View allAll Photos Tagged checkpointcharlie
Der Checkpoint Charlie war einer der bekanntesten Berliner Grenzübergänge durch die Berliner Mauer. Jetzt ist es ein beliebte Touristenattraktion.
Checkpoint Charlie (or "Checkpoint C") was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War. Now it is a popular tourist attraction.
24th of September - Berlin (Germany): Berlin wall decorated with a piece of street art on the East side Gallery. Sense of humour is a must have after this long period of cold war !
Ramsau (Berchtesgaden) - Alemania.
El autor de famoso villancico navideño "Noche de Paz" ("Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht"), Joseph Mohr, vivió en Ramsau unos años antes de su composición.
Video "KÖNIGSSEE - Germany": youtu.be/fzJ7I13X27w
**********
Checkpoint Charlie was the setting for many thrillers and spy novels, from James Bond in Octopussy to The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.
Located on the corner of Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße, it is a reminder of the former border crossing, the Cold War and the partition of Berlin. The barrier and checkpoint booth, the flag and the sandbags are all based on the original site – and are a popular subject for photos. It’s no wonder that Checkpoint Charlie is one of the sights of Berlin that you really should see.
Where did Checkpoint Charlie get its name?:
The name Checkpoint Charlie comes from the NATO phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie). After the border crossings at Helmstedt-Marienborn (Alpha) and Dreilinden-Drewitz (Bravo), Checkpoint Charlie was the third checkpoint opened by the Allies in and around Berlin. 1945 the allies divided Berlin into four sectors - France controlled the north-western, England the western and the USA the south-western parts of the city. The Soviet Union as allocated to the whole of the eastern part of Berlin.”
27th of September - Berlin (Germany): A monumental piece of street art decorating an old industrial building hosting a number of digital startup companies. Digital Berlin !
Der Checkpoint Charlie war einer der bekanntesten Berliner Grenzübergänge durch die Berliner Mauer zwischen 1961 und 1990.
Der Kontrollpunkt wurde im August 1961 infolge des Mauerbaus eingerichtet, um die Grenzübertritte des westalliierten Militärpersonals, der Sowjetischen Militärverbindungsmission (SMM) und ausländischer Diplomaten erfassen zu können.[1]
Checkpoint Charlie (or "Checkpoint C") was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War. GDR leader Walter Ulbricht agitated and maneuvered to get the Soviet Union's permission for the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961 to stop Eastern Bloc emigration westward through the Soviet border system, preventing escape across the city sector border from East Berlin to West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie became a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West. Soviet and American tanks briefly faced each other at the location during the Berlin Crisis of 1961.
(Wikipedia)
Today the old "Checkpoint Charlie" is very busy, no stops, no controls, only traffic and tourists like me :^)
During the time of divided Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie was one of nine checkpoints on the border of the American and Russian sectors, at a passage of the Berlin Wall on Friedrichstraße
Weltballon: the Air Service Berlin tethered balloon observation platform floats over Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin. Zimmerstraße, corner of Wilhelmstraße.
'CHECKPOINT CHARLIE'
large viewing: key L
For larger: double click
© All rights reserved. Don't use this image without my permission
Berlin
After the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc and the reunification of Germany, the building at Checkpoint Charlie became a tourist attraction.
-Wikipedia-
Another view of Checkpoint Charlie...
The "big bike" contraption in the foreground is some kind of tourist device, which allows half a dozen people to pedal on separate pedals, and somehow propel the contraption forward. I think there is also beer that can be quaffed in large quantities while this is going on ...
The blue pipe that you see on the right side of the photo is typical of a scene we saw all over Berlin: brightly painted plumbing fixtures that carried water from one underground location (the water table is apparently very high in Berlin, so any excavation tends to hit water pretty quickly) to a nearby river or drainage canal.
I have no idea who the American solider is supposed to be in the center part of the photo ... maybe it's the mythical "Charlie"
**********************************
For the final few days of our vacation, we traveled by air from Amsterdam to Berlin — and spent about four days in the “Mitte” section of the city, quite close to what was once the dividing line between East and West Berlin; indeed, our hotel was technically in East Berlin.
