Checkpoint Charlie Quotes

“Such was the carnival atmosphere that Brenner, her boss, his wife, and a local journalist managed to summon up the courage to walk directly toward the white line of the border crossing—where twenty-eight years ago tanks had famously faced one another—to present the East German guards with bottles of champagne. The guards refused the offer, but they didn’t point their weapons, or bark out warnings. It was a surreal moment as the joyous posse from the Adler walked back to the café and prepared the bar for guests—lots of them.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“All they could see was a socialist system, which demanded great sacrifice for their efforts and nothing but promises for a better future.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“The File, and recalled a more personal message”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, The Berlin Wall, and the Most Dangerous Place On Earth

“Major General Corbett now addressed the audience. “Ladies and gentlemen, in acknowledgment for twenty-nine years of service by the military police at Checkpoint Charlie, we ask you to please rise for the final dismissal of the detachment.” Commandant Cann walked to the podium as Major Godek took his cue and stood to attention before him, with the honor guard waiting for the signal. General Cann solemnly gave the order, “Please close the Checkpoint Charlie control point.” One MP from each nation then marched to the side of the building to ceremoniously lock its doors and remove the Allied checkpoint sign.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“As representatives of all those who have served here before you—for nearly three decades, day and night, you have served at this crossroad between East and West. You have done so loyally, and with dedication.” Coming to the end of his speech, the American commandant paid tribute to the place they had served, and what the Allies’ role had now brought about: “A city long divided is repairing its severed arteries, and its pulse is growing stronger. For the contribution you have made to the freedom and the well-being of Berlin, you have earned the thanks of all free men.” The audience burst into applause. The”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“The Wall was dead, and so were the dreams of Ulbricht, Honecker, Mielke, and Krenz. Under a new prime minister, Lothar de Maizière, the Treaty of Monetary, Economic and Social Union was signed on May 18.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“The vehicle for Germany’s reunification would be through Article 23—where as long as the majority of the GDR population voted to accept the FRG’s laws and institutions—reunification could be processed within a six-month time frame.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“What the Allies didn’t know at the time was that the previous day at noon, the GDR’s minister of defense Heinz Keßler had declared a state of emergency for the NVA and that as a result thirty thousand troops were now on standby, which included the Felix Dzerzhinsky Guards Regiment. This was an elite Stasi-run, motorized formation”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“For the civil and military authorities, on both sides, it was a very delicate dance as neither wished to overstep their perceived authority or encourage any escalation toward confrontation.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“The opening of the border checkpoints and the gradual lowering of any threat of a potential aggressive act by the security forces of the GDR over the next few days lent a surreal atmosphere to the city as both sides figured out what their next moves would be.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“Back in Bonn, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, and in London, events in Berlin were taking everyone by surprise.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“back in Washington, DC, the White House was stunned by what it witnessed on television as East Berliners began pouring through the checkpoints. Secretary of State James Baker recalled that many of President George H. W. Bush’s cabinet were caught unaware.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“soon the few regular barflies of the Adler were being joined by dozens of West Berliners eager to see what was happening for themselves. Brenner called her boss, Albrecht Raw, who soon arrived with his wife to get the place ready for what they expected to be a flood of people over the next few hours.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“Mr. Schabowski, what is going to happen to the Berlin Wall now?” Unwittingly, he had made the fatal error of not stating that the press release was embargoed and would come into effect the following day at 4 a.m. More significantly, Schabowski had also failed to state that there would be strict criteria each applicant would need to fulfill”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“The day before, more than twenty thousand of his countrymen had moved from their initial camps inside Czechoslovakia into Austria and freedom; more than five hundred a day were fleeing across the Hungarian border. The GDR was bleeding to death.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“By November 4, an even bigger rally had taken place in Berlin—where half a million protestors gathered in Alexanderplatz to not only hear speakers from the country’s leading democratic movement that had been set up that September—New Forum—but Krenz himself, who spoke to the crowd promising change.