Checkpoint Charlie

This is, as I'm sure you can guess, what's left of 'Checkpoint Charlie', the best-known Berlin wall crossing point between East Germany and West Germany during the Cold War.

All that you see here is not original - it has been rebuilt so that you can see what it would've looked like (minus the tourists and the modern things) at the time. It was probably the busiest place I visited in Berlin, so it's hard to really get an idea of what it going on.

You can probably see the giant photo on the pole up there - there's an American soldier on one side and a Russian one on the other side - both stationed in Berlin during the 1990s - keeping an eye on each other, I imagine.

The name 'Charlie' came for the letter C in the phonetic alphabet - there is a Checkpoint Alpha and a Checkpoint Bravo. It was also the third checkpoint on way from Western Germany to West Berlin (through East Germany).

Shortly after the erection of the Berlin Wall, a standoff occured between U.S. and Soviet tanks on either side of Checkpoint Charlie. It began on October 22, as a dispute over whether East German guards were authorized to examine the travel documents of a U.S. diplomat. One side aimed one tanks, then the other side aimed a tank, and by October 27, 10 Soviet and 10 American tanks lined the checkpoint, staring at each other. The standoff ended peacefully on October 28.

And like I said, it was probably the busiest area to visit, and the hardest to photograph. Although well worth a wander - there are walls in the area full of information. There is a museum as well, although on the day that I visited Checkpoint Charlie the weather was so nice I couldn't bear to be inside. Plus I've become accustomed to having free museums in London and it hurts a bit to pay for museums. Heh.