Berlin's graffiti scene started in the 1980's on the wave of American hip hop music and culture. It came in slowly with minorities breakdancing in the streets of West Berlin, mostly 2nd generation southern Europeans and Turks. The first 'real' piece of graffiti was supposedly done by RAY near S-Bahnhof Sundgauer in Southwest Berlin in 1982.
(This is not that)
It began with individuals and some two-teams, but really started to explode with the fall of the wall in 1989, when graffiti became "cool". Those who had done graffiti before the fall of the wall became "old-school" and everyone else was "new-school". New-schoolers were different because of the old-schoolers' influence and the general explosion of information that happened when with wall opened, including the arrival of graffiti magazines.
The western side of the wall was considered a challenge by graffiti artists and they went to work covering it fairly early. This side of the wall was not guarded like the other side was. The eastern side stayed a dreary grey and white deswegen. The eastern side would be the part left standing as a memorial, as it was more of a real barrier than the western side. This would then be painted after the fall and become the longest open air gallery in the world and my dad would have a picture of him taken in front of it.
Graffiti in and on trains aren't as common as in NY city, but riding the S-Bahn on the ring or through the middle of Berlin is more or less like being in a moving graffiti gallery.
Not to say there isn't ANY in train stations and on trains, but most of it is cleaned up rather quickly and/or if it's a train it's removed from service. The fine can be up to 3,000 Euros, which may be the deterrent if you're not super gangster like THC.
There's a lot of English graffiti in Berlin, partly because a lot of graffiti artists travel to Berlin from other countries, but partly for the same reason so many Germans sing in English. (That reason being: they're dumb, or they're smart and want it to be understood by "everyone".) There is, however, a good deal in German.
(Fight Fascism)
(The border does not run between up and down, but between you and me)
Nowadays there are many graffiti gangs and individuals who paint similar pieces all over Berlin, such as this guy above, a angry Berlin bear, and some guy/s paints fists all over the place.
But even with so much graffiti and how dirty Berlin is it still feels so safe (even though Berlin is the only place I've ever been molested (the bad kind, not the good kind)(well, that too)).
When my dad was here he asked about gangs in Berlin and I had no idea, I still have no idea. It's never talked about and I never see any. Where do all the drugs come from? Surely someone's fighting someone somewhere over something...in groups. If you know more about this, tell me.
