Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie

During our first visit to East Berlin in 1970, when our tour bus arrived at Friedrichstrasse, the famous, or infamous Checkpoint Charlie (control point at the border between East and West Berlin), everyone had to go into the building to buy new visas. The Border Police made a methodical inspection of the bus and the papers of the travelers. They confiscated a map we had, that showed the Berlin Wall as a cartoon-like jagged brick divider between East and West. They were apprehensive that a view of our map would contaminate the mind of an unsuspecting, naive East German citizen.

On our last visit to the former Checkpoint Charlie in 1991, only a portion of the Berlin Wall still stood, and they were in the process of establishing a museum. We asked a Berlin Policeman if it was possible for us to “liberate” a piece of the wall, somewhere in the neighborhood. As he gave us directions to nearby Mühlen Straße, he put his hand over his eyes, as if to say, “If I don’t see you … … .” With his tacit permission, we helped remove the Wall. On September 4, 1991, two 10” pieces from the Berlin Wall joined our collection, along with the hammer that did it.

We’ve seen Berlin with and without the Wall, and believe it, we prefer without.