CHECKPOINT CHARLIE

Our first stop after lunch was checkpoint Charlie. The original was torn down after the wall came down, but a replica has been erected. It's not on the original site, but it's close. The entire area is inundated with posters, pictures and memorabilia of the era from 1961 to 1989. I remember when the wall went up, I remember when it came down and all the chaos the took place during those years.

Here are some pictures of then and now. Also another of the brick path which is all through Berlin. Every time we crossed it our guide pointed it out. It is a permant memorial of where the wall was.

President Kennedy visiting the wall 06/26/1963. That was when he gave his famous speech in which he said"Ich bin ein Berliner".  click here to see the crowd gathered fo Kennedy's speech


Sign in French which says "You are leaving the American Sector".

Obvious protest circa the late 60's

This sign in English, Russian and French speaks for itself.

Replica of Checkpoint Charlie.

I think this is a boundary marker for the German Democratic Republic. (The old East Germany)

Several museums have sprung up in the area.

Different view of the replica of Checkpoint Charlie. It's important to remember that this was a real thing from August 1961 to November 1989.

Notice the flags in the background. they are flags of the U.S., the U.S.S.R. (which is now Russia),

the U.K. and France. These are all the countries that had a sector in Berlin from after the war to the fall of the wall in 1989.

These bricks show where the actual wall was. They run all through Berlin. The wall was constructed in one night. The reason for it was because too many people were leaving east Germany to live free in West Berlin.

One of the many posters in memory of people killed while trying to escape to the West.