g Experience Berlin g Contents

FRIEDRICHSHAIN

t The graffiti-covered East Side Gallery, bringing back memories of the Wall era

Introduction

Area Map

Must See

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Experience Friedrichshain

This famous district was created in 1920 when several outlying villages were absorbed into the city as part of the Greater Berlin Act. The area was bombed heavily during World War II because of its many factories and, due to the damage, the district’s residential buildings were left largely unattended during the GDR – which focused on constructing Soviet showstreet Karl-Marx-Allee and erecting their trademark Plattenbauten (prefab tower blocks) wherever it could.

After the Berlin Wall fell, the area became a magnet for left-wingers and squatters. Vague traces of the area’s dissident culture remain, but most have been driven out by the same gentrifying process that has affected the rest of Berlin’s inner-city areas.