German Graffiti Culture

This blog has been viewed fifteen times from Germany.  That is more than any other location outside of the United States; South Korea is the runner up with seven views-- followed by Finland and The United Kingdom with one view each.  Seeing this has made me curious about the Graffiti Culture of Germany.  I have gathered five WebPages that talk about German Graffiti Culture below. Each paragraph of text is taken from somewhere on the page it links to.

The roots of graffiti culture can be traced back to West Berlin in the early 1980s, when the American-occupied sector was the reluctant melting pot of anarchist punks, Turkish immigrants and West German draft resisters.

Graffiti is not just the pathetic squiggles and insults you see scrawled on walls. It cannot simply be explained away as the rebellion of bored and antisocial youth. Graffiti is art. In fact, graffiti is now art with a price tag (and not a cheap one either!)   

Lorenz is just one of a growing number of over-50's in Germany that are learning graffiti and other forms of street art, encouraged by courses targeting older generations. Often grey-haired or bespectacled, with some participants as old as 80, they don't exactly fit the profile of rebellious youth commonly associated with graffiti culture.

Over the last several years knitting has evolved from a grandmotherly hobby to a trendy diversion, but American Magda Sayeg is commonly credited with taking the trend to the streets as the creator of the yarnbombing movement in 2005. Within a few years the Houston, Texas resident had a large enough "granny graffiti" following to create her own crew of yarnbombers, who called themselves Knitta Please.

Our guide, a Scottish expat, took us to unknown art corners, where I had the chance to see many famous street artists’ work. As Wikipedia quotes “bizarre post communist locations, cheap rents, and ramshackle buildings give rise to a vibrant street art scene.”