On this spot 35 years ago this month, Melinda and I did our bit to hammer down the Berlin Wall. The stones set in the pavement mark where the wall stood at Checkpoint Charlie, the iconic east-west portal in what the East German government called “The Anti-Fascist Protective Rampart.” West Berliners dubbed it “Die Mauer” – The Wall.
We did most of our wall banging on the more pristine east side or the wall in the former killing zone. The west side of the wall was covered in graffiti.
A border guard tower stood empty, and there were no guards to be seen. Like the wall, the tower is gone, and the site is now occupied by the incongruous “Charlie’s Beach.”
(from top left) The fallen statue of Lenin; enterprising young men renting hammers and chisels; a group shot at Checkpoint Charlie; whacking at the wall while catching some rays; the border officer’s shrug said it all; Berry getting in his licks; Melinda posing while taking her cuts. (All photos from Berry and Melinda Craig)
Charlie's Beach, billed as “a beach bar without water” occupies the site of the guard tower and the killing zone on Friedrichstrasse in the former East Berlin. A bar where the wall used to be? “Sure, why not? Everything goes in Berlin,” says the Berlin Welcome Card.
In summer, visitors can kick off their shoes, wiggle their toes in sand, and enjoy drinks and “the famous Burger de Ville, Woop Woop ice cream, and outdoor movie nights,” says the website.
Still, some remnants of the Wall and of divided Berlin remain, to help us remember both that despairing time and the eventual triumph of freedom over oppression.
At the location of Checkpoint Charlie; a sign left from the time of the wall and the divided city; Berry standing where the wall and Checkpoint Charlie once stood.
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