Graffiti in Berlin

Something I did not know, but was informed of shortly after I arrived here in Berlin, is that the city is known for its graffiti. And I'm not kidding when I say that it is covered in it. Just covered. Some of it is pretty, like the piece above, but, I'm afraid that most of it is not. It makes many parts of the city look quite ugly. However, the actual artistic ones do make for nice photography.

This is a different kind of graffiti. This is government-sponsored graffiti from 1953. It is meant to show a happy family doing happy things in East Germany. Further down the mural you would be able to see a group of very happy people who had spontaneously decided to take to the streets and cheer in support of their government. Yeah, like that ever happens.

While aimlessly walking around, I found several of these buildings. There are lots of buildings in the city that have been previously abandoned and then reclaimed by folk. Hippie-spray-painting folk I imagine. Although they do do some lovely artwork on the building itself.