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US 'soldiers' pose with tourists for pictures at Checkpoint Charlie
US 'soldiers' pose with tourists at Checkpoint Charlie. Many Berliners object to commercialism at the historic site. Photograph: David Gannon/AFP
US 'soldiers' pose with tourists at Checkpoint Charlie. Many Berliners object to commercialism at the historic site. Photograph: David Gannon/AFP

Checkpoint Charlie's new cold war with the hot dog vendors

This article is more than 11 years old
Where spies once came in from the cold, at the crossing point in Berlin, property interests and history are in conflict

It was described as the tensest spot in the cold war, a crossing between East and West Berlin that was once the scene of a confrontation between American and Soviet tanks. The incident came close to triggering a third world war.

Now, more than two decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the confrontation at Checkpoint Charlie has turned into a more prosaic one between commercial and historical interest groups who are fighting to control the site.

In front of a wooden beach-hut-style shed, a reconstruction of the US army guard house that once stood there, two men pose as military policemen flanked by the US flag next to the legendary sign: "You are leaving the American sector." They beckon the tourists to pose with them – "Here please, pictures for Facebook" – for €2 a go.

An American tourist clutching a copy of John Le Carre's novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, part of which was set in Berlin, slings his arm round the neck of one of the "soldiers".

Elsewhere, Romanian vendors sell ushanka, ear-flap fur hats, gas masks and chunks of coloured concrete which they claim are remnants of the wall, while around them food stalls dish out everything from "allied hot dogs" to cold dog, an East German chocolate pudding. A cyclist swears as he swerves to avoid the throng on the road. "This is a street, not a frigging carnival," he shouts.

The newest edition to what some have dubbed "Snackpoint Charlie" is Freedom Park, a group of aluminium fast food hutches serving everything from "organic power food" to "checkpoint curry sausage". It sprang up over Easter and its operators promote it as a place in which to contemplate history.

A growing number of voices are complaining about such scenes, arguing that commercial interests at Berlin's most popular tourist attraction, drawing up to 4 million visitors a year, have been given precedence over respect for history.

"This place stands more than any other for the division both of our country and the entire world, and it needs … a more dignified manner," said Kai Wegner, a Christian Democrat MP. He said he was frustrated by stumbling over "snack stands and east German kitsch".

Alexandra Hildebrandt, who runs the somewhat rundown, private Checkpoint Charlie Museum, said: "It's supposed to be a place that recalls the cold war; instead, it's where people come for cold dog, hot dogs and donor kebabs."

But it has emerged that Checkpoint Charlie's future is more uncertain than ever. The owner of two plots of land either side of the former crossing, an American investor, is insolvent. An Irish property company has said it aims to stop a foreclosure auction on the site next month by paying off the outstanding debts – an estimated €29m (£23.8m) – after which it hopes to take control of the land for a retail and residential development, in which it says there will be space for a cold war museum.

Thorsten Wöhlert, a spokesman for the Berlin cultural ministry, confirmed that the city plans to rent space from the new owners for a museum. In the meantime a temporary space, the Wall Infobox, is being erected at the site.

But Berliners are appalled at the uncertainty, not least that the future of one of the city's historical sites lies in the hands of international investors rather than its own politicians.

"You can't simply leave the future of the site in the hands of a private investor," said Christian Hanke, the Social Democrat district mayor.

Brigitte Scharlau, 53, selling bratwursts and buns from a green Trabant, the car with the noisy, polluting two-stroke engine that is regarded as a symbol of the former East Germany, said: "Most Berliners have a very emotional connection to Checkpoint Charlie and the authorities need to intervene to keep things under control, rather than just leaving it to the mercy of powerful commercial interests for whom its heritage is unimportant."

Flashpoint

Checkpoint Charlie was a crossing point in the Berlin Wall at the junction of Friedrichstrasse, Zimmerstrasse and Mauerstrasse, between East and West Berlin. The wall was built in 1961 to prevent escapes from the eastern bloc.

Charlie was named after the third letter in the Nato alphabet and was the only crossing point for foreigners and members of the Allied forces. Immortalised in many a spy movie and novel, and mentioned in the Elvis Costello song Oliver's Army ("There was a Checkpoint Charlie/He didn't crack a smile"), it was the stage for one of the most dramatic moments in the cold war, when US and Soviet tanks faced each other at a distance of 100 metres following a dispute about whether East German guards were allowed to inspect the travel documents of a US diplomat who wanted to attend an opera in East Berlin.

The six-day confrontation ended peacefully, but historians say it might have triggered a third world war. The site has continued to be referred to as Checkpoint Charlie since the fall of the wall, when it found itself in the centre of a reunited Berlin on land considered to be prime real estate.

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