Berlin: Checkpoint Charlie / Grenzübergang Friedrichstraße

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Known as Grenzübergang Friedrichstraße in German, the English language name 'Checkpoint Charlie' was the colloquial name for a crossing point between the former East and West Berlin (Russian and American sectors of the divided city).
Although it first came into being in 1945, after the 1961 erection of the wall it became one of the few crossing points between the two sections of the divided city. It was restricted to military officers and non Germans only.
Germans had to use other crossing points.
It was located at the southern part of Friedrichstrasse - near to Kochstrasse U-Bahn station in West Berlin, with Stadtmitte being the nearest open U-Bahn station in East Berlin.
Nowadays very little remains of this crossing point - the wall, watch towers, wooden shed used by the US military... these were all removed after German reunification in October 1990.
For tourists there is now a replica of the original US military checkpoint shed and large photographs of US and Soviet Russian solders stand guard admitting people to their own sectors. The former wall is now delineated on the ground by a double row of cobblestones. (As seen at the end of this film).
This film shows video footage taken in April 1990 plus still image photographs taken in December 1989 and July 2005. There is footage on both sides of the wall, although for reasons of personal security the footage of the Eastern side of the crossing point is somewhat minimal. Nevertheless it is possible to see the arrangement of frosted glass screens which made it virtually impossible to see the crossing point from the East.
More information about Checkpoint Charlie can be found here..
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Checkpoi...
Replacing the 'en' with other language codes will also reveal other language versions of this page, with further photographs and information, if such pages exist. eg - de (German), es (Spanish), nl (Dutch), fr (French) etc.

Опубликовано:

14 апр 2007

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Комментарии : 186

@josted 12 лет назад

In remembrance of all the people who tried to pass the Berlin wall between 1961-1989, but never made it. You remain in our memory.

@PhunkyNun 15 лет назад

I visited the site of Checkpoint Charlie at the weekend. There's a comprehensive outdoor exhibition about it, stretching along the site of the wall. Well worth an afternoon's reading.

@beerborn 14 лет назад

I was at Checkpoint Charlie in 1979. It was pretty gloomy early that morning and very few people around. Went inside a souvenir shop next to the Checkpoint and bought a couple of posters.

@daktarioskarvannederhosen2568 3 года назад

very nice to see this video. i crossed back and forth at checkpoint charlie in 1981 -before it became merely a tourist curio.

@qualitychecker 14 лет назад

Sehr schönes Video.. freue mich dass es Menschen gibt die sowas für andere bereitstellen, danke !

@pawm83 15 лет назад

That was amazing. One massive city divided for two different worlds. I've never been in Berlin in my life, but i wish to go there and see at least contrast after berlin wall.

@almae 17 лет назад

i went some days ago, and its weird how now its a total turistic point, when in this video looks like a sad place.. good video, it really showed me how things were

@CitytransportInfoplus 16 лет назад

I only visited Berlin after the wall has been opened, so it did not matter if the East German guards saw me. Anyway, lots of people used that viewing platform to look towards the eastern sector of Berlin. Some of this film was taken with me standing on the the viewing platform and looking towards East Berlin. Simon

@1984isHereNow 8 лет назад

Crossed through it just after the wall came down in late eighties, I walked from a colourful West Berlin into a black and white movie in East Berlin, there was no colour, no cars except little trabants, it was the most unusual experience.

@CitytransportInfoplus 8 лет назад

+tommy3lions I went at Christmas 1989 and 1990. In 1989 went through Freiderichstrasse stn and on way back almost could not find the special sign which pointed towards the exit to the west! In Alexanderplatz I went to the big department store (named Centrum) and in the food hall there were notices in English, Russian, German and another language saying that certain items could only be bought by people with Berlin residency cards. Hmm, The fruit that they were selling looked like the stuff that here in the UK would be thrown out - or used for tinned fruits. How I wish I could have photographed it. Personal safety meant that I did not even dare try.

