Posts Tagged ‘Allied Museum’

Cold War Checkpoint Charlie – Part 2

Monday, April 11th, 2016

For almost 30 years Checkpoint Charlie embodied the Cold War. Only a small shack, erected in the wake of the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, it served as the main demarcation point between Western-occupied West Berlin and Soviet-occupied East Berlin. To read about Checkpoint Charlie’s function and how it came by the name, please visit http://walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/cold-war-checkpoint-charlie-part-1

Checkpoint Charlie and the East/West Showdown

Checkpoint Charlie became the scene of a nail-biting showdown between the United States and the Soviet Union. I remember it well because I lived in West Berlin at the time. According to Allied agreements, German personnel did not have the authority to inspect travel documents of members of the occupying military forces. But when U.S. diplomat Allan Lightner attempted to cross Checkpoint Charlie in October 1961 to attend the opera in East Berlin, East German border guards demanded to see his passport. Mr. Lightner refused, turned around and returned in the company of military jeeps and armed U.S. soldiers. The East German guards let him pass, but on the next occasion they again denied entry to American military personnel. The United States responded by moving ten tanks into position on their side of Checkpoint Charlie. The Soviets responded by moving three-dozen tanks to the eastern border. Then, on 27 October 1961, ten Soviet tanks rolled forward and faced the American tanks. For 16 hours American and Soviet tanks stood within 100 yards, facing each other. Along with the rest of the world I feared the beginning of World War III. But the standoff ended peacefully on 28 October following an American-Soviet agreement to withdraw all tanks.

Checkpoint Charlie and prisoner swaps

Occasionally, Checkpoint Charlie was also used for prisoner swaps. The best-known exchange occurred in 1962 when American U-2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers was traded for Soviet agent Rudolf Abel. While Powers and Abel were swapped at Glienicker Bruecke (Glienicke Bridge), Soviet officials released Frederic Pryor, an American student, at Checkpoint Charlie. http://www.walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/glienicker-bruecke-bridge-of-spies/

Checkpoint Charlie today

On 22 June 1990 the guardhouse at Checkpoint Charlie was removed. It is now on display in the Allied Museum in Berlin’s Zehlendorf district. On 13 August 2000, a replica of the original US Army guardhouse was erected in the Friedrichstrasse location. Today, it is one of Berlin’s most famous tourist attractions. Nearly 900,000 tourists from all over the world visit the replica every year. On one side, the image of a Soviet solder is shown; on the opposite side, the image of a U.S. soldier is displayed.

Checkpoint Charlie guardhouse on display at the Allied Museum in Berlin-Zehlendorf, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

Checkpoint Charlie guardhouse on display at the Allied Museum in Berlin-Zehlendorf, photo © J. Elke Ertle, 2015

 

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.

 

Cold War Spy Tunnel under Berlin

Monday, July 27th, 2015

During the height of the Cold War, US and British Intelligence Services constructed a secret spy tunnel under Berlin, just twenty feet beneath the surface. The project was known as “Operation Gold” in US Intelligence circles and as “Operation Stopwatch” among their British counterparts. The plan involved tapping into Eastern Europe’s communication cables. The spy tunnel was to serve the western Allies as an early warning system by keeping them abreast of Soviet military intentions in Europe. Spying operations were far from unusual during the Cold War. The Soviets were tapping a cable that served the American garrison in Berlin. It was located near Potsdam.

Spy Tunnel Construction

To be able to listen in on Soviet conversations, US and British Intelligence Services constructed a 1,476-foot long spy tunnel from a point in the West Berlin district of Rudow to Altglienicke in East Berlin’s district of Treptow. Construction of the tunnel was a major engineering feat. One of the cables was located only 27 inches beneath the surface and along the edge of a major highway.

The tunnel tube segments were constructed in the British sector of the divided city, at Airport Gatow . By May 1955 the first cable tap took place. Wire-tapping continued for eleven months. During that time, the Western Allies listened to close to 443,000 calls, which were recorded on 50,000 tapes. http://www.faqs.org/espionage/Ba-Bl/Berlin-Tunnel.html – ixzz3cz0f2d1YThree hundred specialists were involved in transcribing the tapes in London and Washington.

Spy Tunnel Discovery

Then the big surprise! The Soviets had known about this top-secret operation since inception. A mole in the British Secret Intelligence, who had been involved in the project from the beginning, had alerted the KGB of the CIA’s plans. The double agent’s name was George Blake. To protect his identity, the KGB kept knowledge of the tunnel close to their vests and did not even alert Soviet authorities of its existence.

Eleven months into the wire tapping, the Soviets claimed to have discovered the spy tunnel and turned its “discovery” into a successfully orchestrated propaganda blitz. Over the next six months, they carted around 30,000 “deserving” East German citizens to the entrance of the tunnel (Geheime Orte in Berlin by Claus-Dieter Steyer, © 2014) and pointed to America as a nation of warmongers and to West Berlin as a breeding ground for espionage. The Soviets used the discovery of the spy tunnel to demonstrate the effectiveness of socialist security.

Spy Tunnel Segment in Allied Museum

A 7-foot segment of Berlin’s spy tunnel can still be seen in the Allied Museum at Clayallee 135 in Berlin’s District of Zehlendorf. The segment was unearthed in 1997.

 

For a sneak peek at the first 20+ pages of my memoir, Walled-In: A West Berlin Girl’s Journey to Freedom, click “Download a free excerpt” on my home page and feel free to follow my blog about anything German: historic and current events, people, places and food.

Walled-In is my story of growing up in Berlin during the Cold War. Juxtaposing the events that engulfed Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, the Berlin Airlift, the Berlin Wall and Kennedy’s Berlin visit with the struggle against my equally insurmountable parental walls, Walled-In is about freedom vs. conformity, conflict vs. harmony, domination vs. submission, loyalty vs. betrayal.