74-813: Checkpoint Charlie (or " Checkpoint C ") was the Western Allies' name for the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War (1947–1991),becoming a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West. East German leader Walter Ulbricht agitated and manoeuvred to get the Soviet Union 's permission to construct the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop emigration and defection westward through
148-421: A loggia under the roof for surveillance by armed border patrol and Stasi officers. Tracks between the western and eastern systems were, aside from the long-distance tracks, completely separated. S-Bahn trains using the heavily guarded passing track west of platform C required permission from the commander of the border guard detail. An exchange of rolling stock between the divided S-Bahn segments of Berlin
222-546: A "death strip" bordered by mines, as well as channels of ploughed earth, to slow escapees and more easily reveal their footprints. Checkpoint Charlie was a crossing point in the Berlin Wall located at the junction of Friedrichstraße with Zimmerstraße and Mauerstraße (which for older historical reasons coincidentally means "Wall Street"). It is in the Friedrichstadt neighborhood. Checkpoint Charlie
296-466: A barbed-wire barrier that would become the Berlin Wall separating East and West Berlin was erected by the East Germans. Two days later, police and army engineers began to construct a more permanent concrete wall. Along with the wall, the 830-mile (1336 km) zonal border became 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide on its East German side in some parts of Germany with a tall steel-mesh fence running along
370-525: A branch museum of the Bonn -based Haus der Geschichte (House of History) and hosts a permanent exhibition devoted to the history of crossing the inner-German border, with a particular emphasis on what it was like to cross between East and West Berlin. There are numerous movies that include scenes filmed at the Friedrichstraße station: The East German spy Werner Stiller describes his escape through
444-664: A large part of the Berlin underground system via the connecting tunnel between the S-Bahn and the Berlin U-Bahn at their respective Friedrichstraße stations. Reconstruction started in 1945. Trains first returned to the facilities above ground. By the end of May and early June 1945 the BVG , the operator of Berlin's U-Bahn, had sealed up the pedestrian tunnel between the tunnel of the S-Bahn and U-Bahn stations to stop water flooding into
518-483: A large, curved train shed which rested on steel trusses of different lengths to cover the curvature of the viaduct underneath. The main entrance was on the northern side, the pick-up point for horse carriages on the south side. The station was officially opened on 7 February 1882, as part of the ceremonial opening of the Berlin Stadtbahn . Long-distance trains began running on 15 May the same year. Due to
592-431: A number of temporary tourist and memorial uses. The "BlackBox Cold War" exhibition has illuminated the division of Germany and Berlin since 2012. The free open-air exhibition offers original Berlin Wall segments and information about the historic site. However, the indoor exhibition (entrance fee required) illustrates Berlin's contemporary history with 16 media stations, a movie theatre and original objects and documents. It
666-418: A sandbag barrier toward the border. Over the years this was replaced several times by guard houses of different sizes and layouts. The one removed in 1990 was considerably larger than the first one and did not have sandbags. Tourists used to be able to have their photographs taken for a fee with actors dressed somewhat as Allied military police standing in front of the guard house but Berlin authorities banned
740-487: A shopping area with 50 businesses. Since reopening, regional trains now stop on platforms A and B . Beginning in 2002, the North-South S-Bahn tunnel was again renovated, which removed the last traces of East Germany from Friedrichstraße station - the green tiles covering the walls. On 30 November 2008, a memorial named Trains to Life – Trains to Death was unveiled for the 10,000 Jewish children saved by
814-460: A stand-off occurred between US and Soviet tanks on either side of Checkpoint Charlie. It began on 22 October as a dispute over whether East German border guards were authorized to examine the travel documents of a US diplomat based in West Berlin named Allan Lightner heading to East Berlin to watch an opera show. According to the agreement between all four Allied powers occupying Germany, there
