Which artist painted the East Side Gallery mural known as “The Fraternal Kiss”?
Answer
Dmitri Vrubel
Dmitri Vrubel painted the East Side Gallery mural known as “The Fraternal Kiss.”
The mural, officially titled “My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love,” depicts Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German leader Erich Honecker kissing. Vrubel based the image on a 1979 photograph taken during celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic.
The work became one of the best-known images on the East Side Gallery, the long open-air art site created in 1990 on a remaining section of the Berlin Wall. Its subject refers to the socialist fraternal kiss, a ceremonial greeting used by leaders of communist states.
The mural is often described simply as “The Fraternal Kiss,” but that nickname is not its full title. It has also required restoration because weather, pollution, and repeated repainting damaged the original surface.