At least the east side (right) at Checkpoint Charlie is now being developed Photo: Siegfried Purschke/BZ assembly
By Andra Fischer
After years of wrangling over the historic location in Mitte, things should finally move forward. A comment from BZ editor Andra Fischer.
October 1961, ten weeks after the Wall was built, a war of nerves at Checkpoint Charlie: American and Soviet tanks face each other at the border.
The images burned themselves into the collective memory, including that of later generations.
The terror of the death line ended when the Berlin Wall came down – immediately afterwards decades of wrangling over land began. A memorial was out of the question. Not even the control box is original.
There were many failures at the checkpoint. Those awful booths, that uniform bazaar!
Now things are progressing a little bit: drafts for the building are in place. Finally starting to give dignity to this place. Will it succeed?