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#1732787792413888-469: A total of 220 million Deutschmarks. The façade of the building was covered with terra cotta clinker bricks as the original building had, this time including the southern elevation of the building. An additional tunnel for traffic to the U-Bahn U6 was driven under the station, and elevators were added between the floors. The 5,200 square metres (56,000 sq ft) ground floor was converted into
962-544: Is Alexandra Hildebrandt , the founder's widow. The museum is housed in part in the "House at Checkpoint Charlie" building by architect Peter Eisenman . With 850,000 visitors in 2007, the Checkpoint Charlie Museum is one of the most visited museums in Berlin and in Germany. Checkpoint Charlie figures in numerous Cold War-era espionage and political novels and films. Checkpoint Charlie is featured in
1036-626: Is run by the NGO Berliner Forum fuer Geschichte und Gegenwart e.V.. Near the location of the guard house is the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie . The "Mauermuseum - Museum Haus am Checkpoint Charlie" was opened on 14 June 1963 in the immediate vicinity of the Berlin Wall. It shows photographs and fragments related to the separation of Germany. The border fortifications and the "assistance of the protecting powers" are illustrated. In addition to photos and documentation of successful escape attempts,
1110-488: The Refugee Children Movement , and to those deported, that started their journey at this station. Frank Meisler , the sculptor of the memorial, was himself saved by one of the trains bound for London Liverpool Street station (where a similar memorial marks the children's arrival). S-Bahn and regional trains stop at the upper platforms A - C on the Berlin Stadtbahn viaduct , elevated above
1184-703: The Warsaw Pact , and usually the People's Republic of China . The name "Western Bloc" emerged in response to and as the antithesis of its Communist counterpart, the Eastern Bloc . Throughout the Cold War, the governments and the Western media were more inclined to refer to themselves as the " Free World " or the "First World", whereas the Eastern bloc was often referred to as the "Communist World" or less commonly
1258-664: The bombing of Berlin in World War II . The U-Bahn and S-Bahn ceased operations on 23 and 25 April 1945, respectively, due to electricity power cuts. During the morning of 2 May 1945, the day the Berlin garrison surrendered to the Soviet Red Army, a detonation in the North-South tunnel under the Landwehrkanal caused the flooding of the tunnel, including Friedrichstraße's below-ground S-Bahn station, along with
1332-545: The fall of the Berlin Wall . In the opposite direction, on 18 January 1979, the East German double agent Werner Stiller used this route to escape to the West. The railway station held another attraction during the Cold War. The ground level and the underground platforms on the "western" side of the station had so-called Intershops , created specifically for travelers from West Berlin who did not want to pass through
1406-648: The " Second World ". * Indicates founding member state * Indicates pre-1991 member state Berlin Friedrichstra%C3%9Fe station Berlin Friedrichstraße ( German: [bɛʁˌliːn ˈfʁiːdʁɪçˌʃtʁaːsə] ) is a railway station in the German capital Berlin . It is located on the Friedrichstraße , a major north-south street in the Mitte district of Berlin, adjacent to
1480-580: The Allied authority never erected any permanent buildings. A wooden shed used as the guard house was replaced during the 1980s by a larger metal structure, now displayed at the Allied Museum in western Berlin. Their reasoning was that they did not consider the inner Berlin sector boundary an international border and did not treat it as such. Soon after the construction of the Berlin Wall in August 1961,
1554-596: The Border system, preventing escape across the city sector border from East Berlin into West Berlin. Soviet and American tanks briefly faced each other at the location during the Berlin Crisis of 1961 . On 26 June 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy visited Checkpoint Charlie and looked from a platform onto the Berlin Wall and into East Berlin, the same day he gave his famous Ich bin ein Berliner speech. After
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#17327877924131628-647: The Deutsche Reichsbahn (the East German national railways ). This entry led through its own control room and then, via several corridors, to a door on the ground floor of the "western" side. The entry was used to infiltrate and exfiltrate agents of the East German intelligence service , and to allow members of the West German communist party and West Berlin socialist party to pass without being checked or recorded. This secret pathway between
