East Side Gallery Self-Guided Audio Walk: Berlin Wall Murals, The Kiss and Oberbaum Bridge
1 hour
About this experience
The East Side Gallery is the longest surviving stretch of the Berlin Wall, painted in 1990 by 118 artists from 21 countries. But it was the inner wall, facing East Berlin: here the river itself was the border. Start behind the Wall in the park by the Spree, where border guards once watched the water, then come out to the painted face. Follow Thierry Noir's heads, the Trabant, the Wall Jumper and the Sakharov panel to the famous kiss of Brezhnev and Honecker, and find out why almost every mural you see is a second version. End by crossing the towered brick Oberbaum Bridge, once a border crossing on foot, into Kreuzberg and the elevated station at Schlesisches Tor. Nine stops, about 1.5 km and 60 minutes, at your own pace, in English. Flat, outdoors and free to visit; the walk mentions deaths at the border.
- Experience type
- Day tour or activity
- Duration
- 1 hour
- Guide
- English
- Audio guide
- English
- Categories
- Walking tour · Cultural and theme tours · City tours
What's included
Self-guided audio tour in English: 9 stops, 1.5 km, 1 hour Stops at Thierry Noir's heads, Trabant breaking through the Wall, Wall Jumper GPS map and walking directions in your phone browser, no app needed Lifetime access: start any day, at any hour, and replay it
What's not included
A live guide: you set the pace and the pauses A fixed start time: begin whenever you arrive Museum and monument tickets, all optional extras Tip or gratuity Food and drinks Entry or admission fee
Please note
To start the tour, enter the ticket code from your confirmation on the Roamer redemption page linked there. Do this before you set off, while you still have signal. The tour then opens in your phone browser, with no app to download. Bring a charged phone and earphones. Mobile data helps; if you have none, open the tour on wifi before you set off. Best time: Daytime, any day: the gallery is open around the clock and free, but the park paths and the information point are best by day (information point daily 10:00 to 17:00, closed on Fridays from November, closed 24 December 2026 to 2 January 2027). The Kiss and the Trabant are the busiest panels; a morning start is usually quieter. The street face is open sky in every season; the park's trees are in leaf into October. At dusk, Thorsten Goldberg's light work Rock, Paper, Scissors shows in the bridge's steelwork (berlin.de; not checked on the ground); the clocks go back on 25 October. Checked 9 October 2026. Getting to the start: S Ostbahnhof (S3, S5, S7, S9; buses 140, 142, 147, 240) is the nearest station. Leave by the Stralauer Platz side, cross Mühlenstrasse at the lights at Stralauer Platz, and enter the Park an der Spree at its north-west end, beside the 1961 hollow-block wall. Do not start at Warschauer Strasse: it is at the other end of the gallery, about a kilometer and a half away. Checked 9 October 2026 at bvg.de. The walk ends at U Schlesisches Tor (U1 and U3). The lift reaches only the platform toward Uhlandstrasse. Warschauer Strasse, for the S-Bahn, is two minutes back over the bridge on the U1. Checked 9 October 2026 at bvg.de. The East Side Gallery information point, in the old gatehouse by the Sakharov panel (stop 5, Mühlenstrasse 73), is free, open daily 10:00 to 17:00, closed on Fridays from November and from 24 December 2026 to 2 January 2027. It has the only toilet on the walk; there are no lockers. Checked 9 October 2026 at stiftung-berliner-mauer.de. The park's step-free entrance from Mühlenstrasse at Brommystrasse was opened by the Berlin Wall Foundation in August 2023. Wheelchair users can use the upper park paths but not the path along the bank, the foundation says. Checked 9 October 2026. The Berlin Wall Foundation runs free Live Speaking guides at the gallery on some weekend afternoons (on some Saturday and Sunday afternoons; see the foundation's program): you may meet one at the Kiss or the information point. Checked 9 October 2026 at stiftung-berliner-mauer.de. The Molecule Man, a 30 m aluminum sculpture in the river, is about a kilometer upstream of the Oberbaumbrücke. berlin.de says it is easy to see from the bridges and from Stralauer Allee. This walk keeps to the bridge's downstream footway, so look across the roadway and upstream through the open middle span, or cross to the upstream footway, under the arcade, for a clearer view. Bus 300 stops at East Side Gallery and Tamara-Danz-Strasse, in the middle of the gallery, if you want to shorten the walk. The route leaves the park through a narrow opening in the wall between stops 2 and 3. If it is closed or gated, walk back along the park path to Stralauer Platz and follow the sidewalk on the painted side of the wall; stop 3 is just past the opening on that sidewalk. The sidewalk along Mühlenstrasse is narrow in places, with fast traffic a few meters away, and vehicles cross it at several driveway gates. Step back toward the curb to see a panel, never into the road. The Kiss (stop 6), the Trabant near stop 3 and the bus stop by the Sakharov panel (stop 5) are crowded: watch your bags and keep clear of the bus queue. A cycle track runs beside the last stretch of sidewalk before the bridge, and cyclists use the bridge footways: keep to the wall side and look before you step out. After the bridge, three crossings in the Kreuzberg bridgehead have no traffic lights (the May-Ayim-Ufer slip road, then Bevernstrasse twice, by its corner with Oberbaumstrasse): look both ways. The crossings of Köpenicker and Schlesische Strasse and of Skalitzer Strasse have lights, with a cycle track to cross between them. The gallery is a listed monument: writing or painting on it is illegal. Subway trains pass over the bridge every few minutes and are loud; pause the audio if you miss a line. Schlesisches Tor is a nightlife corner after dark, and the park is quiet at night: this is a daytime walk. Public transportation nearby
Itinerary
- 1Day 0
Park an der Spree: Behind the Wall
Park an der Spree, riverside path behind the East Side Gallery, near Ostbahnhof, 10243 Berlin, Berlin
Begin behind the Wall in the border strip. Here the Spree itself was the border, and the long smooth wall beside the path was the inner wall, built to face East Berlin.
