Murals in Berlin

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Mural in Berlin, on the corner of Bachstrasse and Siegmunds Hof, designed by Ben Wagin

The first Berlin mural was Ben Wagon's World Tree - Green is Life from 1975. It was part of a new form of wall painting that had become popular in other cities in Germany since the early 1970s . By 2006 there were already more than 450 such works of art in Berlin, at the beginning of 2020 over 800. Some of them also disappeared again during this time, as their lifespan is only around 15 to 20 years on average.

History of mural painting

Wall paintings have contributed to opening up art to a wide audience in modern times. As art that is accessible to the public, they deserve the title “democratic” like hardly any other art form. Wall painting is not an invention of the recent past. If the term is used generously, it can be traced back to Ice Age cave painting in southern France and Spain. These include tomb paintings in Egypt as well as murals in the villas and palaces of the Cretan area and Pompeii . The frescoes by the Renaissance artist Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel or the baroque dome and ceiling paintings in southern Germany's churches are also well known.

In the 20th century, wall painting received important impulses from the Mexican artists Diego Rivera (1886–1957), José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949) and David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1974). Her murals primarily depict episodes from the national development of Mexico: the history of the Indians, the dictatorship of the ruling oligarchy , the revolution of the oppressed masses. With their work they became known beyond the borders of their homeland.

Wall painting also found widespread use in the United States , not least through direct contact with Mexican painters. The poor economic situation turned out to be a catalyst for their popularization. For example, as part of the reforms introduced in 1933 to overcome the economic crisis , the American President Franklin D. Roosevelt set in motion a support program for artists. Walls of schools, libraries, post offices and other public facilities have been artistically designed. As a result of this funding program as part of the New Deal , more than 3,500 murals were created between New York and Los Angeles in the USA, of which interesting examples have been preserved.

Murals in Berlin

The beginning in 1972

At the beginning of the 1970s, wall painting in the narrower sense found its way to Germany. It was here in 1972 that the first murals were created in Bremen's Böttcherstraße. After another three years, in 1975, there was also a mural in Berlin: Initiated by Ben Wagin , who also provided the design together with the artists Peter Janssen , Fritz Köthe , Narendra Kumar Jain and Siegfried Rischar , grew on a fire wall of the Siegmundshof and the Straße des 17. Juni in the immediate vicinity of the Tiergarten der Weltbaum S-Bahn station - green is life , now so faded that it can hardly be recognized. The homeowner has no money to restore it. Wagon's efforts to get a donation or sponsor were unsuccessful. Many more have followed this example since then. Overall, as mentioned in the introduction, their number has grown to over 450 (1975–2006). This also includes works of art that have already disappeared again. Murals are, perhaps more than any other works of fine art, temporary ones. All house painting is ephemeral, and in today's polluted city air, the average lifespan is only around 15 to 20 years. The murals also disappear from the cityscape by closing building gaps, as happened with the ornamental depiction of machine parts on the wall of the Federal Statistical Office on Kurfürstenstrasse, designed by Eduardo Paolozzi in 1976. Due to the development of a bank building on the property in front of it, the picture is no longer visible from the street.

Basis for the creation

Quite a few of the murals owe their creation to the public sector. The prerequisite for this were the programs and competitions Art in Architecture and Color in the Cityscape of the Berlin Senate. Wall painting in the city also benefited from the task “Art in urban space with the redesign and redesign of Berlin urban spaces including artistic activities”, which was created in 1979, as stated in the tender documents for this competition.

When Berlin was still divided, mural painting was also discovered in the eastern part of Berlin (around 1982) for public spaces. Competitions were held here as well, with three percent of the construction cost being available for art in public buildings. Most of the murals can be found in the eastern districts of schools and gyms as well as day care centers.

Other funding agencies also appeared. Gritta Hesse gives an example of this in the introduction to the book Painted Illusions she has published : Instead of a single-colored gable wall, an artist wants to create a mural as part of an upcoming renovation. “A resident artist spontaneously creates a bold picture design that appealed to both the residents and the house owner. Everyone wanted to do it together. But there was a lack of money for the scaffolding and the colors. After lengthy efforts, it was possible to find a housing company that would cover the comparably low costs. "

Role of squatting

A number of artists participated in the drafts before the creation of a picture and later carried them out themselves. Important impulses for her work often came from the Berlin squatter scene , which gave rise to many images of protest , especially in the districts affected by the urban redevelopment . Such murals often triggered violent reactions within the population - art became a common topic of conversation on the street.

