Checkpoint Charlie
2011
One of the most understated historical landmarks I’ve ever been to. A fifteen story iPad 2 advertisement immediately in the old East, and McDonald’s being the first thing in the West. The incredible checkpoint museum metres inside the old boarder that existed long before the Wall came down and the windows through which escape helpers watched their charges’ pass: equally understated and humble. The area is amazing.
My mother raced in Berlin in the 1970s, breaking a New Zealand national record at the 1936 Olympic Stadium. She remembers very different things about the town and about its part of the world. I stood at Checkpoint Charlie and wondered what people in 1970, 1980 and even 1990 would feel if they saw Friedrichstraße and the fascinating city Berlin has become.
