1UP:
Why These Three Characters Mean More Than Graffiti to Many Berliners
Who Is 1UP Berlin?
1UP is a Berlin graffiti crew founded in 2003 that is now internationally known.
Instead of putting individual graffiti writers in the spotlight, the crew operates under one shared name: 1UP – One United Power.
The Berlin locals recommend.
What Does 1UP – One United Power Stand For?
One United Power roughly translates as “one united force.”
In the crew’s own understanding, community, friendship, trust and taking action together matter more than individual names or personal recognition.
1UP Berlin: Key Facts at a Glance
- Founded: 2003 in Berlin
- Name: 1UP stands for One United Power
- Known for: large-scale graffiti, painted trains, rooftops and international actions
- Identity: The shared name One United Power represents the crew’s collective identity
- Film: “One United Power” was released in 2011
- Book & exhibition: “One Week with 1UP” followed in 2018 with photographers Martha Cooper and Ninja K
How Did People Know About 1UP?
Alright, friends,
I grew up in Berlin-Friedrichshain near Oberbaum Bridge.
And when you grow up there, there’s no getting around graffiti – and especially not 1UP.
For a long time, graffiti in Berlin wasn’t something I really thought about. It was just there.
At the U1 stations. On high-rises and rooftops along the Ringbahn. On Plattenbauten, in central Berlin and at U-Bahn stations. Later, within sight of the new A100.
There was always something written somewhere. There was always paint somewhere.
And this sounds almost absurd today, but I honestly didn’t realise until fairly late that it wasn’t actually allowed.
Not because anyone had explained it to me. But because it never felt like something foreign or out of place.
Back then, many people in my class didn’t know 1UP from documentaries or the internet. They knew them through older siblings, graffiti shops around Warschauer Straße, Berlin hip-hop or simply because you saw the pieces everywhere.
Especially in the late 2000s, there was a lot of talk on the streets.
Who had painted something where. Which crew had been out. Who had been caught.
And in my circle back then, it sometimes felt like either everyone painted themselves or at least knew someone who was in a crew.
Shoutout to Philipp and SAL.
Today, it sometimes sounds bigger when you tell the story than it perhaps really was. Back then, it was simply everyday life.
Why Could 1UP Emerge in Berlin of All Places?
The short answer: Because Berlin was a different city in the early 2000s. There were more vacant lots, open spaces and in-between spaces – and a graffiti culture in which a crew like 1UP could develop.
Not empty. Not lawless.
But with significantly more corners where no one was immediately responsible. More buildings that hadn’t yet been fully commercialised. More room for things that weren’t planned, approved or announced.
1UP was founded in Berlin in 2003 and grew out of a small circle that later became a larger collective. The exact number of members was deliberately kept unclear.
What mattered more was something else anyway:
Individual names weren’t supposed to be visible – just three characters. 1UP.
That fits a Berlin that was strongly shaped by people claiming and making use of spaces for themselves at the time. Open spaces, temporary use, squatted buildings, doing things yourself instead of waiting. In interviews, 1UP itself has cited old Kreuzberg, multiculturalism, open spaces and Ton Steine Scherben among its influences.
That doesn’t mean everyone has to agree with that attitude. But without that Berlin, 1UP’s story would probably have unfolded differently.
It’s also practically mandatory for Berliners to watch this 1UP documentary.
Why Does the Crew Come Before the Individual Graffiti Writer at 1UP?
At 1UP, talent alone doesn’t determine who belongs.
In interviews, the crew describes friendship, trust, travelling together and shared experiences as more important than who paints the best letters.
That sets 1UP apart from the image many people have of graffiti.
The lone graffiti writer. Hoodie. Spray can. Name on the wall.
At 1UP, by contrast, the collective is at the centre. Anyone who paints, films, keeps watch or takes on other tasks during an action can be part of it. According to the crew itself, decisions tend to be made together and by consensus rather than through a fixed hierarchy.
That’s why the crew describes itself more as a family than an organisation.
And that also explains the name.
When all you see everywhere in the end is 1UP, the individual writer disappears behind the shared symbol. What becomes visible isn’t one person, but the group.
Why Was the Action Often More Important to 1UP Than the Finished Graffiti?
For 1UP, graffiti wasn’t just about the finished piece. According to the crew itself, planning, keeping watch, filming, taking risks together and making it back were just as much a part of the action as the paint on the train or wall.
Sometimes 20 people were involved in an action that was over after just a minute and a half.
