Berlin’s East Side Gallery, Neue Nationalgalerie, Live Jazz (plus Christmas Markets!)
Here’s the latest in a continuing series of photographs from a 21-day, three country, five city winter vacation to Europe with my ladyfriend (and fellow photographer) Serena.
Our stops? Berlin, Rome, Naples, Bath & London
In my last post, we kicked off a series of photographs from our six nights in Berlin (including a wild New Year’s Eve!). Germany’s capital city was the first stop in our European winter vacation. This post is a continuation from our time in that historic city and we’ll begin with one of Berlin’s most visited attractions – the East Side Gallery.
East Side Gallery
The East Side Gallery is the longest open-air gallery in the world. At 1316 meters long, the open-air art gallery on the banks of the Spree in Friedrichshain is the longest continuous section of the Berlin Wall still in existence. Immediately after the wall came down on November 9, 1989, 118 artists from 21 countries began painting the East Side Gallery, and it officially opened as an open air gallery on September 28, 1990. Just over a year later, it was given protected memorial status.
Out in the open air, the East Side Gallery is completely exposed to the weather, which means that there are regular efforts to restore it. In 1996, Kani Alavi, a Berlin artist who was living right next to Checkpoint Charly when the Wall came down, founded Künstlerinitiative East Side Gallery e.V., an artists’ initiative to preserve and restore the works. By 2000, a 300-metre stretch of the wall had already been restored and 33 pictures been repainted. By 2009, the whole East Side Gallery was restored.
“Trabant breaking through the wall”, painted by Birgit Kinder, depicts an East German Trabant car smashing through a section of the Berlin Wall. This artwork, with the license plate “NOV-9-89” and the phrase “TEST THE BEST” above it, symbolizes freedom and the historical moment of the wall’s fall and German reunification.
The city of Berlin added the East Side Gallery to its register of protected monuments in November 1991. The East Side Gallery is the most visible outcome of the opening of the Wall, but now, with almost the entire Berlin Wall gone, it is also one of the few remaining relics of the border fortifications at its original location, serving as a reminder that the city was divided for 28 years.
Check out the full gallery below…
Oberbaumbrücke (Oberbaum Bridge)
A short walk from the East Side Gallery is the Oberbaumbrücke, considered the most beautiful bridge in Berlin. And that’s saying something – there are almost 1000 bridges(!) from different eras in the capital city. The double-deck bridge is the landmark of the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district. It has connected the two districts since 1896. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, it also became a symbol of reunification of East and West.
The lower deck of the bridge carries a roadway, which connects Oberbaum Straße to the south of the river with Warschauer Straße to the north. The upper deck of the bridge carries Berlin U-Bahn lines U1 and U3, between Schlesisches Tor and Warschauer Straße stations.
Before the Oberbaum Bridge was given its current stone appearance, there was a wooden bridge over the Spree river. During the day, tolls were levied on the bridge and at night the Spree crossing was closed with a nailed tree trunk. The name Oberbaum stemmed from this heavy tree trunk, covered in metal spikes, that was used to block the river at night to prevent smuggling. Baum means tree or wooden beam in German; thus the name translates to “Upper [Upstream] Tree Bridge”. After the Siemens & Halske company was commissioned to plan a stone bridge on the same site, it was completed in 1896.
Shortly before the end of the Second World War, the Oberbaum Bridge was badly damaged by German troops. After the end of the war, the bridge was quickly repaired. When the Berlin Wall was built, the Oberbaum Bridge was closed to car and rail traffic. Between 1961 and 1989, the bridge was a border crossing that could only be used by pedestrians.
Neue Nationalgalerie
The Kulturforum (Cultural Forum) at the edge of West Berlin is a collection of cultural buildings that were built up in the 1950s and 1960s. With its many museums, libraries, and philharmonic concert halls, the Kulturforum is one of Germany’s leading sites of art, culture, and learning and is exceptional for the enormous diversity of the arts showcased there. One such building is the Neue Nationalgalerie.
The Neue Nationalgalerie opened in 1968. Designed by pioneering German-American architect Mies van der Rohe. The steel and glass architecture, wide, light-filled hall, and floating flat roof, is considered an architectural icon. Only eight slender, rising pillars outside the glass facade support the monumental, 65 by 65 meter coffered roof.
The history of the Neue Nationalgalerie’s collection, however, is intertwined with the turbulent political history of Germany. No other museum lost as many works through the actions of the Nazis as the Nationalgalerie (National Gallery) did. In the period 1937 to 1945 the collection lost more than 500 works: they were either confiscated, sold, or lost in the chaos of the Second World War.
