CHECKPOINT CHARLIE WALL MUSEUM
Secrecy and Freedom at Berlin's Mauerhaus am Charlie
Since
June of 1963 a nondescript 3 story building standing next to the world’s most famous and infamous boarder crossing known as “Checkpoint
Charlie” has housed one of the few museum exhibition spaces devoted
to international non-violent protest. Checkpoint Charlie was the principal
pass point between East Berlin and West Berlin since the construction
of the Berlin Wall in 1961, at one point 155 kilometers of barbed wire
concrete surrounding the west side of Berlin. The wall is mostly all
gone except for a few small sections (see Berlin Wall Memorial Bernauer Strasse).
Checkpoint Charlie itself remains as a tourist trap, one of the most
visited places in Berlin.
Inside
the Mauermuseum Wall Museum at Checkpoint Charlie is
on display the photographic and document record of 28 years of the division,
drama
and death of the Berlin Wall (see Building
the Wall Anniversary Events 2011).
The exhibition of the museum mostly consists of photographs, stark grainy
black and white images of deadly escape
attempts and tanks in
the streets, Berlin in ruins after the war and the building of the wall.
The
Mauerhaus, conceived by Rainer Hildebrant, was not only a museum documenting
the struggles of the wall, but was
also an active participant. 
From
a small window on its upper floor, escape helpers would observe the border
crossings
and work out escape plans with escapees. From 1961 to 1989 there were
almost 5,000 successful escapes,
and 1,200 died from an attempt for freedom. A special car built for one
of the escapes that succeeded is on display at the Berlin Wall Museum,
along with the diary and sandals of that icon of non-violence, Mahatma
Ghandi, and the death mask of dissident Andrei Sacharov.
The
real crossing gate at Checkpoint Charlie was destroyed in a grand ceremony
of the end of the wall celebrated by the four powers in 1990. A tourist
gate replica has since been resurrected where fake American and faux
East German border guards in semi-accurate uniforms stand for souvenir
photographs in front of the sandbag fortified guard box whose crossing
arm now only divides the busy tourist restaurants on one side of the
street and the Mauerhaus Checkpoint Charlie Museum on the other. A
sign at the gate announces which side is supposed to be the American
Sector and which Soviet Sector, west and east, but the division is
no-longer very apparent, all one throng of the curious
and
the
souvenir sellers of more faux manufactured GDR memorabilia. You can
get an East German border Visa stamp in your passport from
the souvenir fake guards. I can't tell you what it costs, apparently
a state secret. If you want to have some of fun, try to take a picture
of the tourist guard's price list for his souvenirs and you'll be treated
to a bit of that old East German Stasi paranoia. - I think it's only
a few euro for a stamp or a photo.
The
Checkpoint Charlie Wall Museum at is on Friedrichstrasse, about 4 blocks
south from Under Den Linden at Zimmerstrasse, served by the
underground
U-Bahn lines 2 and 6. Five blocks from the Brandenburg Gate and half
a mile from the Sony Center at Potsdammer Platz. If on foot, just head
for the big Die Welt balloon ride you can see from most of east
Berlin, which rises into the sky on a cable tether for city views every
15 minutes.
A few blocks to the west is the remaining segment of the wall along
Niederkirchner
Str (see Topography
of Terror Center). The Checkpoint Charlie Wall Museum
is one of the most visited museums
in
Berlin, so
be prepared
for
a crowd.
It’s
open from 9 in the morning to 10 at night every day of the year. Cost
is € 12.50
for adult and € 9.50
for students and groups, with lots of souvenirs available in the museum
shop. Documentary films run throughout the day. © Bargain
Travel Europe
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Mauermuseum
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See Also:
BERLIN DDR MUSEUM - LIFE IN EAST GERMANY
ORANIENBURGER
- BERLIN
PARTY BARS AND PUBS
AIR
BERLIN - DUSSELDORF TO BERLIN 2- FOR 1
BERLIN FILM MUSEUM AT POTSDAMER SONY CENTER
