When Brezhnev kissed Honecker: Berlin Wall East Side Gallery [Photo Essay]

Berlin’s East Side Gallery, the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall, is adorned with some of the most famous pieces of graffiti and murals. Below are some of my favourites..

Tips for visiting/photographing the wall: It is a very popular tourist spot. So, to get images which don’t have people in it, try visiting early in the morning – I think I went around 8 am – and barely a single soul was in sight. Also, morning might be a better idea than evenings because of the direct sunlight that falls on the murals – it makes the colours look much more alive and vibrant.

p.s. Of course, if you visit it during a more popular time, you might get an interesting shot of a couple kissing right in front of the famous Brezhnev-Honecker kiss mural. Maybe that’s worth a try too. 🙂

 

Wednesday Wanderings: Dachau concentration camp, Munich

Dachau concentration camp, located at 10 miles from Munich, was the first Nazi concentration camp set up in 1933. I won’t go into the horrible history associated with it. I still get the chills thinking about it, looking at those congested bunkbeds for the inmates. I remember how my hands trembled, having just visited the museum at the camp which provided more details about the atrocities which happened there.

What hit me the most was the irony of the words on the entrance gate to the concentration camp -“Arbeit macht frei“, meaning “through work one will be free”.

Entrance Gate to Dachau concentration camp

 However, it was good to see Germany recovering from the shocks of the war. There is a suburban neighbourhood right next to the camp – it feels the modern Germany is putting effort to rise back from all this. And also learn from it – in fact, every school student in Germany is required to visit a concentration camp during school years. There are lessons to be learnt. For all of us. For peace. For future.