PABLO PICASSO | “Woman with Flowers” 1958
In their efforts to rebuild the collection, the two German states adopted very different strategies post-1945. In the West, the Municipality of Greater Berlin acquired numerous works for the “Gallery of the 20th Century,” primarily of modern art – the very kind of art that had been confiscated and disposed of by the Nazis a decade earlier.
BORIS NEMENSKIJ | “Auf der namenlosen Höhe” (On the Nameless Height) 1961
The Neue Nationalgalerie underwent a comprehensive renovation between 2015 and 2021, led by David Chipperfield Architects, to update its 20th-century technical systems while preserving Mies van der Rohe’s original minimalist design. And after six years of renovation (and €140 million), the Neue Nationalgalerie reopened its doors in 2021.
ANDY WARHOL | “Multicolored Marilyn” 1979/1986
UWE PFEIFER | “Feierabend” (End of the Work Day) 1977
The National Gallery’s holdings include magnificent milestones in painting and sculpture — from classical modernism to the 1980s. The museum’s permanent collection is also strong on German Expressionism. When the Neue Nationalgalerie reopened in 2021, the permanent exhibition space featured art from 1900 to 1945; from late 2023 through October 2025, the museum is displaying works from 1945 to 2000.
“Mao” (1966) by German sculptor, painter, and video artist Thomas Bayrle is a wooden machine of hand-painted blocks that when set in motion slowly morphs Chinese Communist leader Chairman Mao’s face into a red star. For conservation reasons, the work may only be activated three times a day.
FRANZ GERTSCH | “Barbara und Gaby 3/74” 1974
GERHARD RICHTER | “4900 Colours” (2007)
The Neue Nationalgalerie is open from 10am-6pm Tuesday-Sunday and up to 8pm on Thursdays (free admission from 4pm). Regular admission is €20 with special exhibitions costing you usually €10 more. Well worth the price. More images in the gallery below…
Alexanderplatz Christmas Market
We arrived in Berlin from Miami on the morning of December 29th, so most of the Christmas Markets were already closing out. We did, however, pay a visit to the Alexanderplatz Christmas Market on New Year’s Eve – right before heading back to our hotel (a chilly 25 minute walk) to get ready for New Year’s Eve later that evening (watch the video here). I also put together a short video from a few clips taken with my Xiaomi 13 Ultra camera phone.
The DRIVE. Volkswagen Group Forum
Serena & I stumbled onto The DRIVE. Volkswagen Group Forum where ‘ICONIC – A Timeless Journey of Culture, Society and Mobility‘ exhibition presented modern day icons that mobility, design, architecture, art and music have brought to VW in recent decades and the present day. The exhibition included an interactive multimedia projection. Was a nice way to step out of the winter cold for a while.
Marienkirche
Serena and I stumbled upon this unusual looking church right next to the TV Tower so we popped in for a few minutes to check it out. Turns out it was St. Mary’s Church, known in German as the Marienkirche. It’s about a 5 minute walk from Alexanderplatz.
Berlin (as has most European cities) has suffered many fires during its history, and the Church of St. Mary was not spared from them. In the late 14th century it was damaged by fire and rebuilt in a modified form. From the 15th century, the church tower made of Rüdersdorf limestone was repaired and modified.
Michael Mathias Smids redesigned it in 1663 in the Baroque style, and a complete Neo-Gothic overhaul was carried out in 1789 by the celebrated master builder Carl Gotthard Langhans. One of his most famous works still stands today at Pariser Platz – the Brandenburg Gate. The imposing pulpit of the protestant church was added in 1703 by Andreas Schlüter.
The exact age of the original church site and structure is not precisely known but it is presumed to date from earlier in the 13th century, making it one of the oldest churches in Berlin.
We also came across a familiar face during our walk around the city…
b-flat Acoustic Music & Jazz Club
On our last night in Berlin, we decided that another live music venue was the perfect way to wrap up our five days in this dynamic city. A Google search led us to the b-flat Acoustic Music & Jazz Club located in the central Mitte neighborhood of Berlin.
The b-flat was founded in 1995 by musician brothers Jannis Zotos and Thanassis Zotos, as well as German actor André Hennecke. In collaboration with the architect Claudius Pratsch, a space was created that sets high standards in both spatial design and acoustics. The b-flat has been an indispensable location for Berlin’s live music scene ever since.
Unlike the Yorckschlösschen (check out the previous post), b-flat is more of a traditional live music venue (and a CASH ONLY policy). We were treated to a warm and wonderful jazz performance courtesy of Italian-born songbird Mirian Netti backed up by a very talented quartet of musicians. Another great place to catch live music in Berlin.