@1984isHereNow 8 лет назад

citytransportinfo Yes mate, I wish I'd taken more pics and understood the time a bit more. I do however have a lovely piece of Berlin Wall with graffiti elements that I brought back and had put on a plaque.

@runningfromabear8354 4 года назад

In the mid-eighties my father was stationed in west Germany. I crossed checkpoint alpha to checkpoint bravo with my mother and sisters to see my aunt and uncle in Berlin. There is so much information available for checkpoint charlie but the crossing I remember just has empty space. We were told we don't recognize Germany authorities and speak to Russian guards. As a child, I found it a harrowing experience. I had plenty of experience with uniformed soldiers, British, American and French. This was nothing like that. The military checked our vehicle wouldn't break down or run out of petrol. They spoke to my mother at length and prepared us for something awful to happen. Nothing happened. I had no idea rolling countryside could be so scary, but that talk and prep made it scary.

@OrnumCR 4 года назад

RunningFromABear ...Very interesting story...so you were from one of the Allied occupying powers which mean’t that the German authorities (either side) were not recognised? This sort of stuff fascinates me how a former powerful ‘state’ can just so completely lose its sovereignty and see its land area and borders chopped up so willy-nilly... That’s the price a nation pays though for such a massive miscalculation, trust in a very flawed leader and losing a war against so many combatants. Never going to end well. Wonder if China is beginning to explore this same flawed path that the former German Reich trod before it?

@1984isHereNow 3 года назад

@@OrnumCR Thanks mate. I've just read a cool book titled 'Bloc Life' by Peter Malloy. Personal stories from those living behind the wall in the last few years before it came down. All the best.

@israhotline 16 лет назад

thank you very much for publish your videos, it's very good to have a taste of how was berlin, i was very young at that time, but now i can travel and see the diferences.

@Waddinxslayer 17 лет назад

amazing high-quality footage. It's good to show the world what Checkpoint Charlie realy looked like. Most people forget that behind the allied checkpoint there was a gigantic East-German border terminal with many other facilties.

@LMB222 17 лет назад

The video is invaluable. The "Checkpoint Charlie", however, was not simply a colloquial name. It was named "Charlie", because it was the third one, after "Checkpoint Alpha" and "Checkpoint Bravo".

@youtubister 14 лет назад

VERY good video this. Checkpoint Charlie, I remember it well. Good to see the comparisons between then and now.

@alexclement7221 3 года назад

"Charlie" was an American Military checkpoint. This was obviously after the wall had come down, because I'm seeing a LOT of DDR civilians crossing back into E. Berlin. When I visited Berlin as a civilian in 1979, I crossed over at Freidrichstrasse U-bahn station.

@CitytransportInfoplus 3 года назад

the video dates from April 1990 so it was after the wall had been opened - I crossed over at Fredrichstrasse station in December 1989 and this location in April 1990 - and in 2007, by when the wall had mostly been removed.

@HANSMKAMP 10 лет назад

Very impressive video about the former Checkpoint Charlie and the East Berlin entrance!

@CitytransportInfoplus 10 лет назад

Thanks! Simon

@LMB222 16 лет назад

"Other Allied checkpoints on the Autobahn to the West were Checkpoint Alpha at Helmstedt and Checkpoint Bravo at Dreilinden, southeast of Wannsee" - Wikipedia. Thanks again. I was just a bit too young to witness that. I finally got to Berlin in 1990, so I did see a little of the remains.

@JanPBtest 4 года назад

Strictly speaking checkpoint Charlie was for cars and pedestrians only, it's shown beginning at 0:34. At Friedrichstraße one could catch a western U-Bahn (the Tegel - Alt-Mariendorf line) and exit in West Berlin (the next stop) at Kochstraße, near checkpoint Charlie. It was a bizarre experience.

@CitytransportInfoplus 4 года назад

I recall filming out the window of a West Berlin S-Bahn train which was travelling through East Berlin, someone was screaming and shouting at me but in German - which I do not understand. Later I learnt that the East Germans would arrest people doing what I did - for spying! This happened in December 1989, which was after the wall had been opened.