The best-known facade design from this environment were probably the no longer existing murals on KuKuCK, the self-administered art and culture center Kreuzberg in Anhalter Strasse; The title of the mural was Modell Deutschland . Marilyn Green, Rainer Warzecha and Christoph Böhm as well as other guest artists painted the mural in 1981. The building was also the center of the squatter scene in Kreuzberg. In 1984 the building was cleared and the murals were removed, despite the fact that thousands of supporters had signed a petition for preservation at the Monument Protection Office. Subsequently, Rainer Warzecha designed several murals for youth institutions in Kreuzberg ( Naunynritze 1998, Chip 1994).

Some of the artists supported the squatters with their specialist knowledge in the artistic realization of their ideas of murals. The group Advice should be mentioned here, although it no longer exists today. This group of painters included the artists Paul Blankenburg, Werner Brunner, Werner Steinbrecher, NIL Fricke and Bernd Micka. They named themselves programmatically after Jerg Ratgeb , who was a respected creator of sacred works of art at the beginning of the sixteenth century. However, murals are not only met with interest in the squatting movement.

General acceptance of facade images

After an initial waiting phase, companies, housing associations and homeowners have also been ready to have the façades of their buildings designed as eye-catchers in recent years. The zipper gable painting designed by Gert Neuhaus in 1979 for the engineering office Krogmann & Co. and executed in the inner courtyard of the Zillestrasse property is a good example of this. It is an “astonishing painterly alienation of a fire wall. The meticulous design of the zipper and the Wilhelminian style facade give the heavy wall a cheerful lightness. You feel reminded of the magical painting by René Magritte . ”The old fire wall was only partially plastered and then painted. The special attraction lies in the optical illusion: "The house facade painted on the plaster seems to be in the background, whereas the brick wall, which is actually behind the plastering, is clearly in the foreground", Wolfgang Entress wrote in an accompanying text in 1988 for the series of photographs Stadtbilder of the Landesbildstelle Berlin. The zipper does not only eke out an existence perceived by the surrounding area, but under the slogan “Berlin is doing well” it adorned the posters with which the official Berlin advertising wanted to bring visitors to the city.

Tommy Weisbecker House

The few examples mentioned so far already point to the thematic diversity of murals in Berlin. The spectrum of topics that were artistically worked on is broad. This ranges - without claiming to be exhaustive - from political ( Tommy-Weisbecker-Haus ) to historical topics, deals with questions of environmental degradation (Ben Wagin's World Tree I and II ) and urban redevelopment as well as architecture-related painting, refers to the function of a building (painting a substation), creates illusions or serves primarily decorative purposes.

Situation in the 21st century

Although individual wall paintings have become known beyond the borders of the city of Berlin and parts of the pictures are of high value as contemporary documents, they are still not protected as monuments. Nor can it generally protect its artistic quality from being destroyed by renovation work, by closing vacant lots or tearing down its supporting structures. There are also exceptions, which mostly go back to activities in the area, such as the mural Nicaragua by Manuel García Moia in the Lichtenberg district , which depicts the Masaya -Monimbó district in Nicaragua on the occasion of the first liberation struggle in 1979 . The picture in the style of naive art was painted in 1985 by the artist with the help of T. Wendisch and M. Hoffmann. The house owner wanted to modernize the building with thermal insulation panels in 2005, which would have lost the mural. Only an initiative for the preservation of this gable painting and the printing of the University of Los Angeles led to a reconstruction. This was done by muralist Gerd Wulff and his colleague Max Michael Holst. Norbert Martins was able to support painter Gerd Wulff with the early photographs of the mural. They were helpful in restoring the gable image. Manuel García Moia was in Berlin in September 2005 and authorized the mural with his signature. With 255 m² it is the largest of its kind in Europe.

Since 2005, takes the action back jumps under the term streetart a revival of tradition instead. The Cuvry graffiti , two large-scale facade paintings by the Italian street art artist Blu from 2007/2008 on the Cuvrybrache , were among the most famous graffiti in Berlin and were published in 2014 as a protest against urban development policy and Berlin’s dealings with art by mutual agreement painted over with black paint by the artist Blu. Also known in Kreuzberg is the picture Astronaut Cosmonaut by the French artist Ash. In 2008/2009, the French artist group CitéCréation created large-scale facade paintings on the aviary block of flats in the Neukölln high-deck housing estate as part of an education and art project , and in 2010 on various buildings on Sonnenallee . By 2013, this group designed the “world's largest inhabited mural” in Friedrichsfelde on Alt-Friedrichsfelde street on around 22,000 m² on behalf of the Solidarity housing association , including several buildings. A young street artist, Christian Awe, won a competition held by the housing association HoWoGe for the artistic design of a gable wall at Frankfurter Allee 192. The brightly colored picture is supposed to start with another picture every year.