1702-558: The East German Deutsche Reichsbahn stopped S-Bahn transport between 17 June and 9 July 1953. When the East German government erected the Berlin Wall on 13 August 1961, it also severed the U-Bahn, S-Bahn and long-distance train connections passing through Berlin. The district of Berlin-Mitte , where the Friedrichstraße station is located, was surrounded in the northerly, westerly, and southerly directions by
1776-549: The East German border controls. Initially, mobile trolleys serving alcohol and tobacco, they were soon shops integrated into the station offering food, alcohol, tobacco, books, toys, jewelry, cosmetics, gift items, and more. One could disembark from the U-Bahn, buy something, and then get back on the next train and go back to West Berlin, all without going through East German border controls. Purchases could be made with any fully convertible currency, such as U.S. dollars , French francs , pounds sterling , Swiss francs , and especially
1850-514: The North-South S-Bahn tunnel, including the underground section of the Friedrichstraße station, was closed for renovation. Due to the damage caused by World War II, it was fully closed. The last wartime flood damage was removed in December 1991. Between October 1995 and September 1999, the ground level and the raised level on the Stadtbahn viaduct was completely renovated, costing Deutsche Bahn
1924-586: The North-South tunnel and Friedrichstraße below-ground S-Bahn station shut again for an extensive refurbishment which lasted until 16 October 1947, when the North-South tunnel was again fully operational. During the onset of the Cold War and its tensions between the Western and the Soviet-occupied sectors of Berlin, the Friedrichstraße station played an important role for citizens of Berlin to reach their friends and relatives in other sectors of Berlin. At
1998-852: The Soviets were only allowed to cross via the Sandkrug Bridge crossing (which was the nearest to Tiergarten) and were prohibited from bringing APCs. Western units were deployed in the middle of the night in early September with live armaments and vehicles, in order to enforce the ban. Although the wall was opened in November 1989 and the checkpoint booth removed on 22 June 1990, the checkpoint remained an official crossing for foreigners and diplomats until German reunification in October 1990. Checkpoint Charlie has since become one of Berlin's primary tourist attractions , where some original remnants of
2072-501: The West German Deutschmark . The merchandise was offered duty-free , which made especially the alcohol and tobacco products particularly attractive to passengers from West Berlin. This was also known to the West Berlin customs agency , which sometimes checked travelers coming from the Friedrichstraße at their first station in West Berlin. Between 1985 and 1987, a minor renovation of the train shed took place, where
2146-501: The West. The numbers increased during the three years before the Berlin Wall was erected, with 144,000 in 1959, 199,000 in 1960 and 207,000 in the first seven months of 1961 alone. The 3.5 million East Germans who had left by 1961 totaled approximately 20% of the entire East German population. The emigrants tended to be young and well educated, including many professionals — engineers, technicians, physicians, teachers, lawyers and skilled workers.The brain drain became damaging to
2220-744: The Western Sectors: For the S-Bahn at the Friedrichstraße station, the next station to the west was across the wall in West Berlin , to the north were three more stops in the Soviet sector, and only two to the south. The situation was similar for the U6 metro underneath the Friedrichstraße, which had three stations to the north and two stations to the south before crossing the wall. Therefore, despite being wholly located in East Berlin, all of
2294-813: The album Devils . At the border crossing from Hyder in Alaska , USA to Stewart in British Columbia , Canada , there is a humorous imitation of the Checkpoint Charlie sign with the inscription "You are leaving the American Sector" in English, French, and German, as well as a sign reading "Eastern Sektor", as Stewart is located east of Hyder. Hyder is the only place in the USA that can be legally entered without any border control. The sign
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2368-491: The beginning after the wall was built, both eastbound and westbound border traffic was controlled at ground level. These rather constrained circumstances, compounded by the traffic in and around the station, led to the construction of a building on the square north of the station, which was connected to the main station. This new building was used for westbound border crossings, with separate checkpoints for West Berliners, West Germans, foreigners and diplomats, transit travelers, and
