On the morning of October 27, 1961, an American diplomat drove up to the East German checkpoint on Friedrichstrasse and was told to show his papers. He refused, on the grounds that the United States recognized only four-power authority in Berlin. Within hours, ten American M48 tanks had moved into position facing roughly thirty Soviet T-55s at a hundred meters’ range — the most famous border installation of the Cold War was about to become a household name. Checkpoint Charlie had been set up in August 1961, immediately after the Wall went up.
The “Charlie” was the NATO phonetic alphabet letter C, used by the American military to designate the third checkpoint set up in Berlin (Alpha was at Helmstedt on the West German border, Bravo at Dreilinden). It was established immediately after the wall went up, on Friedrichstrasse just south of Zimmerstrasse, in response to the Western allies’ insistence that their personnel and diplomats still had a right to cross between sectors under the four-power status of Berlin.
The wooden barrier and small guardhouse of 1961 was replaced, by the end of the 1960s, with a more permanent installation: a one-story guardhouse painted in the gray and white of the GDR’s Grenztruppen, with a sliding boom and a kiosk. The famous sign — “YOU ARE LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR” in four languages — became one of the most reproduced images of the Cold War.
The tank standoff of October 27–28, 1961, made the checkpoint famous. The dispute began when the East Germans demanded to see identification from an American official attempting to cross; the United States, recognizing only the four-power status of Berlin, refused. The East Germans brought up tanks. The Americans responded in kind. For sixteen hours, ten American M48s and about thirty Soviet T-55s faced each other at a hundred meters’ range. The crisis was defused when Robert Kennedy and Anastas Mikoyan negotiated a mutual withdrawal.
Checkpoint Charlie handled foot traffic from non-Germans, including West Germans with day visas, until the Helsinki Accords eased travel rules. After 1989, it was dismantled. The replica and the Mauermuseum nearby are among the most-visited Cold War sites in the world. The longer history of the wall and the city it divided is treated in the article.