On 13 August 1961 the border here at Muhlenstrasse was built up to block access to West Berlin. But the Wall as it can be seen today was not built until 1977. Behind it was a high security border strip and the Spree, the entire width of which belonged to East Berlin at this point. The wall, the border strip, and the river made escape from the GDR almost impossible. Here the wall looked different than in most of East Berlin. Instead of a simple inner wall, there was the more costly ‘border wall 75’ made of reinforced concrete components which closed off the border strip to West Berlin. It was built here because Muhlenstrasse was part of the protocol route that international guests of the GDR government took from the airport to the city center.

A few weeks after the Wall fell in November 1989 West Berliner David Monty and East Berliner Heike Stephan announced thier idea to turn the Berlin Wall into the longest gallery in the world. The GDR government approved the painting action and assigned them the 1.3 km long wall in Muhlenstrasse. 118 artists from 21 countries responded to the call and the opening of the East Side Gallery was celebrated with a big party on 28 September 1990. With their messages and comments the artists raised a monument to the joy at seeing the Wall come down and the Cold War overcome, yet some critical comments were also made. In the following years the Gallery was restored and changed several times but it still tell of the sense of new beginnings in 1990.