Urban Art Berlin
The capital as an open air gallery
Urban art not only changes the image of the city. The lettering, tags and murals are always also an expression of the current zeitgeist. People have been spraying and tagging in Berlin since the 70s. Originally an expression of youthful protest, street art is now an established art form. It's not only because of the East Side Gallery that the capital is now considered to be a mecca for urban art. Many famous artists have left their mark on the streets of Berlin. Join us on a discovery tour of the city's most beautiful murals. We have selected 16 places for you where you will find either a variety of murals or one particularly beautiful mural. You can visit the 16 street art locations individually or combine several into one tour by bike or underground. Find out more in our street art highlight on our story App ABOUT BERLIN
The Berlin Street Art Map
- Exclusively illustrated by Jim Avignon
- 16 street art locations in Berlin
- Three top murals for each location
- Addresses and directions
Download the Berlin Street Art Map for free
Urban Art: Poetry of the city
No matter how you prefer to travel, we encourage you to walk through the streets with your eyes wide open. Experience Berlin as a gigantic open-air gallery and be surprised by the diversity and expressiveness of the oversized murals. In addition to modern murals, you will also come across many other exciting projects that enrich Berlin with art in public spaces during your discovery tour. These include the Molecule Man in the Spree and the mosaics on the outer walls of the Haus des Lehrers, which date back to GDR times.
History of mural painting
In socialist realism, murals were often used for propaganda purposes. In terms of cultural history, the first murals or wall paintings can be dated back to cave paintings in the Stone Age. Walls have been used as canvases from the times of antiquity through the Middle Ages to the magnificent frescoes of the Renaissance and the ceiling paintings in Baroque churches. In the 20th century, Mexican muralistas, including Diego Rivera, achieved worldwide fame and recognition with their political murals.
The modern form of street art spilled over from Brooklyn to Berlin in the 70s with graffiti, hip-hop and breakdancing. Inspired by films like Wildstyle and Beat Street, Berlin's youths designed their own colourful tags and lettering. Often misjudged at the time as mere excesses of youthful rebellion, the tags, lettering and murals now form an integral part of the cityscape. Once confined to the fire walls on vacant plots between buildings in the city, which for a long time ran through the cityscape after the destruction of Berlin in the Second World War, today large housing cooperatives cooperate with street artists and provide highly visible façades for the gigantic murals. Various initiatives are also campaigning for more legal spaces for artists and sprayers in the city.
Around Gleisdreieckpark
One of these legal spaces, and one of numerous "Walls of Fame", is the Legacy Wall in Gleisdreieck Park right next to the skate park. Here you can experience on site how new murals are created. In honour of the original graffiti movement, only tagging is used, which means that the central element of each motif should be the lettering. If you want to have a go at spraying yourself, you can get materials and a permit from the Legacy Store at Yorckstraße 53. There are also numerous organisations providing graffiti workshops in the city.
Top murals:
- Legacy Wall
- Trialog by Innerfields, Möckernstraße 106
- Aufstand der Farben (Revolt of the Colours) by Interbrigadas e.V., Luckenwalder Straße 11
URBAN NATION Museum and Bülowstraße
The referenced media source is missing and needs to be re-embedded.
The URBAN NATION Museum for Contemporary Art is also committed to the scene. With the support of the Berliner Leben Foundation of the Gewobag housing association, numerous urban art projects have already been completed in the city and many well-known street artists have been brought to Berlin. A walk along Bülowstraße is like visiting an open-air gallery for the who's who of the street art scene. The façade of the URBAN NATION museum is also regularly spruced up with a new coat of paint. Right now, the Human Beans by Dave the Chimp & Friends are working on a gigantic construction site. The little orange beans are showing what can be achieved through collaborative work with a sense of solidarity and a great deal of humour.