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“A general atmosphere of unease gripped Berlin, reinforced when the sudden news came through that Erich Honecker had been forced to step down. The younger generation within the East German politburo, led by his deputy Egon Krenz, had taken Gorbachev’s visit and his official rebuke on the need for the regime to change as a signal to make a grab for power. Krenz had long been seen as the heir apparent and had risen through the SED ranks to become”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“For the ailing Honecker, this was a disaster, which had quickly followed a fiery meeting, with the German and Russian men clashing verbally in private and in a meeting of the East German politburo, Honecker deriding Gorbachev’s reformist policies compared to what he believed were the GDR’s economic success. The Soviet leader had audibly hissed his derision at the old East German, with Honecker’s excuses met by deafening silence around the politburo table.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“After a massive military parade, the Soviet leader’s pronouncements to the media in a public walkabout (unheard of by any Eastern Bloc leader until then) shocked Honecker and those closest to him in the SED hierarchy—Gorbachev announcing to the cameras, “A party that lags behind the times will harvest bitter fruit.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“We were watching events very carefully, as you may imagine. But I don’t think we thought that, even until quite late on, that the GDR would collapse.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“The buildup in 1989 saw the Allies monitoring the protest movements that were going on in the East—such as in Leipzig and in Dresden, and the growing clamor of East Germans to travel abroad, or even within the Eastern Bloc. The opening of the Hungarian border in June was the flash in the powder keg, with thousands pouring across the now unprotected border, many of whom came right the way back around into West Berlin itself.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“.” Dealing with the Soviets was never dull, and all three commandants generally tried to always have constructive relations with them. But when the British troops started putting ropes and ladders into the River Spree to lend those trying to swim across to freedom a helping hand, the Soviet officials remonstrated with General Corbett. “I wouldn’t want to have to fight them, I can tell you,” he said and smiled, “I would not, because quantity has a quality all of its own—three hundred and fifty thousand troops and two thousand tanks do focus one’s mind as to an enemy’s capabilities.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“Christopher Gueffroy (a young East German waiter) was shot by the border guards—the last person to be killed attempting to cross the Wall—at the Britz Canal area. Later in March of that same year, the last fatalities crossing the actual border were Winfried and Sabine Freudenberg, who tried to escape in their makeshift balloon, which they had filled with helium. Sabine was captured by the Stasi before they took off, and Winfried almost certainly died falling to earth.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“the decade of the 1980s came to a close, to the outside world there didn’t seem to be any particular signals that the fabric of the East German state was coming apart from within. With Erich Honecker looking firmly in control”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“Peter and his daughter were the last fugitives to flee the GDR via Checkpoint Charlie. They live happily as free Germans.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“surprise. A dark figure towered over the boot. ‘It’s okay now, we’re across the border, you can get out of the boot.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“pair conversed in broken English as Yaw asked several questions as to why Peter was here, why he wanted to escape to the West, and more importantly, how they would get through the border crossing in his car. Spitzner outlined the plan. They would need to drive out of the center of the city—toward Treptower Park—in order for Peggy and him to then get into Yaw’s trunk, before returning to drive through the border controls. Spitzner noticed how the American was wrestling with his thoughts as to what he should do now. Peter was dreading the reaction of “It’s too dangerous, sorry.” And then like a thunderbolt to his brain came the magical words: “Okay, I’ll do it!”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“His name was Erik Yaw, and he was a sergeant in the US Army.” Sergeant Yaw listened carefully to Spitzner’s proposal of wishing to get to the West with Peggy, who was now asleep in a car near the sergeant’s. At first, the American soldier didn’t react, but just stared at the East German while he mulled over what he’d listened to.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“early 1970s to 1986 East Germans had been allowed to travel to the west, but few had the money (60 DM was a month’s wages to many), a car to travel, or the actual patience to bear the endless bureaucracy of the state, which was designed to keep the applicant in years of limbo, not knowing until the last minute whether the application had been successful. The policy of granting their citizens freedom of travel only for “urgent family business” was relaxed in 1986 and sparked a flood of more applicants. Border crossings rose from 66,000 in 1985 to well over 550,000 the following year. Within eighteen months this would shoot up to 2.2 million.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“The concert became the touchstone of a generation. Those who didn’t attend almost certainly watched it on television. Andreas Austilat still believes the concert represented not just a moment for rock ’n’ roll, but one that certainly affected his view on the whole city of Berlin and what he thought of the eastern half.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth