The controversial plan to redevelop Checkpoint Charlie
(The Guardian Germany)

Three decades after the Berlin Wall fell, the crossing is a mess of souvenir shops and fast-food restaurants - and time is running out to change thingsIt was the most famous border crossing in the Berlin Wall, the official gateway for allied diplomats, military personnel and foreigners to enter communist East Berlin by road.And in 1961, Checkpoint Charlie seized the world´s attention when a diplomatic spat about allied forces´ freedom to travel in East Berlin quickly escalated and saw Soviet and American tanks squaring up to one another. The world watched aghast, fearful of a third world war, as a formidable flock of superpower tanks rolled towards the border, standing just 100 yards apart.It`s mostly an embarrassing hotchpotch of inadequate establishmentsWe do need cheap housing. This is legitimate and understandable, but completely out of place here Related: In the postwar `death zone`, new life: Berlin by Ali Fitzgerald - an urban comic Related: Symbols of failure: the deeper issue that connects border walls Continue reading...