Top murals
- No Future by Shepard Fairey, corner of Frobenstraße and Schwerinstraße, 10783 Berlin
- Collaborative project word to mother, Cyrcle, Obey Giant, D_Face, Zio Ziegler, 1UP, Blek Le Rat, Berlin Kidz, Never2501, James Bullough (between 1UP & 2501) - Urban Nation / One Wall, Bülowstr. 31/32
- Created by Phlegm, Kirchbachstraße 1
Streetart-Mekka Kreuzberg
Even before the fall of the Wall, Kreuzberg was a stronghold for hip-hop and graffiti culture. Influenced by the New York scene, gangs of their own formed in Berlin and claimed a piece of the city for themselves in their own way. Individual members of the youth gangs of that time are still active in Berlin today, but for the most part no longer with spray cans, base caps and black hoodies. Instead they run break-dance studios, graffiti shops, graphic agencies or campaign for more urban art in public spaces.
Tip: Take our self-guided bike tour for street art fans.
Murals around Moritzplatz
You can see the results around Moritzplatz. Here you can find some of the most famous murals in Berlin, created through exciting street art initiatives, such as the Backjumps Live Issues, the Berlin Mural Fest or the ONE WALL project, for example: Astronaut|Cosmonaut by Victor Ash (Backjumps Live Issue 2007), Herakut "My home is not a castle" (Berlin Mural Festival 2018) and the 2021 portrait of Brazilian women's rights activist Marielle Franco created to mark the occasion of International Women's Day (Brave Wall|ONE WALL) by Katerina Voronina in cooperation with Amnesty International and URBAN NATION.
Top murals
- Astronaut Cosmonaut by Victor Ash, Oranienstraße 195
- No Comment - Jadore Tong, Ritterstraße 12, 10969 Berlin
- Daphne & Apollo by Francisco Bosoletti and Young Jarus Wassertorstraße 65
Ikons of the Street Art Scene around Mehringplatz
Directly at Mehringplatz you can see several exciting murals by internationally renowned artists. Many were brought to Berlin in 2018 for the first ONE WALL project initiated by URBAN NATION. Among them Shepard Fairey ("Make Art not War"), whose Hope poster for Barack Obama's 2008 election campaign has long since become an icon. And Jadore Tong's elephant, described as "!" behind the sports field on Wilhelmstraße, shows what a positive effect a colourful mural can have on the neighbourhood.
Top murals
- "!" Jadore Tong (Elephant), Wilhelmstraße 7
- Make Art not war, Shepard Fairey, Mehringplatz 28
- Don John - Hoodie Birds, Mehringplatz 29
Street Art Highlight on our ABOUT BERLIN App
On our ABOUT BERLIN app we have put together a number of exciting cycling routes and tours taking you to the most beautiful murals in Berlin. You will also find background stories, audiobooks and videos on the topic here. You can download the ABOUT BERLIN app for free.
There are a lot of stories to tell. ABOUT BERLIN.
Görlitzer Bahnhof & Wrangelkiez
Keep your eyes peeled as you continue your discovery tour towards Friedrichshain. Around Görlitzer Bahnhof and along Manteuffelstraße you will find works by ROA "Nature Morte", Tank "Dame mit Vogel" (Lady with bird), One Truth "Swiss Made" and Huariu "Meditation in Chaos".
Top murals
- Nature Morte by ROA, Oranienstraße 2
- Dame mit Vogel (Lady with bird) by Tank, Manteuffelstraße 12
- Smug, Manteuffelstraße 70
Tip: The street art clusters described above from Bülowstraße to Görlitzer Bahnhof can be reached quickly and easily by U1 and U3 (Nollendorfplatz to Warschauer Straße). From Warschauer Straße you can walk to the East Side Gallery, Boxhagener Platz and the RAW-Gelände in a few minutes. The underground even provides a particularly good view of a several of the murals.
