Dusseldorf | Eyes on the Streets

Kiefernstrasse translates to Pine tree street… it is a street in Dusseldorf that has history. It is lined with apartment blocks that started life as homes for workers in the local factories steel works in the late 1800s. Some were damaged during the war. In the mid 1900s they became home to squatters and other “left wing” groups. Now many of them have been fixed up and/or covered with large colourful murals.

row of buildings, 4 storeys, all covered with different colourful murals, kiefernstrasse (pine tree street) in Dusseldorf Germany

below: He’s hiding behind a tree now – a mural that M05K and Johanna OLGA painted in 2013

upper part of mural, behind a tree, person in blue head scarf, holding something yellow and large,

below: Bare feet on long skinny legs stick out of pink pants.

below: At street level, groups of strange characters in black outfits are standing around. Except for the little one, they are all wearing hats shaped like pyramids.

part of larger mural, three smaller creatures standing at street level, black outfits with just face showing, and pyramidal shaped hats, one hat is yellow and the other is pink. one of the characters is much shorter than the others and he has no hat

green rat with large pink eras painted on concrete, beside bare foot that is part of a larger mural, rat partially behind a real garbage bin

below: There are quite a few signs that help tell the story of Kiefernstrasse. The headline on the poster below is ” 1992 Wandbilder sind lebendige Kunstwerke” (= Murals are living works of art) and the article talks about 1992 and how it was the year that Klaus Klinger, Daniel Pulido, and a group of youths painted “Everything’s Bananas” at number 37. This was the first mural on the street; it no longer exists.

framed picture of an article about the history of Kiefernstrasse, 1992, the year the first mural was painted here

apartment blocks covered in murals, kiefernstraase

residential building on kiefernstrasse covered with street art that looks like a large red honeycomb

below: Daniel MacLloyd painted this large blue bird.

below: This gable is covered by a marine scene – including turtles swimming in the water – was painted by Ami One

gable mural by Ami One in Dusseldorf, marine scene including turtles swimming in the water

below: Bright orange faces!

below: The Dusseldorf monkey is also here.

yellow monkey crouching beside a mural with orange people

below: And again!

graffiti on a red wall - yellow stencil of a monkey holding a paint brush with his tail and a bucket in his hands, beside a paste up that says evolution in the same font as used by coca cola

below: A bright red door, surrounded by….

Kiefernstrasse houses, street level, leaves falling on wet sidewalk, one door entrance is bright red, walls have red dragon with gold clouds,

below: … a long red dragon winding its way through golden clouds.

below: Käferhouse, or Beetle House, by Till Martin Köster and Christian Bolte, 2008. Insects galore! beetles, ants, roaches, bedbugs…. including some with human faces on their backs.

4 storey residential building covered in paintings of insects, beetles, ants, and others both real and imaginary crawling around between the windows, mural in Dusseldorf, some insects have human faces

4 storey residential building covered in paintings of insects, cockroaches, beetles, ants, and others both real and imaginary, mural in Dusseldorf, some insects have human faces

below: One of the many interesting smaller artworks found among the larger murals is this pair of kids in the playground riding their elephants and playing at war, or protest, or being social justice warriors… your choice. Google wants me to believe that it is a Banksy but I am not falling for it.

small graffiti, realistic (i.e. photo) image of two kids on springy elephants in a playground, one has balaclava and happy face flag, the other is wearing a metal helmet

below: Another social commentary artwork. This time a girl has plenty to eat (and takes a picture of it) while the person beside her goes without.

below: A white unicorn with laser vision – the little white sign painted into the mural says “Laser Rainbow Unicorn & Robocat Rider”. Apparently cats riding unicorns in space is not an unusual theme. The other little sign says “Kevin Gucci” – is that the artist?

part of a mural on kiefernstrasse, white unicorn with laser eyes, and two cats, one sitting in the corner, and one with robot mechanical leg and carrying a flaming sword

below: Strange things are happening on the balcony! There’s even a sheep…. but wait, that’s not a real balcony, instead the artist has employed what is known as “trompe-l’œil style” – it’s painted to look like a wooden balcony structure.

mural in "trompe-l'œil style" - it's painted to look like a wooden balcony structure.

below: At street level, under the balcony seen above, is an alcove for a garage entrance – but it seems like a green police van is parked there already! I wonder what the gnome mechanics are up to!

mural of 2 gnomes in red caps and blue tops, working on a green police van. one gnome is holding a wrench,

some of the painted houses in kiefernstrasse dusseldorf

small yellow and brown painted animal on a balcony, beside a wall painted in rainbow colors with an image of the planet earth

below: 2007’s addition to the street was a (mostly) monochrome mural that is part puzzle pieces and part little figures. Ben Mathis was responsible for creating the ‘grid’, while MaJo Brothers painted the figures such as this robot holding a cracked egg. Was it dropped? Or is it hatching? 2007.

