Above depicts a mural on the east side gallery, called "My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love". The east side gallery is a portion of the Berlin Wall still standing to memorialize the oppressive reign of the GDR. Murals like this one cover the entire section.
Post WarBerlinAfter World War II, defeated Germany was divided into Soviet, American, British and French zones of occupation. The city of Berlin, though technically part of the Soviet zone, was also split, with the Soviets taking the eastern part of the city. After a massive Allied airlift in June 1948 foiled a Soviet attempt to blockade West Berlin, the eastern section was drawn even more tightly into the Soviet fold. Over the next 12 years, cut off from its western counterpart and basically reduced to a Soviet satellite, East Germany saw between 2.5 million and 3 million of its citizens head to West Germany in search of better opportunities. By 1961, some 1,000 East Germans–including many skilled laborers, professionals and intellectuals–were leaving every day.
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East GermanPropagandaWith millions of the East Berlin's skilled workers defecting to West Berlin, the GDR had to prevent its economy from collapsing. The GDR employed anti-west propaganda before the construction of the wall. Take this page from a pamphlet accuses West Germany of dropping potato or Idaho beetles on East German potato crops and also plotting to market a pesticide, in order to profit off of their nefarious scam. Of coarse all these allocations were false and the West of the United States had nothing to do with it.
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Above is an ad that depicts two East Berliner cosmonauts upon arrival back to Earth
In 1950-52 an extraordinary 18 metre long mural was created at the north end along Leipziger Straße, set back behind pillars, made out of Meissen porcelain tiles. Created by the German painter and commercial artist Max Lingner together with 14 artisans, it depicts the Socialist ideal of contented East Germans facing a bright future as one big happy family.