With the Berlin WelcomeCard you can travel free of charge on public transport in Berlin and also receive a discount at many museums and attractions
Street Art around Oberbaumbrücke
In divided Berlin, the Oberbaumbrücke connected the district of Friedrichshain in the Soviet sector with the district of Kreuzberg in the American sector. In more recent times, it has often been used as a backdrop for thrillers and films (The Bourne Identity, Run Lola Run). Partially destroyed during the Second World War, the bridge was extensively renovated after reunification. In addition, various tenders and art initiatives resulted in numerous exciting projects around the Oberbaumbrücke, including a number of murals.
Top murals
- Yellow Man by Os Gemeos, Oppelner Straße 3
- Painted over: BLU Pink Man, Falckensteinstr. 49 (you can find a picture and background information on the mural in our About Berlin app)
- Rounded Heads by Nomad, Oppelner Straße 46/47
Boxhagener Platz & Frankfurter Tor
The "Affe als Kunstrichter" (Monkey as Art Critic) looks down on the hustle and bustle of the trendy neighbourhood from a corner building on Gabriel-Max-Straße. The mural is an excerpt from the painting of the same name by the artist Gabriel Cornelius Ritter von Max, who rose to fame at the beginning of the 19th century for his monkey paintings, the proceeds of which are said to have financed his scientific studies. The mural has seemingly made human being the object of observation, so please behave with the appropriate level of responsibility.
Top murals
- Michelle Tombolini Butterfly Girl, Boxhagener Straße 86
- El Bocho – Augen in der Großstadt (Eyes in the Big City), Lasdehner Straße 7
- Gabriel von Max: Affe als Kunstrichter (Monkey as Art Critic): Gabriel-Max-Straße 6
Tip: On our story app ABOUT BERLIN we have put together a self-guided bike tour for street art fans. It takes you along the Spree River up to Friedrichshain.
Download ABOUT BERLIN for free for iPhone and Android.
There are many stories to tell. ABOUT BERLIN.
RAW-Gelände
In the 19th and 20th centuries, locomotives were serviced here. Today you will meet creative people from all over the world on the site of the former Reichsbahnausbesserungswerk railway facility (RAW-Gelände), where a total of over 80 projects operate cooperatively. You can see great murals and other works of art here, as well as dance, climb, skate, dine and stroll through the flea market at the weekend.
Top murals
- There's no such thing as bad publicity by MTO, Warschauer Str. 58
- Cassiopeia mural by ROLF LE ROLFE, RAW-Gelände
- Hochbunker mural by LAKE, RAW-Gelände
Holzmarkt
It is thanks to the initiative of a few committed citizens that the Holzmarkt is pulsating with life today. In a referendum in 2008, 87 percent of the citizens voted against a purely commercial use. Today, large murals lure passers-by to visit the site. Here you can find the circle of colourful arrows by Klebebande and the detailed Wimmelbild (Hidden Object) by the artist collective WENU. The Holzmarkt has long been an integral part of Berlin's creative scene. In addition to large-format murals, you can see art, attend concerts and enjoy delicious food and wine here.
Top murals
- Wimmelbild (Hidden Object) by wenu, Holzmarktstraße 25
- unknown by Klebebande, Holzmarktstraße 25
- Citizens by El Bocho, Holzmarktstraße 25
- No Title by Cranio (The Blue Indian), Holzmarktstraße 31
Tip: It takes just 15 minutes to walk from the Holzmarkt to the East Side Gallery. On the way you can discover some more exciting murals, such as Der blaue Indianer (The Blue Indian) by Cranio, The Women's Faces by El Bocho and the Dancing Girls by SOBR.
East Side Gallery
At 1,316 metres, the open-air gallery on the Spree is the longest section of the Wall still standing. 118 artists from 21 countries have immortalised themselves here, many of them you can still see at East Side Gallery. Among the most famous works are Dimitrji Vrubel's Fraternal Kiss, Birgit Kinders' Trabant breaking through the Wall, and The Colourful Heads by Thierry Noir, a veteran of the urban art scene, who began painting the Wall as early as the 1980s – as a statement against its dreary grey.
Noir's Colourful Heads can also be found today, for example, at Bernburger Straße 18 and on a section of the wall in front of the Mall of Berlin.