We spent the first afternoon wandering around the local area, partly to see the infamous “Checkpoint Charlie” (just a few blocks from our hotel), and partly to get a sense of the buildings, the people, and the overall “look and feel” of the city. Since I spend much of my time focusing on “street photography” in New York, I did the same thing here … and aside from the German language that you’ll see on a few of the signposts, the people look much the same as they do in any other big city.
I did get a few photos of the Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust Exhibition, and some video clips from inside the TierGarten (which I’ll upload in the next few days). I also took quite a few photos of some “street art” that was created on one of the few remaining sections of the old Berlin Wall; these two will be uploaded in the next few days.
We took a driving tour around the city one morning, including a quick circle around the old 1936 Olympic Stadium; we also had lunch in a fancy restaurant atop the old Reichstag Building, which is now (as I understand it) the home of the German legislature. But I certainly don’t feel that I saw very much of the entire city; it would be like making a whirlwind tour around a few parts of Manhattan, and then trying to claim that you’ve seen all of New York City.
As a child of the Cold War (and having been born exactly one year before the day that Hitler committed suicide), I have always been intrigued by Berlin — and would love to go back several more times to see more of the neighborhoods, the culture, and the people. I don’t think I would ever claim to “know” Berlin in any complete sense; indeed, I don’t even feel that way about New York, after living here for 45+ years. But I could certainly learn a lot more, and I found it sufficiently interesting that I would like to learn more…
**********************************
During the first two weeks of September 2015, we took a river cruise down the Rhine River, and wrapped up the trip with a few days in Berlin. This Flickr album contains various photos from that trip …
We spent the first couple days recovering from jet-lag in Interlaken, Switzerland. This is the site of the Jungfrau and various other spectacular peaks in the Alps range — but it was so foggy that we could hardly see anything. I’ve included a couple of videos of a tram ride down the mountain, as well as some paraglider who floated down into the town park.
We then traveled to Bern, where we got on-board a Viking Cruise ship that headed north for the next several days — eventually arriving in Amsterdam, after making stops nearly every day to see ancient castles and fortresses, as well as various villages and small towns that have survived various wars, tyrants, and regimes for well over a thousand years.
From our final cruise destination in Amsterdam, we flew to Berlin — where we spent a few days at a very nice hotel that turned out to be in what was once East Berlin. Indeed, the separation between East and West Berlin, once so obvious and important, is now almost impossible for a visitor to spot. Except for some rubble, and a few small mementoes (like Checkpoint Charlie, a few blocks from our hotel), there is no obvious difference between East and West from pre-1989 days.
Painting on the Berlin Wall in former East Berlin.
East Side Gallery,Berlin.
It’s Happened in November
Berlin artists Kani Alavi painted this haunting yet stunning mural in 1990. The abstract painting depicts Checkpoint Charlie the day the wall fell, with thousands of East German faces, floating from one side through to the West. The faces show a range of different emotions in an effort to portray the mixture of confusion, joy, trepidation, and liberation felt by East Germans heading over to the West.
Europa, Deutschland, Berlin, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Kreuzberg, Friedrichstraße Ecke Zimmerstraße, Checkpoint Charlie
here it is, my favorite photo I took in Berlin... it could be anywhere of course... :-)
But I just love how this turned out... taken from 3 different exposures again and twisted
the colors in lightroom...
Please view it large for full pleasure ;-)
Better known as," Checkpoint Charlie,"
Berlin,Germany.
*On October 27, 1961, combat-ready American and Soviet tanks faced off in Berlin at the U.S. Army\'s Checkpoint Charlie. Tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union over access to the outpost city of Berlin and its Soviet-controlled eastern sector had increased to the point of direct military confrontation.
Today, Checkpoint Charlie counts as a memorial to the most famous sights of Berlin beside the Brandenburg Gate. On August 13, 2000, a faithful replica of the first control barracks was unveiled. The stacked sandbags are filled with concrete instead of sand. A piece of Berlin history when the city was still divided. Today a tourist attraction.