Hello Europe Podcast Podcast

Germany: the future of Checkpoint Charlie finally defined?

The fate of a famous border crossing of the Berlin Wall, whose 30 years of the fall was commemorated earlier this month, is about to be sealed. Indeed, Berlin has finally made the decision to decide on the future of Checkpoint Charlie .

Checkpoint Charlie was created shortly after the construction of the Berlin Wall on August 13, 1961 and was controlled by the Americans since it was in their area. This third US-run border post next to Alpha and Bravo was called Charlie, referring to the international military alphabet.

This border crossing was reserved for diplomats, soldiers of the four Allied forces stationed in Berlin (the Americans, the British, the French and the Soviets) and foreigners. The Germans meanwhile, did not have the right to use it. Its reputation comes from its central location in Berlin but also from dramatic scenes that have marked history as when Soviet tanks and Americans face each other in October 1961 to shoot.

Checkpoint Charlie has also been talked about for spectacular leaks from East to West, tragic or happy. When the wall falls on November 9, 1989, the border crossing is, as elsewhere, the scene of scenes of jubilation.

A border crossing became a tourist passage

Then the wall quickly disappears around the checkpoint in the months following its fall. The sheds that housed the controls are shaved. The legendary barracks of American GIs, West side, goes to the museum in June 1990. It will be replaced ten years later by a copy to allow tourists to make selfies and other photos. The Museum of the Wall, a private institution created in 1963, cultivates the memory with bullet-filled cars and a presentation very cold war which does not pack the historians but which nevertheless welcomes 850 000 visitors each year.

Faced with the emptiness and two large wastelands, the temple merchants occupy the land with pieces of the wall with relative authenticity, Soviet chapkas and other trinkets, not to mention the sellers of sausages and beer.

Facing this historic "Disneyland", the city reacted with an exhibition posted on palisades along the roadway thirteen years ago. A black box on the Cold War delivers information on the city, Germany and Europe. A 360-degree panorama takes you back to the divided Berlin of the late 1980s and 4.5 million tourists flock every year in search of an invisible past.

A late decision

The reason for this delay is that the land on the right and left of the old border crossing was sold by the city after the fall of the wall. A Billionaire Lauder US business center project has only been partially completed and investors have already filed for bankruptcy once. Provisional solutions have emerged but the way in which this file has been handled has caused political turmoil.

The current investor has concrete plans but criticized because too commercial. In the coalition of the left that manages Berlin, the project is far from unanimous. On arrival, the city vetoed and the municipality offers on one side a museum of the Cold War of 3,000 square meters and on the other the construction of offices and housing, partly social housing. This project is to be adopted today. Time is running out because for legal reasons, the investor would have from February 2020 the free hands to build as it will probably mean that the work of memory would be reduced to the minimum portion.