The crew itself talks about whole trains where they ran out of paint, lines weren’t finished or details were forgotten – and the action was still considered a success.
Because for them, the work didn’t begin on the train.
It began with the planning. The filming. Keeping watch. Making it back together.
Maybe that’s one of the reasons why, from the outside, it’s difficult to understand 1UP simply as a style or a name. Group dynamics, logistics and trust are just as much a part of the story.
Why Do You See 1UP Everywhere in Berlin?
The short answer: Because visibility was never accidental. 1UP deliberately painted in places and on surfaces where as many people as possible could see their work – including trains, rooftops, façades and other highly visible spots.
Many pieces were done as so-called throw-ups – quick, large-scale pieces. They also used techniques involving rollers, fire extinguishers and other tools that allowed them to cover large areas in a short amount of time.
Silver often played a special role: good coverage, strong reflection, high visibility.
When you look at photos of 1UP today, some of the actions almost look like fully produced media projects. But that documentation itself is part of the crew’s story.
At some point, graffiti for 1UP no longer ended at the wall.
Films. Photos. Documentaries. Distribution.
In 2011, the film “One United Power” was released, showing actions from different countries and screened in cinemas in Berlin.
And yet the city always remained visible.
Not as a backdrop. But as the origin.
How Did 1UP Become Internationally Known?
1UP became internationally known because the crew took its actions beyond Berlin early on while also documenting them through films, photos, books and exhibitions. A name from Berlin became a globally known graffiti collective.
Athens. Paris. Istanbul. Thailand. Cuba. Australia. Indonesia. New York. Milan. Tokyo.
The crew describes travelling less as classic street art tours and more as time spent together: sometimes with 20 people, paint, buckets and an attempt to experience a foreign city as more than just visitors.
In 2011, the film “One United Power” was released, featuring actions from different countries.
In 2018, “One Week with 1UP” followed. Graffiti photographer Martha Cooper and photographer Ninja K accompanied the crew as they prepared and carried out their actions. The resulting book showed not only finished graffiti, but also what normally remains hidden: planning, division of roles and collaboration.
The title is somewhat misleading. What was planned as one week turned into a much longer period of documenting the crew.
Those three characters from Berlin had long since become something documented, exhibited and discussed internationally.
Why Berliners Often See 1UP Differently Than Visitors
I still remember my time at Kunsthaus Tacheles pretty well.
I must have been around 14 or 15. We went there often.
Not because of a programme. Not because some event had been announced.
But because you could simply go there.
Wander around. Spend time. Watch people.
All kinds of people wandered around Tacheles.
Artists. Tourists. Berliners. Homeless people. Dealers.
People where you never really knew whether they worked there, lived there or had simply been sitting there for three days. And yet, surprisingly often, you ended up having good conversations there.
I saw my first live bombing by 1UP there.
Not as some big spectacle. Not with everyone holding up their phones. More like something that just happened on the side.
Like so many things in Berlin back then.
That’s also where I bought my first 1UP photocopies. Large murals. Black and white. Relatively simple. And at some point, my first graffiti DVD.
Back then, to me, it was simply a souvenir from a world that somehow seemed completely open and completely closed at the same time – and one that made a huge impression on me when I was young.
Tourists often see the finished piece. The spot. The edge of the rooftop. The photo.
Many Berliners are more likely to remember what came before.
The conversations. The rumours. The journeys along the U1. The friends with spray-paint stains on their shoes.
Is 1UP Art or Vandalism?
For some, 1UP is part of Berlin’s urban culture and art scene. Legally, however, unauthorised graffiti can constitute property damage. For more than 20 years, the crew’s story has existed between these two perspectives.
Many well-known actions were carried out without permission on trains, U-Bahn trains, façades or other surfaces.
That had real consequences: according to a police spokesperson quoted by Tagesspiegel, there were around 300 reports of property damage involving the group between 2003 and 2017.
At the same time, 1UP describes its own actions differently. In interviews, the question repeatedly comes up of who public space belongs to and why advertising is allowed to legally change a city while graffiti is generally treated as a disruption.
You don’t have to agree with that.
But that conflict is part of the story.
1UP didn’t invent the question “Who does the city belong to?” The crew fought that debate with paint.
For me as a Berliner, graffiti didn’t feel like an exception for a long time. Not automatically like art. But not automatically like destruction either.
It was simply part of the city.
Like BVG seats. Like Spätis. Like construction sites. Like that one blank wall that never stayed blank for years.
