This monumental head, painted in gray and white on a concrete panel, is a tribute to a man who built a weapon and then spent his life trying to undo what it made possible.

The mural is called Danke, Andrej Sacharow. It was painted in nineteen ninety by Russian artist Dmitry Vrubel and Viktoria Timofeeva on a segment of the Berlin Wall.

Andrei Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist. He designed the first thermonuclear weapon for the Soviet Union.

By the late nineteen fifties, Sakharov became deeply troubled by the moral and political consequences of the weapon he had helped create.

He turned to activism. He spoke out for human rights and called for a constitutional and open society in the Soviet Union.

In nineteen seventy-five, Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his courage. The Soviet government barred him from traveling to Oslo to accept it.

For years, the regime exiled him to the closed city of Gorky, where he was isolated and kept under surveillance.

He died in December nineteen eighty-nine, just weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In nineteen ninety, Berlin authorities invited artists from around the world to paint the formerly deadly eastern side of the Wall.

One hundred eighteen artists from twenty-one countries came. Dmitry Vrubel was invited to represent the Soviet avant-garde.

Vrubel was born in Moscow in nineteen sixty. He had studied art and graphic design at the Moscow Lenin Institute and ran a gallery in his home.

Moving to Berlin in nineteen ninety, he and Timofeeva chose to honor Sakharov, a man brave enough to speak truth against the Soviet regime.

They painted a realistic black and white portrait. The face is shown in profile, monumental and calm.

By two thousand nine, vandalism and erosion had damaged many of the outdoor murals. Berlin authorities asked Vrubel to repaint the work for the twentieth anniversary of the Wall's fall.

Vrubel lived in Berlin, where he ran a gallery with his wife, until his death in twenty twenty-two.

The mural remains on the East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain. A quiet thank you, painted on concrete, to a man who changed his mind and paid for it.

This monumental head, painted in gray and white on a concrete panel, is a tribute to a man who built a weapon and then spent his life trying to undo what it made possible.

The mural is called Danke, Andrej Sacharow. It was painted in nineteen ninety by Russian artist Dmitry Vrubel and Viktoria Timofeeva on a segment of the Berlin Wall.

Andrei Sakharov was a Soviet nuclear physicist. He designed the first thermonuclear weapon for the Soviet Union.

By the late nineteen fifties, Sakharov became deeply troubled by the moral and political consequences of the weapon he had helped create.

He turned to activism. He spoke out for human rights and called for a constitutional and open society in the Soviet Union.

In nineteen seventy-five, Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his courage. The Soviet government barred him from traveling to Oslo to accept it.

For years, the regime exiled him to the closed city of Gorky, where he was isolated and kept under surveillance.

He died in December nineteen eighty-nine, just weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In nineteen ninety, Berlin authorities invited artists from around the world to paint the formerly deadly eastern side of the Wall.

One hundred eighteen artists from twenty-one countries came. Dmitry Vrubel was invited to represent the Soviet avant-garde.

Vrubel was born in Moscow in nineteen sixty. He had studied art and graphic design at the Moscow Lenin Institute and ran a gallery in his home.

Moving to Berlin in nineteen ninety, he and Timofeeva chose to honor Sakharov, a man brave enough to speak truth against the Soviet regime.

They painted a realistic black and white portrait. The face is shown in profile, monumental and calm.

By two thousand nine, vandalism and erosion had damaged many of the outdoor murals. Berlin authorities asked Vrubel to repaint the work for the twentieth anniversary of the Wall's fall.

Vrubel lived in Berlin, where he ran a gallery with his wife, until his death in twenty twenty-two.

The mural remains on the East Side Gallery in Friedrichshain. A quiet thank you, painted on concrete, to a man who changed his mind and paid for it.

Danke Andrej Sacharov

On a gray segment of the Berlin Wall, a monumental head painted in black and white. The face is calm, in profile. This is Andrei Sakharov, the man who designed the Soviet Union's first thermonuclear weapon and then spent his life trying to undo it. By the late nineteen fifties, Sakharov turned to activism. He spoke out for human rights and civil liberties against the Soviet regime. In nineteen seventy-five, he won the Nobel Peace Prize. The Soviet government exiled him and barred him from accepting it in Oslo. He died in December nineteen eighty-nine, weeks after the Berlin Wall fell. In nineteen ninety, Russian artist Dmitry Vrubel painted this tribute. A quiet thank you, painted on concrete, to a man who changed his mind and paid for it. Listen to the full guide. Listen to the full guide.

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