Checkpoint Charlie (archive photo) Photo: AP Photo/Markus Schreiber – dpa
From Hildburg Bruns
The hustle and bustle at Checkpoint Charlie is deceptive. Because here it will be much more crowded in the future when the wastelands are brought to life.
The lucrative properties have been waiting for completion for decades. When will the excavators finally roll? “Only the private owner can provide information about the time of construction,” said the building administration to the BZ
In mid-October, a project developer from Hesse signed the purchase contract for 9,081 square meters at the notary. A realization competition is planned for the private building plots of the eastern property – it determines uses and architecture.
The western property is being developed with the participation of the Baukollegium – it is an advisory body to the Senate that appraises important projects.
The state of Berlin has also struck a deal itself with the areas: 1100 square meters are reserved for a city square and for a museum of the Cold War in a basement 800 square meters (purchase price 3.56 million euros). Exhibition areas are to be designed there under the direction of the Berlin Wall Foundation. Not only the East/West confrontation of Soviet and US tanks in 1961 at the checkpoint will be dealt with, but also global conflicts.
Concrete details are to be presented at the end of January. For this purpose, an urban planning dialogue process has been running for three months between all those involved regarding the Checkpoint Charlie memorial site – and also the important traffic issues.
A Senate spokesman: “The results will be presented in a public closing event on January 24th. We don’t want to anticipate that.”