East-West Berlin

From Deutsche Welle:
"East-West divide remains at Checkpoint Charlie"

Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin is a tourist magnet throughout the year. But some left-wing politicians, backed by the city government, are saying the border crossing depicts only one side of history - the West's.  Every year, hundreds of thousands of tourists flock to Checkpoint Charlie at the intersection of Friedrichstrasse and Zimmerstrasse. With bratwursts and cameras in hand, they peruse the vendors selling Red Army hats and stand in the midst of the most famous point of contention between the Soviets and the Western Allies. Checkpoint Charlie was the border crossing between East and West Berlin and is internationally recognized as a central part of the Berlin Wall. This means that the facts represented here - from the privately operated Checkpoint Charlie Museum to the outdoor photo exhibition detailing the building and tearing down of the wall, East-to-West escape anecdotes, and the confrontation of Soviet and American tanks in 1961 - contribute greatly to how international visitors read this portion of history. And it's a version of history that has little sympathy for East Germany, say supporters of an initiative to erect a Cold War Museum at the site of Checkpoint Charlie, one that aims to tell a more balanced tale. As for the Checkpoint Charlie Museum (or Mauermuseum), established 50 years ago by Rainer Hildebrandt, but now operated by his widow Alexandra Hildebrandt, Jarausch says it's a moneymaking enterprise with an unofficial rendering of history. In a rejoinder, Alexandra Hildebrandt has dismissed the undertaking as "just a few left politicians putting Americans and Soviets on the same level," something she says distorts the reality of the past. "Checkpoint Charlie doesn't stand for the Soviets, it stands for the Americans who protected the freedom of West Berlin and for the victims who were killed on the border." She says that tagging Checkpoint Charlie as a commercialized depot for sausages and kitschy souvenirs "is the strategy of these left people who like to put Checkpoint Charlie down - and to put down what the Americans did for Berlin."

 ^ I once read that "History is written by the victors." As such, the Americans, British and French have the right to be remembered in the Cold War as the victors who saved West Germany and West Berlin from Soviet domination. and Communist ideology. Had the USSR won the Cold War instead of collapsing during it they could have written the history books to show their victory (as they did behind the Iron Curtain with regards to World War 2.) They can build a Cold War Museum if they like, but it doesn't have to include Checkpoint Charlie or be on that site. Checkpoint Charlie is a truely American monument as it was in the American Sector of Berlin and was key in our resolve to protect West Berlin until the Wall fall in 1989. ^

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16149998,00.html