"In 1990, the East Side Gallery was created on what today is the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall as some 118 artists from 21 countries created murals celebrating the fall of the divide. Moscow artist Dmitry Vrubel was there to paint "Brotherly Kiss," an image of former Soviet Union leader Leonid Breschnew and East German regime head Erich Honecker in passionate embrace which remains one of the gallery's most iconic works."
"But 35 years later, these people are gone as the East Side Gallery a tourist hotspot with over 400 million visitors annually is overshadowed by real estate development. "The white buildings that have been constructed there are luxury apartments and hotels," Anna von Arnim-Rosenthal says as she stands between the Spree River and the Wall and points to a building complex on the other side of the riverbank."
The East Side Gallery was established in 1990 on the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall when 118 artists from 21 countries painted murals celebrating the fall of the divide. Dmitry Vrubel painted the iconic "Brotherly Kiss" depicting Leonid Breschnew and Erich Honecker. A counterculture emerged along the Spree River with hundreds living in caravans and improvised dwellings. By 1996 the area was cleared amid political pressure and negative press, and wagon dwellers were forced to leave. The site has since become a major tourist destination overshadowed by luxury apartments, hotels, and rapid urban development.
Read at www.dw.com
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