The East German Government built the so-called Berlin Wall in 1961.The President of the United States of America J. F. Kennedy, to guarantee a safe passage to West Berlin to the allied forces and diplomatic corps had three passages (checkpoints) built in the wall. Those passages were named with the first three nouns of the NATO phonetic alphabet. These passages were also the only possibility for visitors to visit East Berlin and return safely to West Berlin. Of these three passages Checkpoint Charlie became the most famous: since here Soviet and American tanks faced each other in 1961. Almost one year after the Berlin Wall had come down, Checkpoint Charlie was removed (1990) and nowadays a replica of the original one stands on the very site where the “historical” checkpoint had been built.
