Graffiti and Street Art in Berlin

Berlin is one of the best places in the world to see graffiti. Artists come from all over the world to add their touch to the city's buildings, walls, bridges, etc. I took a tour of the "alternative" side of Berlin which focused on graffiti, among other things. Basically, during the Cold War a whole sub-culture developed in West Berlin, and when the wall came down it spread into East Berlin.  The tour discussed a lot of different aspects of this sub-culture, but graffiti was the only aspect I could easily capture on camera. The one exception is Tacheles - it's an abandoned building that is illegally occupied by artists and at night it turns into a really cool bar scene (similar to the warehouse bars in Budapest).   I have some pictures of that area, shown below. 

back of Tacheles building

Tacheles hallway

Tacheles - outdoor area that is packed at night (also illegal)

 in Tacheles

random graffiti

this graffiti takes up the entire front of a building; the rest of the block is brand new, modern buildings 

interactive art project- people are given stickers to make designs all over the building

stick-on graffiti- technically this isn't illegal because it can be peeled off the wall at any time

Little Lucy (right) is all over Berlin - she is done by a respected artist so not many people write over her (use the cat woman on the left as comparison - someone drew a mustache on her and she is covered in more graffiti)

commissioned street art (legal) - lots of artists were hired by the city of Berlin to decorate the remaining part of the Berlin Wall

another panel of the Berlin Wall

commissioned street art