Editing Checkpoint Charlie (section)

{{Short description|Well-known crossing point in the Berlin Wall; now a museum}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2022}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2019}}
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|image1=Berlin - Checkpoint Charlie 1963.jpg
|caption1=A view of Checkpoint Charlie in 1963, from the American sector
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|caption2=Map of Berlin Wall with location of Checkpoint Charlie
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'''Checkpoint Charlie''' (or "'''Checkpoint C'''") was the [[Western Bloc|Western Bloc's]] name for the best-known [[Berlin Wall]] crossing point between [[East Berlin]] and [[West Berlin]] during the [[Cold War]] (1947–1991),<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/checkpoint-charlie-berlin-history-facts-when-built-escape-visit/ |title=A brief history of Checkpoint Charlie |access-date=19 March 2022 |archive-date=19 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220319140032/https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/checkpoint-charlie-berlin-history-facts-when-built-escape-visit/ |url-status=live}}</ref> becoming a symbol of the Cold War, representing the separation of East and West.

[[East German]] leader [[Walter Ulbricht]] agitated and maneuvered to get the [[Soviet Union]]'s permission to construct the Berlin Wall in 1961 to prevent [[Human capital flight|brain drain]], [[Emigration from the Eastern Bloc|emigration and defection]] from East Berlin and the wider [[East Germany|German Democratic Republic]] into West Berlin.<ref name="thackeray1882">{{Harvnb|Thackeray|2004|p=188}}</ref> 

Soviet and American tanks briefly faced each other at the location during the [[Berlin Crisis of 1961]]. On 26 June 1963, U.S. President [[John F. Kennedy]] visited Checkpoint Charlie and looked from a platform onto the Berlin Wall and into East Berlin, the same day he gave his famous [[Ich bin ein Berliner]] speech.<ref>[[Andreas Daum]], Kennedy in Berlin. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp. 134‒35.</ref>

After the dissolution of the [[Eastern Bloc]] and the [[German reunification|reunification of Germany]], the American guard house at Checkpoint Charlie became a tourist attraction. It is now located in the [[Allied Museum]] in the [[Dahlem (Berlin)|Dahlem]] neighborhood of [[Berlin]].{{coord|52|30|27|N|13|23|25|E|type:landmark_scale:10000_region:DE-BE|display=title}}