2442-516: The bloc, it included many other countries, in the broader Asia-Pacific region, the Middle East , Latin America , and Africa with histories of anti-Soviet , anti-communist and, in some cases anti-socialist , ideologies and policies. As such, the bloc was opposed to the political systems and foreign policies of communist countries, which were centered on the Soviet Union , other members of
2516-611: The border crossing blend with reconstructed parts, memorial and tourist facilities. The guard house on the American side was removed in 1990; it is now on display in the open-air museum of the Allied Museum in Berlin- Zehlendorf . A copy of the guard house and the sign that once marked the border crossing was reconstructed later on roughly the same site. It resembles the first guard house erected during 1961, behind
2590-401: The border, and a counter for visa fees and the (mandatory) currency exchange. Due to its location in central Berlin, with its many shops, offices, official buildings, embassies, hotels, as well as cultural and entertainment ( Friedrichstadtpalast , Metropol theatre house, opera house , Museum Island ), as well as being a border checkpoint, the volume of traffic in the station was enormous. In
2664-592: The characteristic yellow tiles still featured today. On 27 July 1936, just before the 1936 Summer Olympics , the underground S-Bahn station was opened. After the events of " Kristallnacht ", starting on 1 December 1938, thousands of Jewish children started from or passed through the station to leave Germany as part of the Refugee Children Movement . The station was bombed by the Polish sabotage and diversionary squad " Zagra-Lin " in early 1943, with 14 people dead and 27 wounded. The station escaped major damage during
2738-497: The checkpoint. This stand-off ended peacefully on 28 October following a US-Soviet understanding to withdraw tanks and reduce tensions. Discussions between US Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy and Soviet intelligence officer Georgi Bolshakov played a vital role in realizing this tacit agreement. The Berlin Wall was erected with great speed by the East German government in 1961, but there were initially many means of escape that had not been anticipated. For example, Checkpoint Charlie
2812-617: The city streets. This upper level of the station is enclosed by two train shed halls. The smaller shed on the north side is used for the S-Bahn , the larger on the south for regional trains. Platform D is a station on the North-South tunnel of the S-Bahn, located underground, approximately aligned with the eastern bank of the Spree river. The underground station for the U6 line is located at
2886-456: The dissolution of the Eastern Bloc and the reunification of Germany , the American guard house at Checkpoint Charlie became a tourist attraction. It is now located in the Allied Museum in the Dahlem neighborhood of Berlin . 52°30′27″N 13°23′25″E / 52.50750°N 13.39028°E / 52.50750; 13.39028 Between 1949 and 1961, over 2½ million East Germans fled to
2960-462: The eastern end of the station, directly under the Friedrichstraße . In addition, the south side of the station serves as a station and terminus for a number of trams and buses of the Berlin transportation company . Since the remodeling in 1999, the station houses numerous shops, boutiques and restaurants, making the station blend in with the neighboring Friedrichstraße shopping area. In addition,
3034-547: The end of 1946, the Soviet Military Administration in Germany had created an East German border police force, tasked with preventing Republikflucht (escape from the East German republic). With the erection of the Inner German border in 1952, East Germany was to a large extent sealed off from the west. However, Berlin, and in particular the public transport system that criss-crossed between
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3108-557: The exhibition also showcases escape devices including a hot-air balloon, escape cars, chair lifts, and a mini-submarine. From October 2004 until July 2005, the Freedom Memorial , consisting of original wall segments and 1,067 commemorative crosses, stood on a leased site. The museum is operated by the Arbeitsgemeinschaft 13. August e. V. , a registered association founded by Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt. The director
3182-647: The feature film Bridge of Spies , imprisoned American student Frederic Pryor is released at Checkpoint Charlie as part of a deal to trade Pryor and U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for convicted Soviet spy Rudolf Abel . Pryor's release happens offscreen while the trade of Powers for Abel takes place at the Glienicke Bridge . It was depicted in the opening scene of the film The Man from U.N.C.L.E (2015). Elvis Costello mentions Checkpoint Charlie in his hit song " Oliver's Army ". The 69 Eyes mentions Checkpoint Charlie in their song Feel Berlin , from
