August 13, 1961

[PrairieSpyder]

The Berlin Wall went up.

[bruiser]

Checkpoint Charlie was the sight of one of the most tense standoffs between east and west. I visited Checkpoint Charlie while on temporary duty in Germany.

[PrairieSpyder]

Checkpoint Charlie was the sight of one of the most tense standoffs between east and west. I visited Checkpoint Charlie while on temporary duty in Germany.

I was in Berlin in 2000 and visited the Checkpoint Charlie site and museum. For those of us who grew up during the Cold War the whole iron curtain/Berlin wall thing really defined our lives, and it was so moving when it was opened up. I remember seeing the euphoria when people from East Germany first went to Austria and then into the west without being stopped; then eventually, the Russians withdrew and people just climbed up on the wall and started beating it down.

On a side note, while I was in Berlin I stayed at a hostel in the east side. I walked by bombed out buildings on my way to the bahnhoff. There was a young man from Norway at the hostel looking for an apartment. He said you could get several rooms in the eastern quadrant for about $200/month, but you had to haul up coal for heat. They were slowly getting buildings rehab'd, though. Before construction could start, they had to try to figure out if there had been an owner before WWII and try to find the heirs.

It was so moving to see the changes as they happened.