Stand-off at Checkpoint Charlie

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"The world holds its breath: at the end of October, American and Soviet tanks stand face-to-face at the US Checkpoint Charlie on Berlin Friedrichstrasse. The GDR authorities are trying to restrict the allies' freedom of movement.

For several months, the young US president John F. Kennedy has been negotiating with USSR First Secretary Khrushchev, the strongman of the Soviet Union. Khrushchev wants to make Berlin a free city and release it from the joint responsibility of the Second World War's victorious powers, but Kennedy takes a stand.

The Berlin Wall goes up and a few months later the situation escalates even further when the GDR tries to impose border controls on foreign diplomats and the military at Checkpoint Charlie.

US Special Emissary Lucius D. Clay responds by sending in tanks. Khrushchev then orders Soviet tanks to drive to the border, leading to a stand-off between the two superpowers that lasts 16 hours. "

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Checkpoint Charlie

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1

latitude
52.507742

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13.390346

date

August 16, 1961
Brandt and Adenauer's reaction to the Wall

West Berlin's mayor Willy Brandt gives a speech at a protest rally at Schöneberg Town Hall. Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, however, does not arrive in Berlin until days later.

Border, Politics, West

00:54
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August 15, 1961
A family reunified

When the Wall goes up, Renate Reich is in East Berlin. Her father, a businessman with a printing works in the West Berlin district of Gesundbrunnen, promises to get her over, whatever it takes. As a West Berliner, he can still go to East Berlin and plans to smuggle Renate over in his car. But two days after the Wall goes up, cars are no longer allowed across the border. The last gaps are gradually closing and time is running out. In 2011, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Wall going up, the rbb interviewed Berliners to find out what the division of the city meant to them. The Wall had a profound impact on the way each person went about their daily lives - no matter what side they found themselves on. Overnight people were cut off from their friends and relatives, from their offices, factories and schools, and from places where they enjoyed spending their leisure time. The division of the city tore families apart, ruptured biographies and claimed many lives.

Border, Escaping, Contemporary Witnesses, East

04:36
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August 1961
Escaping on Bernauer Strasse

Bernauer Strasse is the scene of dramatic events in the days after the Wall goes up. The houses are in the East, the pavement in front of the buildings, in the West. People abseil down to the street from the windows of their flats. Others jump into the rescue nets of firemen waiting below. Residents are still throwing their belongings down onto the street as East German border police break into the buildings to try and stop them from escaping. In the autumn of 1961, the last tenants are forcibly evicted from houses on Bernauer Strasse. Nevertheless, in the years that follow, numerous escape tunnels are dug from the basements of houses on Bernauer Strasse. On 15 August 1961 non-commissioned officer Conrad Schumann is captured on film as he leaps across the rolls of barbed wire in the French sector throwing his weapon aside. This photograph will become an emblematic image of the city's division the world over. The Berlin Wall Memorial is the central memorial site documenting Germany's partition, located at the historic site of Bernauer Strasse: http://www.berliner-mauer-gedenkstaette.de

Border, Escaping, Contemporary Witnesses, West, East

02:37
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August 13, 1961
The Wall goes up

On 13 August 1961 work begins to construct the Wall. The division of East and West shocks Berliners and the Western world. They are left stunned as barbed wire and barricades carve the city in half and tear families apart. The mayor of Berlin is also shaken by events and makes the following statement: "The wall to a concentration camp is now cutting through the heart of Berlin." The number of refugees soared in the week before the Wall went up. In July 1961, 30,415 people applied for emergency accommodation. Over Easter alone, 4,000 people entered the transit camp – the first port of call for those who have no relatives in the West. The powers-that-be in the GDR have decided to put a stop to the mass exodus of its citizens. At first, the Western allies do not react to the closing of the border, as the barricades do not infringe their rights.