3256-460: The large amounts of traffic passing through the station even before World War I , plans were made in 1914 to extend the station. There was a new, slightly elevated platform on the northern side for the S-Bahn, and the existing platforms had been made slightly narrower, leaving one platform for the S-Bahn, and two platforms for long-distance trains. The steel-truss, double-arched train shed was built between 1919 and 1925, featuring large glass fronts. On
3330-422: The middle wooden roofing section was replaced with glass. The lighting was replaced and the metal parts of the shed were repainted. Immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall , the traffic for the S-Bahn in Berlin as well as long-distance train traffic to and from Berlin increased dramatically. At first, to immediately ease travel between East and West Berlin, the walls and barriers that were built to separate
3404-407: The northern side of the building, two entry halls in expressionist style were built, and the whole northern side was covered by characteristic dark tiles. The southern façade was only plastered until the last renovation in 1999, when it was also covered by tiles. In 1923, the Friedrichstraße underground station for line C (today's U6 and southeastern U7 ) was finished, creating the first part of
3478-521: The number of passengers. During the Cold War , Friedrichstraße became famous for being a station that was located entirely in East Berlin , yet continued to be served by S-Bahn and U-Bahn trains from West Berlin , as well as long-distance trains from countries west of the Iron Curtain . The station was also a major border crossing between East and West Berlin. In 1878, the first station
3552-584: The opening scene of the 1965 film The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (starring Richard Burton and Claire Bloom ), based on the John le Carré novel of the same name , which does not use the checkpoint. James Bond (played by Roger Moore ) passed through Checkpoint Charlie in the film Octopussy (1983) from West to East. The 1985 film Gotcha! includes a scene where the protagonist ( Anthony Edwards ) transits through Checkpoint Charlie into West Berlin. In
3626-590: The point where the street crosses the river Spree . Underneath the station is the U-Bahn station Friedrichstraße . Due to its central location in Berlin and its proximity to attractions such as the Unter den Linden boulevard, the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag , the station is a favorite destination for tourists. At the same time, it is the main junction for regional traffic in Berlin, measured by
3700-465: The political credibility and economic viability of East Germany. By the early 1950s, the Soviet method of restricting emigration was emulated by most of the rest of the Eastern Bloc , including East Germany . However, in occupied Germany , until 1952, the lines between East Germany and the western occupied zones remained easily crossed in most places. Subsequently, the inner German border between
3774-400: The practice in November 2019 stating the actors had been exploiting tourists by demanding money for photos at the attraction. The course of the former wall and border is now marked in the street with a line of cobblestones. An open-air exhibition was opened during the summer of 2006. Gallery walls along Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße give information about escape attempts, how the checkpoint
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#17327877924133848-502: The same function as the Berlin Wall : East German border troops separated the station into two completely isolated areas, both fully under armed control, one for people within East Berlin and the other for transit travellers, persons switching between the different westbound train lines, and the few Easterners with a hard-to-obtain exit visa, all within one station building with a maze of connecting hallways, barriers, numerous cameras, armed guards with sniffer dogs, plain-clothes agents, and
3922-416: The small number of East Germans with exit visas. On the door was a guard station to separate people permitted to cross the border from those who were ineligible, leading to many tearful goodbyes in front of the building. This gave the building the moniker Tränenpalast ("Palace of Tears"). On the southern side of the station building was the so-called "service entrance" ( Diensteingang ) for personnel of
