Checkpoint Charlie

Checkpoint Charlie, the best known official crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War. It is located on the corner of Friedrichstrasse and Zimmerstrasse and was the designated crossing point for foreign tourists and dignitaries and for members of the Allied armed forces.

Despite the post-World War II division of Berlin into four sectors (Soviet, U.S., British, and French), movement across the city was relatively easy, and as movement from the Soviet-controlled countries to the rest of Europe was increasingly curtailed, crossing to West Berlin became the primary way for East Germans to reach the West. This came to an abrupt end, however, when on August 13, 1961, the border between East and West Berlin was closed. Initially the division comprised a barricade of barbed wire and roadblocks but it was later consolidated into a high concrete wall known as the Berlin Wall. To facilitate some movement between east and west, checkpoints were set up along the wall; the Allies called the one in Friederichstadt “C,” from which it took the better known name of Checkpoint Charlie. It was a crossing point for accredited military personnel, journalists, diplomats, and other dignitaries and consequently became well known, even acquiring a certain glamour when it featured in Cold War spy novels and films. On the eastern side, the checkpoint comprised a barrier pole and zigzag concrete barriers, a watchtower, and a large area where vehicles and their occupants were searched. On the western side stood a simple wooden booth.

Checkpoint Charlie gained fame as the site of several audacious escape attempts. A confrontation between U.S. and Soviet tanks at Checkpoint Charlie in 1961 ended peacefully. One of the most notorious events was a failed attempt by Peter Fechter in 1962; badly wounded while attempting to flee, he was caught on barbed wire and left to bleed to death, watched by the world’s media. The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 following the fall of the East German regime left Checkpoint Charlie redundant, and it was formally closed in 1990. A copy of the original booth on the Western side has been erected where the crossing stood. The watchtower on the eastern side was demolished in 2000. The Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie—opened in 1963—is situated nearby.