pretend it didn’t exist), its western face offered a blank canvas for young West Berliners in the '70s and '80s to express their hopes, anxieties and frustrations. With influences ranging from punk anarchism to New York hiphop, they covered the drab concrete surface with colourful creations, transforming it into a vibrant, miles-long artwork. When the Wall came down in 1989, artists from all over the world decorated its eastern side with evocative paintings expressing hope for a brighter future.

There's a huge choice of tours to guide you to the best of Berlin's street art scene. If you'd rather embark on your own journey of discovery when you travel to Berlin, here are a few spots where you're certain to find some of the most eye-catching artworks.

The longest surviving section of the Berlin Wall, the East Side Gallery stretches 1.3 kilometres along the River Spree in the hip neighbourhood of Friedrichshain. When the Wall came down, artists immediately began painting this previously blank segment with murals commenting on the momentous changes of the time, thereby creating Berlin's most famous graffiti. Among the legendary images you'll see here are the former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and his East German counterpart Erich Honecker locked in a "fraternal kiss", painted by Dmitri Vrubel, and Birgit Kinder's mural of a Trabant car bursting through the wall. The East Side Gallery is now a protected monument, and the artworks have been restored to counter the ravages of time and weather.

Good to know: The closest transport is Warschauer Strasse (U1, S5, S7, S9) or Ostbahnhof (S5, S7, S9). Combine your street art viewing at the East Side Gallery with a visit to the Wall Museum.

A few steps from the East Side Gallery, the left-field RAW creative complex was formerly a repair yard for East German locomotives. Admire the constantly changing gallery of impressive graffiti while you browse the weekend flea market, enjoy a drink, take in a concert or spend a night at a pulsating dance club. 

Good to know: The closest transport is Warschauer Strasse (U1, S5, S7, S9)

Amid the boutiques and restaurants of the cool Scheunenviertel, this edgy street art alley in Berlin's Mitte area is a flashback to the atmosphere of the city's east in the 1990s. The narrow courtyard is an informal gallery where you can admire an ever-changing array of paintings bursting with energy and creativity. One constant marks the entrance to the Anne Frank Zentrum: a smiling portrait of the Dutch Jewish girl murdered by the Nazis.

Good to know: The Closest transport is Hackescher Markt (S3, S5, S7, S9) or Weinmeisterstrasse (U8). 

Street art is by nature ephemeral – works are removed, vandalised or painted over, the buildings they adorn are demolished, or they're simply worn away by the passing of time. Berlin's street art museum seeks to offer street artists a permanent stage for their work, while promoting understanding of the art form. The facade of the turn-of-the-century building in the Schöneberg district is a canvas for regularly changing murals, and you can enjoy themed exhibitions, seminars, alternative street art tours and graffiti workshops. 

Good to know: The closest transport is Nollendorfplatz (U1, U2, U3, U4) or Bülowstrasse (U2, U3). Make sure you also take a walk on buzzing Bülowstrasse for lots more art "in the wild".

Like to combine your private Berlin street art walking tour with a mountain hike? The Teufelsberg is the city's highest point, a hill made of rubble collected from the devastated city after World War II. During the Cold War, the Americans erected radomes and antennae to intercept and eavesdrop communications from the Eastern Bloc. These lost their use after 1989, and today the domes stand eerily abandoned, a canvas for over 400 works by international artists, with new pieces being constantly added.

Good to know: The nearest S-Bahn station is Heerstrasse (S3, S9), and from there it's about a 30-minute hike up the mountain. (Good shoes are recommended!) The site is now privately owned, there's a small entry charge and it's open until sunset. Guided tours are also available.

Its outlaw credibility is a big part of street art's mystique: anonymous sprayers, painters and pasters secretly creating eye-catching pieces in public spaces – often illegally – then vanishing, their identities unknown. You'll find countless images by incognito masters in Berlin. Nevertheless, here are a few "big name" artists to look out for.

A true pioneer, Thierry Noir first painted his naive yet evocative human heads using just a few bright colours on the Wall in West Berlin in the 1980s – he even has a brief cameo in Wim Wenders' 1987 film "Wings of Desire". Nowadays you can spot them on individual wall segments at Potsdamer Platz and at the East Side Gallery.

Belgian artist Roa is famed for his intricately detailed black-and-white depictions of animals, usually resting or dead. His striking image of several creatures suspended from a roof near Görlitzer Bahnhof station is a landmark in the Kreuzberg district, and you can also spot several giant rats climbing a wall on Schönhauser Allee in Mitte.

The Italian-born artist's trademark are his politically charged murals featuring stylised human figures, often bitingly criticising the dehumanising effects of capitalism. An icon of Blu's street art in Berlin is his Pink Man, near the Oberbaumbrücke linking Kreuzberg with Friedrichshain, a massive creature made up of countless tiny humans clambering desperately over one another.

Berlin's street art is in a constant state of flux – Blu is notorious for destroying his own paintings, and works by other artists are always disappearing, to be replaced by dramatic new pieces. Keep your eyes open while you explore this intriguing city, and you're bound to make your own exciting street art discoveries.