Top murals on the East Side Gallery
- Fraternal Kiss by Dimitrji Vrubel
- Test the Rest, Trabi by Birgit Kinders
- "Du hast gelernt, was Freiheit heißt" (You have learned what freedom means) by André Sécrit
Streetart around the Mauerpark
The border strip of the Berlin Wall once ran here. Today it is recreational space for young people, families and others wanting to enjoy its green spaces. Alongside the amphitheatre and the large flea market, the "Wall of Fame" also contributes to the typical Berlin lifestyle that makes Mauerpark a very special meeting place. Here at the "Wall of Fame" young people can legally spray, tag and let off steam creatively. They find inspiration in the park itself, such as "The big jump" by Victor Ash at Oderberger Straße 57 or Snoopy and the balloon.
Top murals:
- even heroes have bad days, Schwedter Straße 228
- The big jump by Victor Ash, Oderberger Straße 57
- Snoopy and the balloon by Fanakapan, Schwedter Straße 30
Gedenkstätte | Bernauer Straße
The image of the GDR soldier jumping over the border fence at the last minute went around the world. It is without doubt the most prominent mural on the former border strip. Here on Bernauer Straße you get a good impression of what life in divided Berlin was like. Inspired by the incisive event of reunification, Xi-Design created the mural "Steakart". Where the knife cuts into the red meat, you can see the outline of Berlin's districts as a reunited city in the bold drawing.
Top murals
- "Steakart" by Xi-Design, Bernauer Str. 11
- Stralsunder Kapitän (Stralsunder Sea Captain) by stereoheat, Stralsunder Str. 33
- Blumen, Tiere und berühmte Männer (Flowers, Animals and Famous Men) by Spray City, Tasd, Tras, Fuchur, Bandit, Anklamer Str. 60
Haus Scharzenberg | Neurotitan Galerie
Haus Schwarzenberg and the Neurotitan Gallery are located amidst the intricate architecture of the courtyards between Hackescher Markt and Scheunenviertel. The independent art and creative scene has been meeting and sharing ideas here since 1995. Many exciting projects have already been undertaken here. A visit to the colourfully painted rear courtyard alone is proof of the creative energy. Come and see for yourself! You can even find a mural of Anne Frank in front of the neighboring Anne Frank Center.
Top murals
- "Wear your mask with a smile" by artists' collective Various & Gould
- Batwoman by Osch and liz_art_berlin
- Charlie Chaplin by Osch (Otto Schade)
Wedding
Artists once moved to Wedding because affordable housing could still be found here. Now Wedding belongs to the Mitte district, but art and culture have not been driven out. Numerous exciting project spaces and cultural quarters have established themselves here, such as Silent Green, which found a home in the former crematorium in Wedding.
The multi-storey car park at Gesundbrunnen Center is currently providing space for Andrea Stöckmann's ‘Urban Canvas Parkhaus Wedding’ project. The otherwise grey concrete walls are being transformed into colourful canvases by various artists. The walls will be redesigned by the street artists at regular intervals. This creates a dynamic open-air gallery on a total of 38 walls.
Top Murals
- Tree Children by Victor Ash, from the project Wedding Walls, Lynarstr. 1
- Urban Canvas Parkhaus Wedding, Brunnenstraße 105 - 109
- Ray Charles by Skalmo, Leibnizstraße 68
Berlins oldest mural at Savignyplatz
In 2004, Berlin's largest mural was created in the backyard of a former petrol station at Uhlandstraße 187, just a five-minute walk from Savignyplatz.The triptych designed by Gino Fuchs and Christian Wahle, alias Lake, covers 1200 square metres and shows a military octopus with a Mercedes star holding the politicians in the Bundestag by the strings like puppets. But even the political might of the depicted politicians, including Gerhard Schröder, Helmut Kohl, Willy Brandt and Konrad Adenauer, could not prevent the triptych from falling victim to a building project.
