Top Menu

  • en

The East Side Gallery – “Mr Wowereit, DON’T tear down this wall!”

Dmitri Vrubel - Fraternal Kiss (Brezhnev and Honecker embrace) - one of the paintings on the Berlin Wall at the East Side Gallery

The East Side Gallery is one of Berlin’s most popular tourist attractions – a 1.3km stretch of the Berlin Wall that stands as an ‘international memorial for freedom’.

The wall running along Mühlerstrasse near the banks of the River Spree was painted with over 100 murals by a group of international artists.

On 28 February 2013 my Twitter feed was abuzz with the news that a section of the wall was to be removed so that a developer could build a block of luxury flats on the land between the wall and the river.

People reacted strongly.

A protest was organised for the following day at the Wall and thanks to those protesters the removal was halted with just a small section gone.

A larger protest was organised on the Saturday morning.  Reports of the numbers present varied but official estimates put the turnout at 6,000.

A petition was started and thousands of signatures were quickly added.

On Monday morning events took a turn for the bizarre.

I woke up when my phone buzzed beside me.  I had a notification of a tweet from @HildaHoy.

I blinked a few times.  I pinched myself.  I wasn’t dreaming.

David Haselhoff had somehow read a post I had written on Sunday about his song Looking For Freedom, in which I had referred to the threat to the East Side Gallery and had tweeted about it.

Later that day, David Hasselhoff wrote his own blog post about the issue and urged his fans to sign the petition.

The Hoff’s involvement was widely reported – articles appeared on the websites of The Guardian, Berliner Morgenpost and Süddeutsche.  The Mädels with a Microphone made a great podcast about the protests.

And now to top it all off in an interview with HuffPost Live, David Hasselhoff has said that he would be willing to perform at the Wall to show his support.

Save East Side Gallery Petition - A computer generated image of flats at the Wall

Image: Change.org

The number of signatures on the petition to Berlin mayor, Klaus Wowereit, is now closing in on 75,000 – you can add your name to it on change.org.

To paraphrase Ronald Reagan’s famous speech, delivered at the Berlin Wall in 1987, the message is:

“Mr Wowereit, DON’T tear down this wall!”

Work at the wall has been suspended until after the issue has been discussed at a meeting of the Berlin Senate on 18 March.

The developer has how said that the section of wall was being removed to give access to a new pedestrian bridge – a replacement for the Brommybrücke, which was blown up by the Nazis as the Soviets advanced on Berlin.  Klaus Wowereit has indicated that he thinks removal of the wall should be avoided if possible.  Early signs are good that a suitable compromise can be reached.

It would be incredible to see The Hoff perform at the Berlin Wall and if that happens, Gilly has to be there too.  And if it’s going to be perfect, we have to go to a bar on Hasselhoffstrasse (if the concert happens there has to be a street named after him) afterwards for beers, a burger and Vodka Ahojs – the man himself being present would be the icing on the cake.

, , , , ,

11 Responses to The East Side Gallery – “Mr Wowereit, DON’T tear down this wall!”

  1. Cos 10 March, 2013 at 11:17 #

    I feel so humble, now I know that Mr. Hasselhoff is your biggest fan. I hope the wall will not be removed.

  2. James 10 March, 2013 at 11:51 #

    Great job! Both on securing The Hoff as a famous fan, and for your awesome coverage over the last couple of weeks. Makes all our bullshit seem like, well, bullshit, by comparison.

    • andBerlin 11 March, 2013 at 10:59 #

      Thanks James. I’m not sure that I can call The Hoff a fan but it still makes me laugh to think of him reading the post. We both know that you’re always producing great stuff for your blog too.

  3. thoades 10 March, 2013 at 12:24 #

    This is outrageous, Solidarity from Scunthorpe, England! Petition signed and shared. Lots.
    http://lincolnshirered.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/in-solidarity-with-berlin-save-east-side-gallery/

  4. Hilda 11 March, 2013 at 23:17 #

    Just noticed your shout-out to my Twitter profile — thanks!

    • andBerlin 12 March, 2013 at 01:26 #

      Thank you for alerting me to one of the most surreal moments of my life.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. In Solidarity with Berlin – Save East Side Gallery | Lincolnshire Red - 10 March, 2013

    […] seen on the About Berlin blog the shocking news that part of the East Side Gallery is going to be demolished to allow […]

  2. The wall comes down again: East Side Gallery, Berlin | Anabel's Travel Blog - 11 March, 2013

    […] PS 11/3/12 – since I wrote last week, there have been further developments, including the setting up of a petition and support from David Hasselhof no less. If you want to sign the petition, all the information is on andBerlin’s blog. […]

  3. Reagan Berlin Wall at Dussmann Kulturkaufhaus - 23 November, 2015

    […] The new interactive display, created by Asignum, was unveiled in August 2015.  Further interactive displays have recently been added, giving access to more facts about the Berlin wall, a guide to some relevant locations in Berlin and a gallery of the street art on the East Side Gallery. […]

  4. Modest Meets – Denny Pham - andBerlin - 30 November, 2015

    […] Berlin’s hottest skate spots – Warschauer Straße and Park am Gleisdreieck – as well as the East Side Gallery and the Pallasseum (a brutalist 1970s block of […]

  5. Berlin Wall Graveyard – Teltow’s East Side Gallery - 28 June, 2016

    […] In 2009, Elmar Prost, the CEO at Klösters Baustoffwerke, proposed a new attraction, the Teltow Gallery, an out of town version of the East Side Gallery. […]

Leave a Reply