3996-675: The south-west corner of Berlin. The Soviets simply called it the Friedrichstraße Crossing Point ( КПП Фридрихштрассе , KPP Fridrikhshtrasse ). The East Germans referred officially to Checkpoint Charlie as the Grenzübergangsstelle ("Border Crossing Point") Friedrich-/Zimmerstraße . As the most visible Berlin Wall checkpoint, Checkpoint Charlie was featured in movies and books. A famous cafe and viewing place for Allied officials, armed forces and visitors alike, Cafe Adler ("Eagle Café"),
4070-415: The station houses a Berlin S-Bahn customer center, and a Deutsche Bahn travel center. On the plaza on the south side of the station is a large Taxi rank, and the station is also connected to the Berlin bus and tram system. The former Tränenpalast was used as a club and stage for various performances, such as readings, concerts, and cabaret until 2006. Since September 2011, the building has become
4144-529: The station in his memoirs Beyond the Wall . In Mr Norris Changes Trains , the novelist Christopher Isherwood has William Bradshaw eating ham and eggs with Arthur Norris in the first-class restaurant in the station. In Call of Duty: World at War , the station is used as a means of escape for the Red Army during the Battle of Berlin. In the novel No Man's Land by Michael Califra, the story's narrator,
4218-622: The station were removed. By July 1990, the severed tracks on platform C were reconnected, and after almost 29 years, there was again uninterrupted traffic on the Stadtbahn viaduct line from Berlin Alexanderplatz station to Berlin Zoo station . Very little maintenance had been done to the station during the East German years, and especially the underground section resembled a relic from a bygone age. Between August 1991 and February 1992,
4292-440: The station's underground facilities, namely the S-Bahn platform of the North-South tunnel and the underground station, were only accessible for passengers from the western sectors as a transfer station, or to access the border crossing at ground level. The facilities above ground, on the arches of the Stadtbahn , were separated along the platforms: Between platforms B and C was a metal-glass barrier that practically fulfilled
4366-481: The tower but failed, as it was not classified as a historic landmark, but the development was never realised. New plans since 2017 for a hotel on the site stirred a professional and political debate about appropriate development of the area. After the final listing of the site as a protected heritage area in 2018, plans were changed towards a more heritage-friendly approach, but the area between Zimmerstraße and Mauerstraße/Schützenstraße remains vacant, providing space for
4440-548: The tunnel. Reichsbahn , the operator of the S-Bahn, declared that it lacked the means to plug the tunnel leaks. On 4 June 1945, BVG started to drain the underground system of water ingress. On 12 July 1945, the underground reopened at Friedrichstraße station for two one-track shuttle operations, one from the north and one from the south meeting there, and regular two-track traffic restarted on 5 December 1945. Reichsbahn drained its North-South tunnel only later and restarted below-ground S-Bahn services on 2 June 1946. On 1 December 1946,
4514-417: The two German states was closed and a barbed-wire fence erected. Even after closing of the inner German border officially in 1952, the city sector border in between East Berlin and West Berlin remained considerably more accessible than the rest of the border because it was administered by all four occupying powers, so Berlin became the main route by which East Germans left for the West. On 13 August 1961,
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#17327877924134588-524: The two cold war fronts was also the escape route for some members of the West German terror organization Red Army Faction to avoid arrest in West Germany. On 7 July 1976 the officially-wanted Movement 2 June members Inge Viett , Monika Berberich , Gabrielle Rollnick, and Juliane Plambeck escaped following their escape from prison, and on 27 May 1978 Till Meyer escaped into East Germany via Friedrichstraße station, though they did not stay there. Viett later escaped to East Germany again and stayed there until
4662-399: The underground maze the station still has today. At the beginning of the 1930s, construction began again at the Friedrichstraße station, as the North-South tunnel of the S-Bahn was driven under the station. A long pedestrian tunnel connected to the underground station of the same name Berlin U-Bahn was also driven under the northern end of the station, and that underground station received
4736-431: The western Allied and Soviet sectors, was still a hole in that Iron Curtain . Accordingly, Berlin became the main route by which East Germans left for the West. The 3.5 million East Germans that had left by 1961 amounted to approximately 20% of the entire East German population, many using the Friedrichstraße station with its bustling traffic as the starting point for their escape. During the East German uprising of 1953 ,