@CitytransportInfoplus 16 лет назад

Thanks for that explanation. Simon

@JerriKoe89 14 лет назад

I think you are right with the time when it was filmed but I think the video could be filmed before anyway. Filming in the west of Berlin was not restricted. I just can't imagine the GDR would tell a civilian of Berlin-West to hand them his/her video so they can make it disappear. But also I have to say, I was born right in that time when the wall opened. So it's just my guess and logic! :)

@paulchappell9606 5 лет назад

Just came back from Berlin, enjoyed it a great deal. Berlin has so much history, shame I was not there longer

@CitytransportInfoplus 5 лет назад

really a fascinating city, its just a shame that some of its history was somewhat unpleasant

@rewboss 16 лет назад

Two small corrections for you. You say that the "original" hut has been replaced by a smaller hut. In fact, the smaller hut is a facsimile of the original original, so to speak, which was in use in 1961, when the Wall was built; the one you saw in 1989 was a later replacement. The soldiers' photographs aren't supposed to be watching over the other sector; they're admitting you to their own sectors.

@CitytransportInfoplus 14 лет назад

Thankyou! Simon :-)

@Lovelymiz 9 лет назад

My daughter went to the Checkpoint Charlie museum with my university in 2002. At that time, the checkpoint was set against the Museum wall. I had heard they placed the checkpoint building back in its original place in the middle of Friedrichstraße to lend more realism to what Berliners actually endured; from the video I can see that this is the case.

@X0n3 15 лет назад

ich war damals als meine eltern mit mir in den osten fuhren 5 jahre alt!!! natürlich war ich noch zu jung um zu verstehn was passiert war, aber ich kann mich dran erinnern was ich dort alles gesehn habe!!!

@Coppertop71 15 лет назад

We drove a convoy through the corridor (CP Alpha/ Bravo) and crossed Checkpoint Charlie in Oct 1985. Everyone was friendly brought back nice souvenirs. Does anyone know the name of a old underground U-Bahn tunnel they made into a club of sorts on the West Side. I want to find more history about it.

@learjetguy 15 лет назад

nice video thanks.

@CitytransportInfoplus 11 лет назад

yes, after the wall was open. (filmed 04/1990)

@ChrisRoadWarrior 13 лет назад

Visited E Berlin in '81, '83 and '85, living in RO at that time, Berlin Wall will ever stay in mind for the rest of my life. GOD BLESS FREEDOM

@manoman0 14 лет назад

yes, absolutely unbelievable....must been a very expensive Recorder....stunning..

@CitytransportInfoplus 17 лет назад

The 'western' side only used temporary style structures because they did not want to give the impression of making the division legitimate. They saw it as only being a short term event. Which in the end it was. The 'eastern' side probably thought it would be permanent, at least until around 6pm / 18.00 hrs on one evening in November 1989. Simon

@krasnoie87 11 лет назад

Do you know, why the checkpoint (the replica) seems different when is compared to photographs of the real checkpoint?

@guitigefilmpjes 15 лет назад

What year was this? 1990?

@CitytransportInfoplus 17 лет назад

yes, it looks so different now - part of a thriving city, instead of a very forbidding border frontier point. Simon

@CitytransportInfoplus 16 лет назад

you are welcome! Simon

@CitytransportInfoplus 13 лет назад

@boozouz 04 / 1990. (April 1990). The Berliners hated the wall and the division of their city so apart from a small section for tourists removed the lot. Near 'Checkpoint Charlie' the wall was replaced with a double line of cobble stones in the ground. Nowadays its hard to imagine that it was there at all, as the area has been built up / is bustling with life and the distances are so small that it takes next to no time to walk from what was east to west (or vice versa). Simon

@CitytransportInfoplus 16 лет назад

most of this was filmed on the west side of the wall, but a little came from the east. (the road with the glass screen at the end is in the east). Simon

@krasnoie87 11 лет назад

Thanks, I was looking pictures and now I'm sure than the current building is based on the version of 1961.