monochrome mural that is part puzzle pieces and part little figures. Ben Mathis was responsible for creating the 'grid', while MaJo Brothers painted the figures such as this robot holding a cracked egg

large image of the urban art mural, monochrome mural that is part puzzle pieces and part little figures. Ben Mathis was responsible for creating the 'grid', while MaJo Brothers painted the figures such as this robot holding a cracked egg

below: Splotches of blue

below: The characters (animals) in this mural are Marsupilami. They first appeared in the Belgian comic book “Spirou” in 1952 in a story below: The characters (animals) in this mural are Marsupilami. They first appeared in the Belgian comic book “Spirou” in 1952 in a story written by André Franquin. In the story, a man delivers a mysterious package from South America and as it turns out, the package contains a baby Marsupilami. Franquin continued writing about their adventures until the 1970s. In the 1980s the characters were re-invented and found themselves in TV episodes and video games.

marsupilami painting on a green door, a yellow animal with black spots

below: The next two paintings flank a doorway, one on either side – an equestrian statue (i.e. a man on a horse) and a woman from time gone by but with anachronistic cans of spray paint in her hands.

mural of a man on a horse, equestrian statue — This image shows another of the articles documenting the history of the area. This one describes an event in 1919 where a train was robbed outside Dusseldorf by a gang of about 30 men, led by “A communist from Kiefernstrasse” known as Steil. He was subsequently shot by the police and died from his wounds.

mural of a woman in medieval clothing, but with a can of spray paint in each hand

below: Stencil, boy with a large helmet – ready to be an astronaut. Once upon a time there were a few more details visible in the helmet. This ‘Space Travel’ was made by Seileise aka Tim Ossege.

below: Everyone’s painting these days!

a framed poster describing part of the history of kiefernstrasse beside graffiti stencil of a young girl wearing a covid mask, with a large paint brush in her hand — Another poster tells the story of the first Streetfest here in 1982 where the greengrocer’s shop was turned into a cafe with a borrowed sound system.

part of larger mural, person with a red hat and a pacifier in his or her mouth

below: It almost looks like a giant crossword puzzle.

below: Neptune swims upside down

below:The Reds are reaching out, wanting to run? looking for something?

below: He doesn’t look very happy.

below: Jesus carries a goat

old railway car sits beside sidewalk, covered with street art including an image of Jesus carrying a goat

below: On an upper wall, a golden Buddha sits and meditates.

Buddha in seated meditation pose, gold, mural on wall in kiefernstraase

below: “Love will tear us apart” more than once.

little pieces of graffiti on a wall beside a large mural with orange faces, two stickers that say love will tear us apart,

below: Together in one place, four little pieces by JoinyStreetArt (round white face), sm111le, Karl Heinz Swaggert (hairy fellow on the left), and Metraeda (pink cat). If you have been following this blog, you will probably recognize some of the names and their corresponding styles.

black wall, graffiti, 4 small pieces, by JoinyStreetArt (round white face), sm111le (smiling radish), Karl Heinz Swaggert (hairy fellow on the left), and Metraeda (pink cat)

below: Bad Goat, with a strand of green vine and a third eye

bad goat graffiti, a white goat head with black horns and three eyes, graffiti

below: “Nothing else matters” actually refers to a football club.

Photos taken October 2025

… a few things seen as I walked around Dusseldorf on a rainy day.

below: At the train station – not really street art? But it’s a colourful addition to a grey platform.

below: One of the original pieces of street art in Dusseldorf is this large yellow Monkey that appears to be painted by a group of smaller monkeys. It was painted in 1969 by the Majo Brothers. The title is, appropriately “Affe” which is German for monkey. You could probably call it Der Gelbe Affe, or the Yellow Monkey.

below: Joseph Beuys is memorialized in this large portrait – he was a native of Dusseldorf who was influential in the development of the city from the 1960s until his death in 1986. One of his famous phrases is, “Everyone is an artist”.

below: Complex and largely symmetrical in shades of pink and purple is one way to describe this mural by HowNosm (or How & Nosm), a partnership between brothers Raoul and Davide Perre.

below: This is a large-scale, monochrome mural realistically depicting a person’s feet as they stand. They are wearing old boots (or shoes) and you can also see the bottom of their pant legs in the image. The artist was Hendrik Beikirch (aka ECB).

below: “Meat is Murder” he says as he holds out a sausage.

rough street art painting in Dusseldorf Germany, green male figure holding a sausage in one hand, text on painting says meat is murder

below: “No more wore” written on the Ukrainian flag.

below: Floral dog on a black and white slap, image by Christin Wenga.

below: Sad face with a blotch of yellow on his forehead.

below: “Nix Gelernt?” Nothing Learned?

below: In the center, raising the flag but it has been altered from the original photograph of the American the flag being raised at Iwo Jima on 23 Feb 1945 to an Anarchist flag. In the bottom corner is a small League of Legends sticker

below: His burning inside produces enough hot air to keep him afloat. There is a word written on his T-shirt which might give some clue as to the artist who created this large paste-up but I haven’t been able to find any answers online.