Berlin Wall and East Side Gallery

For nearly three decades the Berlin Wall split the city and stood as the sharpest symbol of the Cold War, until it fell in 1989. Its longest surviving stretch, the East Side Gallery, was painted after the fall by artists from around the world into an open-air gallery of murals, while the Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse tells the sober history of the border that divided a people.

What you actually see

• The East Side Gallery - the long surviving stretch painted with famous murals.
• The Wall Memorial - the sober memorial and preserved border strip on Bernauer Strasse.
• The line of the Wall - the cobbled line tracing its course through the city.
• The documentation centre - the exhibition telling the story of the division.

When to go

Year-round; the outdoor stretches are open and free at all times, best in daylight to see the murals. The Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse gives the fullest, most sober account.

Honest expectations

The murals of the East Side Gallery are busy with photographers and some are faded or tagged. For the real history rather than the art, the Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse is more moving. The wall is now fragmentary, scattered across the city.

Nearby

Checkpoint Charlie and the Topography of Terror are elsewhere in the city; the Spree runs alongside the gallery.