Weltbaum (Parliament of Trees) by Ben Wagin can still be seen. In addition to the fading original from 1975 in Bachstraße, a new world tree was created on a fire wall behind a playground in Lehrter Straße 27-30 on the initiative of some young street artists as a prelude to the first Mural Fest.
Top murals
1. Weltbaum (Parliament of Trees) by Ben Wagin, Siegmunds Hof 21 | Bachstraße 111
2. Hommage à Magritte, Kantstraße 14
3. Ray Charles by Skalmo, Leibnizstraße 68
Murals in Marzahn-Hellersdorf
Under the motto "Now it's getting colourful again", the group of artists "Die Dixons" moved out to Marzahn-Hellersdorf with the second edition of their Mural Fest. Urban artists such as Victor Ash, Akut, Boogie, MadC and of course Die Dixons themselves designed a total of seven house walls, turning Marzahn-Hellersdorf into the new hotspot for street art fans.
Top Murals
- Astronaut (Juri Gagarin) by Victor Ash, Ludwigsfelder Straße 14, Hellersdorf
- Adry del Rocio, Märkische Allee 158, Mural Fest 2019
- Akut, Märkische Allee 164, Mural Fest 2019
Teufelsberg: Europes largest Street Art Gallery
In summer 2012, the Graffiti Lobby Berlin invited street artists from all over the world to design the site of the former US spy station on Teufelsberg. The initiative was named after the former GDR national anthem "Auferstanden aus Ruinen" (Risen from Ruins) and established Teufelsberg as the largest street art gallery in Europe.
Artpark Tegel
The eight gigantic murals of the Artpark Tegel can be seen from far away. This kind of art on buildings is intended to enhance neighbourhoods and promote a sense of community among neighbourhood residents. The client is the housing association Gewobag, whose foundation Berliner Leben also supports Berlin's museum for street art, the URBAN NATION Museum of Contemporary Art.
Tip: All eight murals are close together and are easily accessible on foot. On our free ABOUT BERLIN app we have put together a tour with background information and audio stories about the individual murals.
Top Murals
- ONE WALL von Jim Avignon, Neheimer Str. 8
- ONE WALL Tankpetrol und Queenkong, Neheimer Str. 4
- ONE WALL "The starling" One Wall von Collin van der Sluijs und Super A, Neheimer Str. 6
Get inspired: Street Art-Highlight on our ABOUT BERLIN App
Image gallery
Junge Frau nutzt Streetart Highlight der ABOUT BERLIN App.
Streetart: No Comment, Mural von Jadore Tong
Urban Nation Museum - Dave the Chimp and Friends
Streetart am Mehringplatz: Make Art not War von Shepard
Graffiti in Berlin an der Legacy Wall im Gleisdreieckpark.
Streetart in Friedrichshain: "Monkey See. Monkey Do." von Herakut
Streetart: Mural von Tank - Dame mit Vogel
Streetart in Friedrichshain: Butterfly Girl von Michelle Tombolini
Streetart in Berlin: Mural von El Bocho "Augen in der Großstadt"
Streetart in Berlin: Astronaut | Cosmonaut von Victor Ash
Streetart in Friedrichshain: Affe als Kunstrichter gewidmet Gabriel von Max
Streetart in Berlin: Mural The Yellow Man von Os Gemeos
Mural der mexikanische Künstlerin Adry del Rocio, Berlin 2019
Mural Fest Berlin, Wiener Straße 42, Berlin
Berlin Mural Fest, Holzmarkt 25, Berlin
Mural Fest Berlin, Stromstraße 36, Berlin
Where can you find the most beautiful murals in Berlin? What are the stories behind the murals? Which street artists were involved? And what messages do they want to convey with their works? You can find answers to these questions on our free ABOUT BERLIN app. In addition to several street art tours including directions, you will find videos and interpretive audio books. Let us explain the details of the murals and immerse yourself in Berlin's street art scene.
Download now for free for iPhone and Android.
There are many stories to tell. ABOUT BERLIN.
