East Side Gallery

In 1989, while serving in the military, I watched in disbelief as the Berlin Wall came down, and the world order as we knew it changed forever. The East Side Gallery houses remnants of the Berlin Wall. Many new murals have been painted on the wall. Most of them promote peace, although some also commemorate the horrors associated with the wall. The one standout piece, though, was Mein Gott, hilf mir, diese tödliche Liebe zu überleben (My God, Help Me Survive This Deadly Love), a famous 1990 mural based on an actual photograph of Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker in a fraternal kiss on the lips that was apparently common among communist leaders. Rather serendipitously, I photographed this mural just as two men kissed in front of it. The irony was not lost on me; many social conservatives today must be reciting variations of "My God, help me survive this deadly love" with marriage equality and rising LGBTQ visibility.
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The other standout in the area was a guitarist known as The Neigh-Kid Horse who was clad only in underwear (his jeans were bunched around his ankles) and a horse head mask who was there to entertain and confuse the crowds.

Near the East Side Gallery was the Oberbaumbrucke - the bridge made famous by Run Lola Run, which is yet another Berlin-based film.

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