@CitytransportInfoplus 16 лет назад

That was more 'special'. I only crossed after the wall had come down... in December 1989 and April 1990. Oh, I also walked through 'Checkpoint Charlie' in 2005... no wall, no border; I was surprised just how close the east and west had been (few minutes walk). Simon

@Merlin5x5 15 лет назад

When I was six years old, I got to stand on the american tanks and look through the 4 inch barrel of the M60 facing the soviet tank. It was squarely pointed at the Soviet tank commander. After I looked, they replaced the 2 foot long shell.

@CitytransportInfoplus 17 лет назад

Thanks. I knew that Kennedy made the speech, but *thought* that it was whilst standing on the platform overlooking the wall. So, apologies for the mistake / thanks for your correction. simon

@Kormos17 14 лет назад

hmm.. reallly insteresting, thanx for uploading.

@CitytransportInfoplus 16 лет назад

I have also updated the main text to remove this mistake. Simon

@CitytransportInfoplus 15 лет назад

I was there on 7/7/2005. Whilst there I received a call on my mobile phone from my mother telling me that I should not worry, as all family members were unhurt / still alive, etc. That is how I heard about the bombs on the London Underground and bus. Instead of train spotting in Berlin I ended up going to KadeWe and watching the live TV coverage of events back home in London. (I live in London). Simon

@duffdeluxe 16 лет назад

what was the raised viewing platform for?

@CitytransportInfoplus 16 лет назад

Thanks. Thanks - I did not know either of these - I've updated the main text to reflect your message / correct my mistakes. Simon Simon

@CitytransportInfoplus 16 лет назад

Thanks. For young people this is almost like a history lesson - except that its so much better to see it on video than just in books. btw, remembering that I filmed this and looking at the calendar makes me begin to feel old!!! (I am 48). Simon

@CitytransportInfoplus 16 лет назад

there is a small section of the wall which has been preserved for future generations to see. But thankfully it is not used to hold people as prisoners. Simon

@Redlightblue60 11 лет назад

In this video the Berlin wall was fallen or not?

@X0n3 15 лет назад

mein gott sieht das auf der ost seite verkommen aus!!! ich kann mich noch daran erinnern als meine eltern mit mir in den osten rüberfuhren.....die häuser waren alle total abgewrackt, die straßen waren fast nicht mehr befahrbar, und wenn man telefonieren wollte gab es nirgendwo nen telefon....und zu dem wurde man von den ossi's doof angeglotzt wenn man mit nem dicken Mercedes in den osten rein fuhr! :D

@CitytransportInfoplus 16 лет назад

to look over the wall, I think. Certainly that what I did when I was there. Simon

@KilonBerlin 13 лет назад

@citytransportinfo Thanks for visiting our city :) It is maybe not beautiful in every part, but which major city is? The history of Berlin is interesting, I wish I knew the old U-Bahn and S-Bahn routes, the S-Bahn which drove through Friedrichstraße. I think more than 1 line drove from west to west through east-berlin, the U8 is going from north to south through "Mitte" (district named "middle") in the east, it stopped at Moritzplatz thats what I know and restarted maybe at Gesundbrunnen?!

@jetska1810 15 лет назад

aus welchem jahr ist das video?

@Alexander78Mr 14 лет назад

What's the year of video?

@trevordodd9868 11 лет назад

was this filmed before 2007

@CitytransportInfoplus 16 лет назад

Thanks. I thought that this video might be of interest. I was very pleased to be able to get to Berlin before too much had changed. The sequence which I filmed on the eastern side (with the glass screen) was very quick, which nowadays I regret but at the time I was concerned that I might be arrested for filming there at all! I had no idea about the name Charlie being for the letter C. Simon

@mihaisirbu1 3 года назад

It was very good footage, even this short, thank you!

@Coppertop71 15 лет назад

michaelwright999 Do you still have your Flag Orders for the crossing?

@CitytransportInfoplus 15 лет назад

Thats how things were, in those days. Simon

@CitytransportInfoplus 17 лет назад

oh, thanks or telling me. I did not realise. Simon

@mesielein 5 лет назад

ja, ist ein Erlebnis, das zu sehen!

