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WALL MUSEUM AT CHECKPOINT CHARLIE
Secrecy and Freedom at the Mauerhaus am Charlie

Since June of 1963 a non-descript 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 now an art project near the crossing. 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. The exhibition of the museum mostly consist 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 Brandenberg Gate and half a mile from the Sony Center at Potsdamer 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. The Checkpoint Charlie Mauer 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 € 9.50 for adult and € 5.50 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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BERLIN DDR MUSEUM - LIFE IN EAST GERMANY

ORANIENBURGER - BERLIN PARTY BARS AND PUBS

AIR BERLIN-LTU Two Cities for One - Dusseldorf to Berlin

BERLIN FILM MUSEUM AT POTSDAMER SONY CENTER

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