Berlin's History.

I wanted to look into Berlin's history and find some iconic moments or people that I could include in my mural. I was conscious of being lured in by the the history of the war, but that is something that for once I don't think is necessary to include in my design, nobody wants Hitler watching them eat their sushi. So instead I looked at celebrities from Berlin and historic moments in History that took place there.

One person that came out of many searches and from asking a number of people was Marlene Dietrich. She was a German-American singer, actress and performer who was born in Berlin in 1901. She continually reinvented herself throughout her long career, and went on to conquer hollywood, being named in 1999 as 'the 9th greatest film star of all time'. With her glamour, fame and strong Berlin roots and think she would be ideal to include in my mural for some history.

Another iconic moment and picture in Berlin's history included the then president of USA, John F Kennedy. During his 1963 speech in West Berlin to underline the the United States support shortly after the Berlin wall had been erected, he exclaimed "Ich bin ein Berliner!" to symbolise he was on the their side, however a small grammatical error in an unforgiving language meant he actually told the world "I am a jam donut!". So this picture became iconic for two very different reasons.

And possibly one of the most important moments in Berlin and even Germany's history was the Berlin wall, and more notably it's fall in 1989. This wall was built in 1961 by the government in East Germany, and completely separated the east from the west. It was initially stated that the wall was built to protect the East Berlin population from the 'fascist west' implying that they still hadn't all been 'de-nazified', but in truth it simply stopped all german emigration. The west Berlin government labelled it the wall of shame and there were many riots from the west to bring it down. 

Today, some of the wall still stands as a remembrance of the past, and sections have even been made into public galleries displaying art and graffiti. The Berlin wall is a must for my mural, but not only to use the imagery, but to capture the whole 'grungey' feel of it and to capture this throughout my design.