Checkpoint Charlie, located in Berlin has a historical significance. It used to be the crossing point between East Germany and West Germany during the Cold War. The name was given by the Western Allies.
History: On August 13, 1961, Berlin Wall was built to separate East and West Berlin, more due to some diplomatic reasons. Checkpoint Charlie was a crossing point in the Berlin Wall, located at the juncture of Friedrichstraße with Zimmerstraße and Mauerstraße. This crossing was built as the single crossing point for foreigners as well as the members of the Allied forces, even though the members of the Allied forces were not allowed to use the other crossing point, the Friedrichstraße railway station which was essentially designated for the foreigners.
The main function of the checkpoint Charlie was to register and inform the members of the Western Military Forces before entering into East Berlin. Foreign tourists were also informed but they were not checked in the West Berlin. The German authority in both West and East Berlin was not allowed to check any member of the Allied Military Forces in both Berlin and Germany.
The crossing, Checkpoint Charlie was removed on June 22, 1990. The previous Allied guardhouses are now shifted to the Allied Museum. But a copy of the American guardhouse was erected on the original place in the year of 2000. More over, the East German watch tower at Checkpoint Charlie was pulled down by the Checkpoint Charlie Service Company on December 9, 2000. A 140 meter long section of the Berlin Wall was erected again by the museum in 2004.
In the present point of time, Checkpoint Charlie has turned out to be one of the main tourist attractions in Berlin. This is free site for the visitors. The tourists can enjoy an open-air exhibit on the Gallery walls about the escape attempts, how the checkpoint was built, and its significance as a key point of Cold War. The tourists can take their pictures with actors, dressed up as allied military policemen standing in front of the guard house, for some fees. 