When Berlin was still divided into East and West, there were designated crossings along the Berlin Wall where people and traffic could move between East and West Berlin. Checkpoint Charlie was designated as the crossing for foreigners and members of the Allied Forces, which is possibly the reason for which it is the most well-known of all.

In those days, the Wall at Checkpoint Charlie used to form the border between the former American zone and the former Soviet zone. Today, little of the former checkpoint is left at its location in Berlin. Traffic flows freely along Friedrichstrasse, where the checkpoint was located.  On what was then the American side, sit a replica of the old guard house and an old sign informing people that they were about to leave one sector, stepping into another.

A private museum, Haus am Checkpoint Charlie, is just a stone throw away. It opened a couple of years after the Berlin Wall was erected. Because of its close proximity to the checkpoint and its windows that dominated the crossing, it was also used by “escape helpers” as a hiding place where they would observe, from behind the windows what was going on at the crossing. This usage was on top of its function as a museum. Today, the museum houses exhibits that include written and graphical accounts of escape attempts, both successful and unsuccessful, and escape devices used by some of those people.

Although the East-West border is long gone, visitors will still find a few young men dressed in military uniform at the checkpoint. This should not be an unexpected sight at other tourist sites in Berlin associated with the East-West division. I had come across another one of such person at Pariser Platz, just by the Brandenburg Gate.

If you do see them when you visit Berlin, do not hesitate to step up to them to say hi. They will gladly pose for a photograph with you. Look out also for the ones who have a stamp in their hand. They probably also have a stack of passport-looking booklets with them. They are likely to take one of those booklets and stamp a East or West German visa for you. I have not tried getting one, but just like any other type of touristic memento, I think you probably have to pay for the visa. For the price, you get to keep the stamped “passport” as a souvenir of you trip to Berlin.

When I was visiting Berlin, The Wall was the first thing I headed out to see the day following my arrival, after having a good night’s rest at the hostel. This is the 20th year following its fall, and today, 9 November, happens to be the anniversary of the Fall of the Wall.

Saying that I headed out to “see The Wall” may sound misleading, because there is really no one location where the wall is. The Berlin Wall was a boundary, a wall, literally, that divided Berlin into East and West and separated West Berlin from the East German territory that surrounded it.

20 years on, the wall has long been torn down and the former East and West Berlin is now one city. Although there is no one place in Berlin called “The Wall”, a Wall Memorial does exist and several locations with remains of the old wall can still be found. If you pay attention, as you walk along the streets with which The Wall once intersected, you will find the trace of a path intentionally built into the streets, marking the position that was once taken up by The Wall.

So perhaps as you drive along Potsdammer Strasse towards Potsdammer Platz, you may come across a narrow strip of cobblestone across the road. This was where The Wall once stood. Perhaps as you stroll along the pavement near the Sony Centre, you may find a strip of the pavement that is indented, like what you see in the picture above. This was where The Wall once stood.

Even though it was known as the Berlin Wall, the boundary dividing the East and the West actually had more than one wall. At the Wall Memorial along Bernauer Strasse, an observation deck allows visitors to contemplate on a reproduction of the wall at that location. There was a a wall on the East German side and another on the West German side. Between these two walls was “No-man’s Land”, or the Death Strip. It was heavily guarded and was made to be escapee-proof. Mines were laid at some stretches to deter people from making forbidden crossings.

Taking a peek through a crack in the reconstructed wall from the “East German” side at the Wall Memorial.

As I learned from the museum’s exhibits at the Wall Memorial, The Wall was not built in one day. After the Second World War, Berlin was divided into the American, French, British and USSR-occupied zones. The USSR-occupied zone would later become East Germany. How The Wall came about started with East Germany beginning to restrict its residents from crossing over to West Germany. Road barriers made of barbed wires were set up overnight blocking access between the USSR-occupied zone from the rest of Berlin.

Film footage at the museum showed scenes shot at Bernauer Strasse, along which the border between the French-occupied and USSR-occupied zones ran. In the footage, Berliners, east and west, stood and watch the barriers made of barbed wires being laid. Later, columns would be erected to set up a more rigid form of barrier. In a scene, a young woman waved from one side of the division to somebody on the other side, possibly somebody dear to her, a handkerchief in her waving hand, dabbing her eyes with it from time to time. The fence-like barrier would in turn evolve into a wall, and the wall, eventually, over the years, into a security installation. Could anyone have imagined how those first barbed wires could have turned into The Berlin Wall?

The former East German side, bordered by Bernauer Strasse. A panel by the street here indicates that tunnels were found in one of these houses and were used by East German in their attempt to move to West Berlin.

The same location on Bernauer Strasse, but looking towards the former West German side.

Engraving at one end of the Wall Memorial

The Wall Memorial and the observation deck at the Documentation Centre.

Like the rest of the city, the wall no longer stood as imposing as it did. The stretch of wall that remains along Bernauer Strasse is now a reminder of the city’s history. The city has moved on during the past 20 years and will continue to. 20 years on, the city and the world remembers.

Exhibits at Potsdammer Platz, outside the Sony Centre. This was an original piece of the wall. Panels with photographs and text were affixed to the other side.

One of the exhibition panels at Potsdammer Platz showing Brandenburg Gate behind The Wall. The sign reads, “Caution, you are leaving West Berlin” or something like that. During those days, Brandenburg Gate stood on the deserted No-man’s Land.