Checkpoint Bravo

{{Short description|Main Autobahn border crossing point between East Germany and West Berlin}}

File:Berliner Mauer 1987 00010036.jpg

Checkpoint Bravo ("Checkpoint B") was the name given by the Western Allies to the main Autobahn border crossing point between West Berlin and the German Democratic Republic. It was known in German as {{lang|de|Grenzübergangsstelle Drewitz-Dreilinden}}. Drewitz is a community nearby, and Dreilinden is the name of the wooded area in Berlin through which the highway passes.{{cite web|title=Gesamtkonzept zur Erinnerung an die Berliner Mauer: Dokumentation, Information und Gedenken: 2.4.7. Checkpoint Bravo: Denkmalraum Dreilinden-Drewitz|url=http://www.berlin.de/sen/kultur/kulturpolitik/mauer/m247.html|publisher=City of Berlin|accessdate=20 September 2010|language=de|archive-date=25 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140525233759/http://www.berlin.de/sen/kultur/kulturpolitik/mauer/m247.html|url-status=dead}}

Geography

The checkpoint was located on the A 115 motorway (known within Berlin as the AVUS), between the Berliner locality of Nikolassee and the Brandenburger rural community of Drewitz, part of the municipality of Kleinmachnow.

History

The checkpoint was the nearest motorway border crossing point to the Helmstedt–Marienborn border crossing ("Checkpoint Alpha") on the border of West Germany, making it part of the shortest highway transit route between West Germany and West Berlin.

The checkpoint was shifted slightly during 1969 from Drewitz (part of Potsdam),[http://maps.google.de/maps?ll=52.397102,13.168335&spn=0.0003,0.0003&t=k&q=52.397102,13.168335 Location of the old Checkpoint Bravo] on Google Maps after the East German authorities realigned the transit route to eliminate a brief re-entry into GDR territory before transit traffic could finally enter West Berlin. The new checkpoint was relocated to Nikolassee (part of the district of Zehlendorf).

Since German reunification

File:Checkpoint Bravo Brückenhaus.jpg

The site of the original, pre-1969 checkpoint (rest stop, adjacent car park and abandoned highway) was used in filming the {{lang|de|Alarm for Cobra 11}} television series.{{cite web|title=Der Tagesspiegel: Berliner Grenzkontrollpunkt Dreilinden wird versteigert|date=21 August 2010 |url=http://www.presseportal.de/pm/2790/1668250|publisher=Presseportal|accessdate=6 March 2023|language=de}} The site itself, "which includes a derelict bridge and a crumbling cafe covered in graffiti," was auctioned in September 2010 for €45,000.{{cite news|last=Martin|first=Michelle|title=Mystery bidder buys Berlin's "Checkpoint Bravo"|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68F4OZ20100916|accessdate=20 September 2010|newspaper=Reuters|date=16 September 2010}}

The vast site of the East-German checkpoint was eventually converted into a commercial park named {{lang|de|Europarc Dreilinden}} {{in lang|de}}.{{Cite web |url=http://www.europarc.de/index.php?project=europarc&pageID=dreilinden&langID=en |title=Official Europark Dreilinden website |access-date=2010-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100509024430/http://www.europarc.de/index.php?project=europarc&pageID=dreilinden&langID=en |archive-date=2010-05-09 |url-status=dead }} All that remains of the checkpoint is the former main control tower that now houses a museum of the checkpoint.[http://www.checkpoint-bravo.de Memorial site of Checkpoint Bravo] {{in lang|de}}

Gallery

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L0331-0005, Potsdam, Grenzübergang Drewitz-Dreilinden.jpg|Congestion at the East German checkpoint in Drewitz in March 1972 after the temporary easing of travel restrictions into East Germany.

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L0331-0007, Potsdam, Grenzübergang Drewitz-Dreilinden.jpg|Congestion at the East German checkpoint in Drewitz in March 1972 after the temporary easing of travel restrictions into East Germany.

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L0330-0025, Potsdam, Grenzübergang Drewitz-Dreilinden.jpg|East German border guards checking vehicles at the checkpoint in Drewitz in March 1972 after the easing of travel restrictions into East Germany.

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L0402-0016, Potsdam, Grenzübergang Drewitz-Dreilinden.jpg|East German border guards checking vehicles at the checkpoint in Drewitz in March 1972 after the easing of travel restrictions into East Germany.

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L0401-0300, Potsdam, Grenzübergang Drewitz-Dreilinden, Bus.jpg|West Berlin passengers board buses to travel in East Germany at the Drewitz checkpoint in March 1972 after the temporary easing of travel restrictions into East Germany.

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L0329-0028, Potsdam, Grenzübergang Drewitz-Dreilinden.jpg|West Berlin passengers board buses to travel in East Germany at the Drewitz checkpoint in March 1972 after the temporary easing of travel restrictions into East Germany.

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-L0330-0033, Potsdam, Grenzübergang Drewitz-Dreilinden, Kontrolle in Bus.jpg|East German border guards check passes of West Berlin passengers in March 1972 after the temporary easing of travel restrictions into East Germany.

File:De Transit Drewitz 1986.jpg|Transit traffic from West Germany waiting to enter West Berlin at the East German checkpoint at Drewitz in 1986. Drivers and passengers would push their cars to save fuel.

File:Checkpoint Drewitz-Dreilinden 2009 PD 20090320 002.JPG|Former checkpoint in 2009.

File:Passportstempel DDR Drewitz2.jpg|Passport stamps from the Drewitz checkpoint.

References

{{cite book |last1=Durie |first1=William |title=The British Garrison Berlin 1945 - 1994: nowhere to go ... a pictorial historiography of the British Military occupation / presence in Berlin |date=2012 |publisher=Vergangenheitsverlag (de) |location=Berlin |isbn=978-3-86408-068-5 |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/978161722 |language=English |oclc=978161722}}