4810-414: Was built after plans by Johannes Vollmer between the Friedrichstraße and the river Spree as part of the Berlin Stadtbahn construction. The architect was working on the neighbouring Hackescher Markt station at the same time. Just as the elevated viaduct the station is integrated into, the station rests on large arches built with masonry. The station had two platforms each with two tracks, covered by
4884-489: Was designated as the single foot or car crossing point for foreigners and members of the Allied forces, who were not allowed to use the other sector crossing point designated for use by foreigners, the Friedrichstraße railway station. The name "Charlie" came from the letter C in the NATO phonetic alphabet ; similarly for other Allied checkpoints on the Autobahn from the West: Checkpoint Alpha at Helmstedt and its counterpart Checkpoint Bravo at Dreilinden, Wannsee in
4958-429: Was erected in 2015 as a protest after the Canadian administration announced plans to close the border control at night. Western Bloc The Western Bloc , also known as the Capitalist Bloc , is an informal, collective term for countries that were officially allied with the United States during the Cold War of 1947–1991. While the NATO member states , in Western Europe and Northern America , were pivotal to
5032-414: Was expanded, and its significance during the Cold War , including the confrontation of Soviet and American tanks in 1961, and an overview of other important memorial sites and museums about the division of Germany and the wall. Developers demolished the last surviving major original Checkpoint Charlie structure, the East German watchtower, in 2000, to make way for offices and shops. The city tried to save
5106-438: Was initially blocked only by a gate, and a citizen of the GDR ( East Germany ) smashed a car through it to escape, so a strong pole was erected. Another escapee approached the barrier in a convertible, the windscreen removed prior to the event, and slipped under the barrier. This was repeated two weeks later, so the East Germans duly lowered the barrier and added uprights. On 17 August 1962, a teenaged East German, Peter Fechter ,
5180-509: Was only possible via the long-distance tracks on platform A . These tracks were equipped with derailers to prevent escape attempts . At ground level, between the elevated and the underground parts of the station, were facilities for crossing into East Berlin. This included three individual passport checks, a customs control, waiting rooms (since the crossing could take anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours), interrogation rooms, holding cells, offices to register and record people crossing
5254-429: Was removed by the East German guards. A spontaneous demonstration formed on the American side of the checkpoint, protesting against the action of the East and the inaction of the West. A few days later, a crowd threw stones at Soviet buses driving towards the Soviet War Memorial , located in the Tiergarten in the British sector; the Soviets tried to escort the buses with armoured personnel carriers (APCs). Thereafter,
5328-484: Was shot in the pelvis by East German guards while trying to escape from East Berlin. His body lay tangled in a barbed wire fence as he bled to death in full view of the world's media. He could not be rescued from West Berlin because he was a few metres inside the Soviet sector. East German border guards were reluctant to approach him for fear of provoking Western soldiers, one of whom had shot an East German border guard just days earlier. More than an hour later, Fechter's body
5402-430: Was situated right on the checkpoint. The development of the infrastructure around the checkpoint was largely asymmetrical, reflecting the contrary priorities of East German and Western border authorities. During its 28-year active life, the infrastructure on the Eastern side was expanded to include not only the wall, watchtower and zig-zag barriers, but a multi-lane shed where cars and their occupants were checked. However,
5476-476: Was to be free movement for Allied forces in all of Berlin, and no German military forces from either West Germany or East Germany were to be based in the city. The Western Allies also did not initially recognise the East German state and its right to remain in its self-declared capital of East Berlin, and only recognised the authority of the Soviets over East Berlin. By 27 October, ten Soviet and an equal number of American tanks stood 100 yards apart on either side of
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