Wall painter for Berlin (selection)

  • Dieter Gantz
  • Oskar Gonschorr
  • Marilyn Green
  • Abuzer Guler
  • Manfred Henkel
  • Nikolai Ilieff
  • Marlene Jachmann
  • NIL Fricke

literature

  • Werner Brunner, Wolf Lücking: Faded Idyllen: Murals in the Berlin apartment building at the turn of the century , Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1996, ISBN 3-7861-1632-6
  • Norbert Martins: Gable fantasies - Berlin murals . HetStein-Verlag, Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-926976-07-1 (out of print)
  • Norbert & Melanie Martins: House walls instead of canvases - Berlin murals . Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-00-038596-4
  • Gritta Hesse: Painted Illusions - Murals in Berlin . Harenberg Kommunikation, Dortmund 1983, ISBN 3-88379-384-1
  • Wolfgang Entress - text accompanying the series of photographs of cityscapes by the Berlin State Image Office
  • Painted illusions. Murals on houses. Series The Bibliophile Paperback Books . OMNIS Verlag Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-88379-384-1

Web links

Commons : Murals in Berlin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Claudia Fuchs: Dare more color. The street artist Christian Awe is designing a prefabricated building facade in Lichtenberg. Many others should follow In: Berliner Zeitung. July 24, 2012, p. 16.
  2. ↑ a b c Website with information about the mural painting by Rainer Warzecha ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 26, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.interglotz.de
  3. ↑ a b c d e wall pictures Berlin ( Memento of the original from July 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wandbilder-berlin.de archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. with details on the pictures of the group Ratgeb; Retrieved July 26, 2012.
  4. ↑ Information from the Lichtenberg District Office on Nicaragua ( Memento of the original from June 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.berlin.de
  5. ↑ Homepage of Frank Beutel with an overview of all works ( Memento of the original from September 10, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed July 26, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.fb55.de
  6. ↑ Specific information on works on a listing of the Free University of Berlin, Kunsthistorisches Institut (call up CD group), Dubois with works in Schöneberg, Wedding
  7. ↑ a b Homepage murals in Berlin with some images and names, especially “Seen in Wedding”  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.wandbilder-berlin.de  
  8. ↑ Biography, Works by Marilyn Green on art.com , accessed July 29, 2012
  9. ↑ a b The artists Abuzer Güler and Nikolai Ilieff , rbb -online, accessed on July 29, 2012
  10. ↑ tritag.de (call group EK), M. Henkel with a plant in Neukölln, Naumburg road
  11. ↑ Culture in Berlin ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Biography and overview of works by Marlene Jachmann at Kulturforum Stadt Berlin @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kultur-in-berlin.com
  12. ↑ Brief overview of the biography and works of the Brazilian artist R. Oestroem (Spanish), accessed on July 29, 2012
  13. ^ Art in the large housing estate , Marzahn-Hellersdorf district office of Berlin, ISBN 978-3-00-026730-7 : Murals in the streets of the Hellersdorf district: Brodowiner Ring (youth club), Cottbusser Strasse and Senftenberger Strasse (gable houses); three-dimensional figurines in Cecilienstraße, Lily-Braun-Straße and Ernst-Bloch-Straße
  14. ^ Collaboration on the panorama picture by Werner Tübke in Bad Frankenhausen; 1984 on google.books (excerpt)
  15. ↑ "Der Kirschdieb" (1987) on a gable wall in Berliner Allee
  16. ^ Wall picture of a container truck in Möllendorffstrasse , Lichtenberg
  17. ↑ Short biography of Werner Steinbrecher on artrikat.com ( Memento of the original from August 27, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. with the indication that he founded the artist group Ratgeb; Retrieved July 29, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.artrikat.com
  18. ^ Art in the large housing estate , Marzahn-Hellersdorf district office of Berlin, ISBN 978-3-00-026730-7 : Wall picture in the Hellersdorf district: Altlandsberger Platz (day care center) and play elements; P. 129
  19. ↑ Homepage of the studio HD Wohlmann