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Wall Museum – Checkpoint Charlie

  • Berlin, Germany

Last updated: 23 April, 2024

With its grim border guards and ominous sign – ‘You Are Now Leaving The American Sector’ – Checkpoint Charlie put the world on edge when Allied and Soviet tanks faced off for a few nail-biting days in October 1961. It was the recognised crossing point for the infamous Berlin Wall, which symbolised more than anything else the West’s ‘Cold War’ with the Soviet Union from 1947-1991. For a small and fairly non-descript site, it has enormous historical significance that will lives long in the realms of history.

Today, a cramped but compelling museum there tells the history of the Wall and the rickety tunnels, home-made aircraft, reinforced cars and mini-subs people used to attempt escape to freedom from East Germany – efforts that more often than not ended in heartbreaking tragedy. There are some good documentary clips too.

For a couple of Euros you can pose with a mock guard at the replica border booth and get your passport stamped with a pre-1989 visa.

Logistics

Price from: £12
Minimum age: 0
Age suitable: 8+
When: All year around

Getting there & doing it

Take line 6 of the U-Bahn to Kochstrasse and walk 150m north along Friedrichstrasse.

Audio guides are available on site for a small fee. One-hour group and individual guided tours are also possible by prior appointment. There is also a series short films that run in the morning.

When to do it

It’s open all year round, seven days a week.

Who to go with: organised tours

6

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Join this extremely insightful four-hour tour that focuses on the history of the Berlin Wall. Your tour begins near Alexanderplatz where you'll area formerly known as East Berlin to visit the Wall plenty of sites that make Berlin the unique city it is today. On the Berlin Wall Bike Tour you will visit the East Side Gallery, see a former watchtower, see the Soviet War Memorial in Treptower Park, and learn about escape attempts in the places they happened. Along the way, your guide will also tell you stories of espionage, and world events all effected by the Wall. You'll gain insight into what life was like in the shadow of the Wall and how the city still copes with its divided past today. Throughout the tour, your guide will be available to answer any questions you have about the Cold War and how it shaped present-day Berlin.

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This private walking tour brings you to the places, where famous events of the Cold War happened and history was written. On this tour you will also see original pieces of the Wall, one of the last remaining guard towers and Checkpoint Charlie. The tour starts at the Berlin Wall Documentation Center in the street "Bernauer Strasse", where many of the dramatic escape attempts took place, successful and tragic ones. You will ride one of the subways that were called "ghost trains" during the division of the city, so-called because of the gloomy atmosphere in the underground stations close to the wall. The tour also covers Checkpoint Charlie, the former military checkpoint and hot spot of the Cold War. This is the site where the fate of mankind was hanging by a thread in 1961 when US and Soviet tanks confronted each other.

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