Border, Escaping, Politics, West, East

01:48
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August 13, 1961
The end of the line at the Wall

On 13 August 1961 S-bahn trains reached the end of the line at the Wall. Manfred Doro worked at Falkensee train station for 47 years and was station master from 1961. He has kept a historic document from that time: the GDR Transport Ministry's order the day the Wall went up to terminate all S-bahn trains heading to Berlin. The border in Berlin ran for a total of 155 kilometres; the section stretching around the outer edge of West Berlin (separating the city from Brandenburg in East Germany) measured 112 kilometres. This film looks at how people living in Brandenburg experienced the Wall going up and what it was like to live in its shadow.

Border, Contemporary Witnesses, East

03:04
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March 01, 1962
Escaping at the dead of night

The sector border between Rosenthal and Wittenau: Annemarie Salzmann and her boyfriend slip on overalls to camouflage themselves as they crawl across the open ground near the border. Leather gloves will help protect their hands as they climb over the barbed wire. In March 1962 they escape under cover of darkness and fog, risking their lives in the death strip. In 2011, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Wall going up, the rbb interviewed Berliners to find out what the division of the city meant to them. The Wall had a profound impact on the way each person went about their daily lives - no matter what side they found themselves on. Overnight people were cut off from their friends and relatives, from their offices, factories and schools, and from places where they enjoyed spending their leisure time. The division of the city tore families apart, ruptured biographies and claimed many lives.

Border, Escaping, Contemporary Witnesses, East

04:43
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May 01, 1962
The first of May in East and West

1 May celebrations a year after the Wall goes up: A military parade is held in East Berlin to mark Labour Day, which falls on a Tuesday that year. Over in West Berlin, Federal President Heinrich Lübke gives a speech at the Reichstag.

Politics, West, East

00:42
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June 18, 1962
GDR border guard Reinhold Huhn is shot

Ten months after the Wall goes up, the death strip winds through the city, cutting Berlin in half. West Berlin is sealed off. Windows have been bricked up, people separated by barbed wire, roads blocked by tank traps. Families have been torn apart. Escape helper Rudolf Müller has dug his way under the Wall from the West. However, GDR border guards discover the escape tunnel and one of them is shot and killed, sparking a propaganda war. The dead man, Reinhold Huhn, becomes a martyr and streets and schools are named after him.

Border, Escaping, Contemporary Witnesses, West, East

01:23
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July 1962
Schönefeld Airport opens

July 1962 sees the opening of Berlin-Schönefeld Central Airport. The new airport has taken three and a half years to build. It is the pride and joy of all GDR pilots. Horst Materna was one of these pilots.

Contemporary Witnesses, Everyday Life, East

01:42
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August 13, 1962
First anniversary of the Wall

In the year since the Wall went up, 20 people have died trying to escape to the West. West Berliners fall silent for three minutes at midday on 13 August 1962 to commemorate the Wall’s victims. Afterwards they protest by honking their horns. Horst Materna describes how many Berliners had accepted the Wall and already saw it as a part of everyday life.

Border, Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, West

00:55
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1974
A tank runs amok

In March 1974 a US soldier runs amok in his tank and almost sparks a global conflict. The soldier breaks through the border crossing at Checkpoint Charlie, drives to the Dreilinden Checkpoint and continues on into the GDR. His motive remains unknown.

Border, Escaping, West, East

00:27
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1983
Women for Peace

Many people on both sides of the city are campaigning for peace and disarmament. Women’s groups from East and West join forces and name themselves Women for Peace. Eva Quistorp, founder of Women for Peace in the West, talks about making contact with women on the other side of the Wall. It wasn’t an easy task because the Stasi pursued and spied on the women in the East. Jutta Seidel, a dentist from East Berlin, experienced that first hand. A lot of women from the peace movement in the East later become part of the autumn events that lead up to the fall of the Wall.

Border, Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, West, East

02:43
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August 17, 1962
Peter Fechter dies trying to escape

Eighteen-year-old Peter Fechter is shot while trying to escape near Checkpoint Charlie. US soldiers, West Berlin police and GDR border guards fail to come to the rescue of the dying man. He bleeds to death in the death strip. Crowds of people gather on both sides, but can do nothing but stand by and watch as he dies. That evening, thousands of West Berliners take to the streets to protest against the Wall. The mayor of Berlin, Willy Brandt, urges calm. By November 1989, at least 136 people will have died at the Wall. Margit Hosseini talks about what she experienced at Checkpoint Charlie on 17 August.

