Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie was the most famous Allied military checkpoint between East and West Berlin during the Cold War, operational from 1961 until the Wall fell in 1989. Located at the intersection of Friedrichstrasse and Zimmerstrasse in what was West Berlin's American sector, it was the only crossing point for foreigners and diplomats and is named in NATO's phonetic alphabet sequence (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie) following two other border crossings. The original booth and barrier are long gone. What stands today is a 1990 replica guardhouse with costumed 'soldiers' who charge a fee for photographs — a commercial recreation that is controversial but perennially popular with visitors. A large billboard bearing the faces of American and Soviet soldiers marks the former crossing line. The Haus am Checkpoint Charlie museum on Friedrichstrasse is privately run and houses an extensive collection of escape vehicles, forged passports, and documented escape attempts from the East, ranging from tunnels to hot-air balloons to submersibles. The museum is somewhat chaotic in organisation but densely detailed. On the pavement around the crossing point, markers and information boards detail the confrontation of October 1961 when American and Soviet tanks faced each other here for 16 hours, the closest Cold War Europe came to direct military contact. The intersection itself is unremarkable in terms of surviving physical history — for that, the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse is far more authentic — but Checkpoint Charlie's name recognition and the museum's escape-attempt content draw enormous crowds.