# Checkpoint Charlie

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Canonical page: https://mytuur.com/en/city/berlin/spot/checkpoint-charlie/

Content updated: 2026-06-22

Checkpoint Charlie stands at the intersection of Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße in Berlin as a former Cold War border crossing. It connected East and West Berlin for foreign tourists, diplomats, journalists, and Allied service members. Today, a replica guard booth, flags, sandbags, memorial plates, and art installations mark the site. The surrounding area presents an open-air account of the divided city and attempted escapes.

After Berlin’s division into four sectors, the Allies established the third checkpoint and named it after NATO’s phonetic alphabet. The Berlin Wall changed its role in 1961. It became one of the few crossings where authorised travellers could pass, while escape attempts brought arrests and deaths. In October 1961, American and Soviet tanks faced each other with live ammunition, then withdrew without firing. After the Wall fell in 1989, the original booth moved to the Allied Museum in Berlin-Zehlendorf.

The replica is smaller than the guardhouse that stood here at the Cold War’s end. A tall mast carries a photograph of Jeff Harper, a former US Army tuba player. Concrete-filled sandbags and flags reproduce the earlier border arrangement. Nearby exhibitions and the Wall Museum explain escape attempts and Berlin’s divided past.

- City: [Berlin](https://mytuur.com/en/city/berlin/)

## Photos

- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_CheckpointCharlie_68e1472094afbf3dd4e66993_0.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Signage_at_Checkpoint_Charlie_\(313711245\).jpg)
- ![](https://mytuur-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/image_CheckpointCharlie_68e1472094afbf3dd4e66993_4.jpg) — [Image: wikimedia](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Checkpoint_Charlie_\(313711243\).jpg)

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