Border, Escaping, Contemporary Witnesses, West, East

02:13
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1968
Attack on Rudi Dutschke

Nineteen sixty-eight is the year of student protests, above all against the war in Vietnam, the clampdown in Prague and the emergency laws. West Berlin's Ku'damm has gone from shopping boulevard to protest hub, much to the outrage of many born-and-bred Berliners. One of the leaders of the extraparliamentary opposition, or APO, is Rudi Dutschke. He survives an assassination attempt on 11 April 1968, but is seriously injured. The protesters accuse the Springer press of being complicit in the attack. Michael Ludwig Müller looks back at that turbulent year.

Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, Opposition, West

04:07
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1965
Studio at the Barbed Wire

West Berlin's authorities mount illuminated display boards on the GSW housing association high-rise near the Wall in an attempt to provide East Berliners with news from the West. The Studio at the Barbed Wire was launched by the Berlin Senate in 1961 in cooperation with the American sector's radio station, RIAS Berlin: their goal is to provide information and news across the Wall in response to the propaganda blaring out of the GDR's speaker vans. This sparks a conflict dubbed the "speaker war", which does not end until October 1965. Wolfgang Göbel was responsible for designing the display boards on the GSW housing association high-rise back then.

Border, Contemporary Witnesses, Politics, West, East

01:54
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1984
The bizarre side of the Wall

While the GDR is busy removing anti-tank obstacles from the death strip, the Wall drives artists to stage bizarre performances, and residents to make comments that are equally peculiar...

Border, Politics, Culture, West

01:29
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June 18, 1962
GDR border guard Reinhold Huhn is shot

Ten months after the Wall goes up, the death strip winds through the city, cutting Berlin in half. West Berlin is sealed off. Windows have been bricked up, people separated by barbed wire, roads blocked by tank traps. Families have been torn apart. Escape helper Rudolf Müller has dug his way under the Wall from the West. However, GDR border guards discover the escape tunnel and one of them is shot and killed, sparking a propaganda war. The dead man, Reinhold Huhn, becomes a martyr and streets and schools are named after him.

Border, Escaping, Contemporary Witnesses, West, East

01:23
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August 13, 1961
Workers' combat groups secure the border

The reality of the situation in Berlin suddenly dawns on Lothar Werth on 13 August 1961. On the radio he hears the order for all forces to report to their designated positions - and this includes Lothar. The 22-year-old works in foreign trade. He is not a Party member, but he is in the workers' militia, known as combat groups. In 2011, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Wall going up, the rbb interviewed Berliners to find out what the division of the city meant to them. The Wall had a profound impact on the way each person went about their daily lives - no matter what side they found themselves on. Overnight people were cut off from their friends and relatives, from their offices, factories and schools, and from places where they enjoyed spending their leisure time. The division of the city tore families apart, ruptured biographies and claimed many lives.

Border, Contemporary Witnesses, East

03:57
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1986
Schiller statue heads East

East and West Berlin sign a cultural agreement in May 1986. It paves the way for the two sides to exchange works of art. A statue of Schiller is returned to its original location on Gendarmenmarkt square in East Berlin. When the Nazis came to power they wanted to use the square as a parade ground, so in 1936 they removed the statue and put it into storage. In 1951, it moved to Lietzensee park in Charlottenburg, which meant Schiller then belonged to West Berlin. Thanks to the cultural agreement, Schiller was returned to his rightful home outside the Konzerthaus (then the Schauspielhaus) in the middle of Gendarmenmarkt square.

Culture, West, East

00:34
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1963
Bowling, the new trend

Berliners get on with their day-to-day life in the walled-in city. Despite the gloomy situation, they still find plenty of ways to enjoy their leisure time. A new sport is all the rage in 1963: bowling. Played by both East and West Berliners – albeit using slightly different technology.

Everyday Life, West, East

00:29
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