@nbkillan1982 15 лет назад

Thank you for your answer. It seems that we have almost the same problem though everything is over now. ( I am from Azerbaijan) Best regards!!

@Cristinact 15 лет назад

Thank you very much. When was this recorded? I've been there on three occasions and I just felt the chills up my spine when watching this. Maybe because I'm not German? =)

@mihaisirbu1 3 года назад

It says December 1989 at some point, but judging by the cars in the video, at least 1985

@CitytransportInfoplus 15 лет назад

Skoda130 - I very much agree, its NOT the system. It is the people who make life hell for ordinary people. Simon

@yaloomail 13 лет назад

WEST (FRG) and EAST (GDR) BERLIN : Checkpoint Charlie" was not the colloquial name for the crossing. There were three checkpoints, all designated according to the phonetic alphabet used by the Western Allies: Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie...

@CitytransportInfoplus 13 лет назад

What is / are xJaws? My visit to Berlin in December 1989 was to experience history in the making. One regret is not having a camcorder in December 1989 - I was filming the Berlin wall from a west Berlin S-bahn with super 8 (silent) camera and a lady was shouting hysterically about how the border guards might see me and arrest me. My visit in April 1990 was to film with a camcorder some aspects of the transport scene and Berlin in general which I knew would soon be changing. (cont...)

@CitytransportInfoplus 15 лет назад

It takes one to know one.

@ulfpe 14 лет назад

It's obviously filmed after the wall was opened. Even thinking of filming like this would have been punished before the fall. And You can hear this from the speaker text.

@CitytransportInfoplus 16 лет назад

Thanks. Someone else said that in the first comment on this video. I've copied their text below Simon ------------------------------------- famous kennedy speech took place in front of the city hall of the district of schöneberg (rathaus schöneberg), which used to be the city hall of west berlin back then. the square in front of the building is called 'john-f-kennedy-square' today.

@CitytransportInfoplus 13 лет назад

another regret is not filming inside the East Berlin department store called 'Centrum', especially the signs in 4 languages (German, Russian, English and one other language, which may have been Polish) about how certain goods could only be bought by people with Berlin residency cards - ie: people who lived in (E) Berlin! Simon

@HolguinOntario 16 лет назад

there is a big wall in tijuana-san diego ca.

@CitytransportInfoplus 15 лет назад

April 1990. Simon

@CitytransportInfoplus 11 лет назад

April 1990 (04/1990)

@wilatemodel 14 лет назад

was that a ford pick up @0:28???

@CitytransportInfoplus 14 лет назад

why do you 'hate' the east? Simon

@CitytransportInfoplus 15 лет назад

April 1990.

@CitytransportInfoplus 15 лет назад

:-) Yes, I visited the KuDam. But, sorry, no video. Simon

@citizenstand 17 лет назад

that's nice of you.

@PeterMayer 5 лет назад

We were there in 88. Fast forward to 2008. Visiting my relatives in Berlin and we saw the Friedrich Strasse s-bahn station. I said to my wife let's go and check it out. It's just a s-bahn station! The bastards are gone!

@CitytransportInfoplus 5 лет назад

The Berliners wanted to do as much as possible to return everything to peacetime normality. They were fed up with the city being in two sections and the issues this caused.

@CitytransportInfoplus 15 лет назад

April 1990. (04/90) Simon

@CitytransportInfoplus 16 лет назад

Yes the history behind it all is truly tragic - all the way from 1933, and even further back in some countries. But the ending is bittersweet - whilst people from the east can now travel again many of them can no longer afford to travel. Alas, a few people became very wealthy whilst the majority became much poorer. Simon

@mikescarlett3186 2 года назад

Dem vere goot togs ya!

@KanneloreHohl 14 лет назад

people of east-germany felt like in a big cage, but people of west-berlin were in a golden bird cage. they were surrounded by the east and the rest of the "west" was far away.

@Murderboy1973 11 лет назад

True. Nowadays it's really nothing.