- 2Day 0
Patrol Path: The River Was the Border
Park an der Spree, riverside patrol path behind the East Side Gallery, 10243 Berlin, Berlin
Follow the riverside path where guards once walked. East German border troops watched the Spree from boats, and the bank was cleared for a clear view and a clear line of fire.
- 3Day 0
Thierry Noir: Heads on the Other Side
Mühlenstraße, East Side Gallery, pavement by Thierry Noir's panel, 10243 Berlin, Berlin
Thierry Noir's heads on the painted face. The French artist who had painted the western face of the Wall for years painted this eastern face in 1990, beside a gap in the gallery.
- 4Day 0
Wall Jumper: A Gallery Painted Twice
Mühlenstraße, East Side Gallery, at the Wall Jumper (Mauerspringer) panel, 10243 Berlin, Berlin
The Wall Jumper and a gallery painted twice. In 1990, 118 artists painted 106 pictures on bare concrete; in 2009 the paint was blasted off and most of them painted their work again.
- 5Day 0
Thank You, Andrei Sakharov: The Gatehouse
Mühlenstraße, East Side Gallery, at the Thank You Andrei Sakharov panel, 10243 Berlin, Berlin
Dmitry Vrubel's tribute and the old gatehouse. Beside the panel, a small house built into the border wall in 1977 is now the gallery's information point.
- 6Day 0
Brotherly Kiss: A Photo Painted Twice
Mühlenstraße, East Side Gallery, at the Brotherly Kiss panel, 10243 Berlin, Berlin
The fraternal kiss of Brezhnev and Honecker. Dmitry Vrubel painted it from a 1979 press photograph in 1990, and painted it again himself after the 2009 restoration.
- 7Day 0
Last Panels: Toward the Bridge
Mühlenstraße, East Side Gallery, at the last panels before the Oberbaumbrücke, 10243 Berlin, Berlin
The last panels before the bridge. Two paintings here were the test pieces for trial restorations in 2000; just beyond the panels stand the towers of the Oberbaumbrücke.
- 8Day 0
Oberbaumbrücke: A Gate Built Twice
Oberbaumbrücke, north-west footway over the Spree, 10243 Berlin, Berlin
The brick gate bridge over the border river. Opened in 1896 and carrying trains from 1902, it lost its middle in 1945 and its towers in 1967, and was rebuilt by 1995.
- 9Day 0
Schlesisches Tor: The Gate in the Name
Skalitzer Straße, north pavement by Schlesisches Tor U-Bahn station, 10997 Berlin, Berlin
A brick station named for a lost gate. The 1901 station on Berlin's first elevated line was for years the end of the line, a few hundred meters short of the border river.
Meeting point
Park an der Spree, Berlin Park an der Spree, riverside path behind the East Side Gallery, near Ostbahnhof, 10243 Berlin, Berlin, Berlin, DE
Pick up
Pickup is not provided.
Cancellation policy · East Side Gallery Self-Guided Audio Walk: Berlin Wall Murals, The Kiss and Oberbaum Bridge
Standard Viator policy
- Cancellation 0–24 hours before departure: 100% cancellation fee.
- Cancellation 24–24000 hours before departure: 0% cancellation fee.
Good to know
Operated by Roamer and sold by AGORA. Your voucher and booking reference arrive by email straight after payment.