Note: this article is about a hidden highlight that you will not find in the standard travel guides. The normal tourist is less likely to be seen here. This is therefore a more exclusive item. I myself got to know this place during a chance passage.
The Lennon Wall, or John Lennon Wall, is a wall in Prague in the Czech Republic directly opposite the French Embassy. The wall was painted in protest with graffiti in the 1980s to honor John Lennon and Beatles lyrics. Since then, the wall has been repainted many times and features varying expressions of protest against local or global issues and calls for global ideals such as love and peace.
The wall is located on a small secluded square in the Mala Strana Velkopřevorské náměstí district opposite the French Embassy. The wall received its first graffiti or call it decoration after the murder of John Lennon. An unknown person painted a portrait of the singer and also placed a number of lyrics. At that time that was a really daring move because making references to Western society was strictly forbidden. It was therefore immediately seen by the authorities as a protest. The painting was immediately scrubbed off the wall by the authorities. When the wall was repainted by authorities, the next day there were already new poems written on it together with flowers.
In 1988, the wall was a source of irritation to the communist regime of Gustáv Husák. After a brief period of democratization and liberalization known as the Prague Spring, the new communist government rolled back reforms. Young Czechs used the wall to express their displeasure at their loss of freedoms. This got out of hand as it led to a fight between hundreds of students and the police on the Charles Bridge, which is not far from the wall.
The liberalization movement or grouping the students converted to was called "Lennonism" (not to be confused with Leninism).
Since that time, the original portrait of John Lennon has disappeared under several coats of new paint. John has been painted over with various protests against local as well as global issues. In addition, the wall is also painted with a call to ideals such as love and peace, which you can still see because today the wall still symbolizes the worldwide ideals of love and peace.
The wall is owned by the Order of Malta. Initially, the Order always painted over the graffiti with white paint. That soon turned out to be impossible, so that nowadays she allows graffiti to continue to be placed on the wall.
On November 17, 2014, the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, the wall was painted all white by a group of art students. It was only written: "Wall is over" [sic]. The Maltese Order initially filed a report of vandalism, but it was later dropped when they contacted the students in question. This lyric survived in an altered form until April 22, 2019. It was then changed to "War is over," referring to the song Happy Xmas (War is over) by John Lennon and Yoko Ono from 1971.
On April 22, 2019 (Earth Day), the entire wall was painted over by the activist group Extinction Rebellion with slogans demanding action against climate change. "KLIMATICKÁ NOUZE" was written in big block letters, Czech for "climate in need". Passers-by were encouraged by the action group to write their own message on the wall in several languages.
In July 2019, artists painted a memorial on the wall for Marco Leung Ling-Kit, an activist in Hong Kong's 2019 demonstrations against the extradition bill with China. As a fatal victim, he became a symbol of these demonstrations. The artwork depicts the yellow raincoat he wore while putting up a banner, which eventually led to a fall from the building.[6]
The wall often falls victim to vandalism by drunks and tourists. That is why the city council decided in 2019 to install surveillance cameras and the police patrol more often.
Clear rules have been set since 2019. It is no longer allowed to simply write on the wall. The wall was completely painted over in 2019 and only professionals are allowed to paint on it.
More graffiti walls have been set up worldwide, specifically inspired by the Lennon Wall in Prague.
Hong-Kong
During the 2014 Hong Kong protests, a Lennon Wall was erected at the government building. Thousands of colorful post-it notes were posted on which people had written democratic wishes for Hong Kong. The wall was one of the artistic expressions of the umbrella demonstrations. During the hundreds of protests, supporters of the umbrella demonstrations ensured the preservation of the wall for eight months.
During the 2019 Hong Kong protests, the same Lennon Wall was re-erected at the Central Government Office Building. In June and July, one hundred and sixty-three walls were also decorated with colorful post-it messages about freedom and democracy in other places in Hong Kong. This also happened in government office buildings such as the Ministry of Radio and Television. Messages of support for the movement in Hong Kong were also added to the Lennon Wall in Prague. Similar messages of support have also appeared in other cities, namely: Toronto, Vancouver, Tokyo, Berlin, London, Sydney, Manchester, Melbourne, Taipei and Auckland.
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