@CitytransportInfoplus 13 лет назад

@boozouz I think this is Koch Strasser. Simon

@CitytransportInfoplus 15 лет назад

if you also go to the missing page at my website citytransport(dot)info slash missing(dot)htm you will find more links of related interest. Simon

@bozenasteiner8261 4 года назад

Fajne czasy czysty West Berlin bez wschodu a teraz masakra

@mollynolan1 16 лет назад

Simon, I think you are so right. Essentially, a capitalist society is hierarichal by how it operates with the few very rich controlling the wealth at the top while the least well off are at the bottom. We will always have inequality in our society but perhaps whatever wealth is being distrubuted will be fairly allocated to improve the life chances of the poorest. We now appear to be heading into a world recession possibly at least partially caused by greedy property tycoons.

@lindenbeck 17 лет назад

Hi! President J.F. Kennedy didn't speak Ich bin ein Berliner on this place. It was in front of the town hall Schöneberg.

@CitytransportInfoplus 17 лет назад

opps, typo, sorry - that should be thanks *for* telling me. Simon

@sivanekinci 4 года назад

İs there still American or Russian sector in Berlin?

@CitytransportInfoplus 4 года назад

Berlin is fully reunited as one city - but a few signs have been kept for the tourists and as a reminder of a very sad period in German history (1933 - 1990)

@CitytransportInfoplus 15 лет назад

(youtube put this reply in the wrong place - my comments were in response Supenmanu reply to Demokraten1's unfortunate comment wishing that the wall still existed)

@gohfi 7 лет назад

Checkpoint Charlie and Friedrichstrasse have been and are two completely different things..

@KKSmith 5 лет назад

And this video shows them both. Hence the title "Berlin: Checkpoint Charlie / Grenzübergang Friedrichstraße"

@CitytransportInfoplus 13 лет назад

soon we will be meeting people who were not born from mothers on Earth. Possibly before Christmas. Some of these people will look so similar to us that you would only know this if you were told. Simon Simon

@CobinRain 14 лет назад

Even without knowing the date of this footage a Berliner could have dated it on details--the sell off of DDR Regalia (there was a gorgeous blonde there selling officer hats I seem to remember), the excessive damage to the west side of the wall(impossible to vandalise the wall in this sector before Nov 89) but also notice the VOPOS pretending to control the crossing into East Berlin. April 1990. I was there

@cami1150gs 16 лет назад

Looks like Mamma's Imbiss stand is gone along with Carolyn, She served many a MP

@CitytransportInfoplus 17 лет назад

sorry, I dont know. try doing a google search on Berlin theme park, etc, Simon

@NKCrime 13 лет назад

@citytransportinfo So what has "soon we will be meeting people who were not born from mothers on earth" to do with that?

@neckarsulme 14 лет назад

I did my time during the cold war.....82-84 West Germany...those were the days!

@Uhmad 14 лет назад

Oh i was there.

@Worscht3000 16 лет назад

@citytransportinfo JFK didnt spoke there his "Ich bin ein Berliner"-speech, it was at "Rathaus Schöneberg", southwest in Berlin.

@albertoaguilar9773 6 лет назад

By that time germany had reunified; so I think that you could easily cross from east to west by the time this video was taken?

@CitytransportInfoplus 6 лет назад

I made this film in April 1990 when there was still an East Germany and a West Germany and Berlin was also two cities. Therefore I needed a passport and was only allowed to cross the border at two locations. I tried to cross the border in the north of Berlin but was stopped by a border guard. I think it was in July when Germany became one nation again and all borders were opened.

@albertoaguilar9773 6 лет назад

citytransportinfo so germany didnt really reunified in 1989?

@SiVlog1989 6 лет назад

mikhail rascalov the reunification of Germany took place on 3rd October 1990. The reason was because there were all sorts of negotiations about the circumstances for reunification. As a BBC report the day after reunification said it was "...an absorption of the east by the west, rather than a merging of equals." One of the biggest issues was how the former West Germany was going to rebuild the East, as the GDR economy was in tatters after the fall of the wall, many nationalised businesses either closed down or were forced to privatise.