Tell
It to Berlin
On the last full day
of two weeks spent in this city, the requisite visit was paid to Checkpoint
Charlie, the spot at the Berlin Wall where, from 1961 to 1989, allied forces
and other foreigners crossed the uneasy border between East and West Berlin.
(Germans had designated checkpoints of their own.)
The wall once split
this city in two with concrete and barbed wire, dividing people into those
ruled by democratic West Germany or communist East Germany. Now, capitalism
rules. Big time.
The scene of so many
spy novels and movies, Checkpoint Charlie’s original wooden shed is long gone,
replaced by a replica with role players dressed up as US military personnel
posing for tourist photos.
At the place where American and Soviet tanks once confronted each other from just 100 yards apart, there now are coffee bars, souvenir shops and a Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Sidewalk vendors peddle Red Army hats and badges along with chunks of what they say are pieces of the original wall. Nearby there’s even a high-rise building of upscale apartments going up, to be called, I’m not making this up, “Charlie.”
At the place where American and Soviet tanks once confronted each other from just 100 yards apart, there now are coffee bars, souvenir shops and a Kentucky Fried Chicken.
Sidewalk vendors peddle Red Army hats and badges along with chunks of what they say are pieces of the original wall. Nearby there’s even a high-rise building of upscale apartments going up, to be called, I’m not making this up, “Charlie.”
Once this place was Ground Zero in the Cold War and tensions teetered on the proverbial razor’s edge. While three short sections of the wall still stand, in most places a thin line of cobblestones marks where it once was.
Traffic and commerce flow freely, and to an outsider it can feel as if the heavily armed barrier never was there. But to those who lived here, the memory is never far away.
There are constant reminders, like the white crosses honoring East Berliners shot while trying to escape or the big sign at Checkpoint Charlie announcing, “You are leaving the American sector” in four languages.