Why 1UP Never Fully Moved into the Art World
Although 1UP has long appeared in exhibitions, books and art projects, the streets have remained an essential part of the crew’s identity.
There have been films. Exhibitions. Books. Collaborations. Sales.
In interviews, members openly say that some of the money they made helped fund trips, lawyers or fines. Not as a traditional business model, but as a way to keep going independently.
Maybe that explains why 1UP still exists between two worlds today.
It didn’t start from a desire to sell art. It started from a desire to be seen.
And at some point, for some people, it became art anyway.
For others, it still isn’t.
What Many People Don’t Know About 1UP
There’s significantly more planning and organisation behind many 1UP actions than the finished graffiti might suggest. Tasks are assigned, locations are prepared and some actions involve lookouts, photographers and videographers.
Masks. Gloves. Preparation. Division of tasks. Escape routes.
For “One Week with 1UP”, Martha Cooper and Ninja K documented, for example, an action involving ten writers, three lookouts, two videographers and two photographers.
The crew doesn’t describe actions like these as kamikaze missions.
More like a calculated risk.
What matters isn’t that someone becomes a hero. What matters is that everyone makes it back.
The COVID period was unusual too. While the city came to a standstill for many people, members later spoke about less traffic, parked trains and new opportunities.
And behind all these stories, there are no superheroes.
Just people getting older.
One profile captures exactly that shift: the first job, the office, regular working hours and, eventually, the question of whether you’d choose this life again today.
The answer was surprisingly short:
“Nope.”
Is 1UP Political?
Yes. Political graffiti had been part of 1UP before, but political messages became significantly more visible from the late 2010s and early 2020s onwards.
In 2020, the crew supported the “Leave No One Behind” campaign with graffiti and a video, drawing attention at the time to the situation of refugees in the Moria camp on Lesbos.
More actions followed shortly afterwards.
A Berlin U-Bahn carried the names of victims of right-wing violence in Germany. At the end of May 2020, 1UP painted a train in Belgium with George Floyd’s final words: “I can’t breathe.”
The reactions weren’t all positive.
The crew also spoke about people who liked their graffiti but rejected their political stance.
That shows pretty clearly that 1UP has never defined itself solely by a particular style.
Friendship. Solidarity. Community. Family. Collective.
Political graffiti was therefore less of a complete break and more another form of public intervention.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to agree with the messages. And political graffiti remains unauthorised graffiti when it is created without permission.
Could a Crew Like 1UP Emerge in Berlin Today?
Probably yes – but likely not under the same conditions. Berlin is more heavily monitored, more densely built-up and more commercialised than the city where 1UP emerged in 2003.
Smartphones and constant surveillance cameras have also changed how things happen and how they spread.
In interviews, 1UP itself describes a Berlin shaped by increasing commercialisation, a stronger focus on property ownership and fewer open spaces.
Of course, there were rules, police reports and surveillance in the early 2000s too. Berlin back then wasn’t a lawless place.
But there were more gaps.
And as I write this, I find myself wondering whether I would actually grow up the same way in Berlin today.
Has Berlin Changed – or Just the Way We See It?
Whether I would still ride along the U1 today and see the same names everywhere.
Whether I could still just disappear into Tacheles with friends.
Whether I would still buy photocopies of murals somewhere.
Or whether I’d just save an Instagram post instead and keep walking.
Maybe we always romanticise our youth a little.
But I think something else really has changed:
I used to often feel like things in Berlin simply happened.
Today, I more often feel like things get announced.
And that’s exactly why I find the story of 1UP so interesting.
Not because I approve of everything. Not because I chase after every piece of graffiti. Not because I think rules don’t matter.
But because these three characters show something that many Berlin blogs leave out completely:
Cities aren’t shaped only by architecture, investment and sights. They’re also shaped by the people who leave their mark on them.
Some with permission. Others without.
Whether you call that art or not is something everyone has to decide for themselves.
But claiming that 1UP has nothing to do with Berlin’s history probably wouldn’t do the city justice.
And maybe, in the end, that’s the difference between a tourist’s view and a Berliner’s view.
Many visitors see graffiti.
Many Berliners suddenly see a time in their lives.
Berlin isn’t a tourist attraction. Berlin is a city.
See you in the real Berlin – or right here in the next blog. Take care 🖤
MANY OF THE IMAGES IN THIS ARTICLE ARE EXAMPLE IMAGES AND DO NOT ORIGINATE FROM THE ARTISTS MENTIONED.
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