Image Copyright: Gisela Pape

Checkpoint Charlie was the worldwide known sector crossing after the 2nd World War in the heart of the divided Berlin for foreigners, diplomats and the army ('Allied Checkpoint Charlie') at the border of the American sector to the Soviet sector. One could feel here the atmosphere of the cold war as in no other place, when French, British and American soldiers on the one side and GDR-frontiersmen and Soviet soldiers on the other side eyed each other suspiciously. The security facilities on the eastern side were accordingly: Several barriers, chicanes through which the vehicles had to manoeuvre, armed posts on watchtowers were to prevent any breakthrough attempts.

Image Copyright: Gisela Pape

At the height of the Berlin-crisis from the 25th to the 28th October 1961 American and Soviet tanks were standing opposite each other here at the Friedrichstraße with running motors, when the Americans forced the right of uncontrolled entry to the city's east sector.

Image Copyright: Gisela Pape

Checkpoint Charlie is today a place that still awaits a new design. The legendary small control house on the west allied was dismantled in July 1990 and in September of the same year given to the German Historical Museum. A small piece of the border facilities at the corner Zimmersraße/ Friedrichstraße was preserved that is part as 'topography of the German-German-border' of the Museum "Haus am Checkpoint Charlie": a watchtower, boundary-posts and tank traps. A former GDR border troop's officer and a former GDR passport civil servant give explanations.

Image Copyright: Gisela Pape

Only a few paces south of the former border crossing has the Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie been established. It documents the citizens and human right movements of this world and most of all the history of the German-German division, the Berlin Wall and its victims. Photos, documents and several original vehicles, apparatuses and equipments show what inventiveness and braveness people developed to conquer the border barriers.

City District:Mitte

Transport Links
Bus 129 Kochstraße
U-Bahn 6 Kochstraße