Checkpoint Bravo
Encyclopedia
Western Allies
The Western Allies were a political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the Second World War. It generally includes the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, the United States, France and various other European and Latin American countries, but excludes China, the Soviet Union,...
to the main autobahn border crossing points between West Berlin
West Berlin
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945...
and the German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
It was known in German as Grenzübergangsstelle Drewitz-Dreilinden. Drewitz is a community nearby, and Dreilinden is the name of the wooded area in Berlin through which the highway passes.
Geography
The checkpoint was located on the motorway A 115Bundesautobahn 115
is an autobahn in Berlin, Germany. It connects the Berliner Stadtring with the Berliner Ring, using parts of the old AVUS race track. AVUS was opened in 1921 as Germany's first limited access road. After World War II, the A 115 served an important function as a transit road between West Berlin...
(known within Berlin as the AVUS
AVUS
The Automobil-Verkehrs- und Übungs-Straße, better known as AVUS, is a public road that was also used as a motor racing circuit. It is located in the south-western districts of Berlin, Germany, between Charlottenburg and Nikolassee, and is nowadays an important part of the public highway system, as...
), between the Berliner locality of Nikolassee
Nikolassee
Nikolassee is a locality of Berlin in the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf. Until the latter was created in 2001, Nikolassee was part of the borough of Zehlendorf.-History:...
and the Brandenburg
Brandenburg
Brandenburg is one of the sixteen federal-states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
er rural community of Drewitz, part of the municipality of Kleinmachnow
Kleinmachnow
Kleinmachnow is a municipality in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany.-Geography:It is situated southwest of the centre of Berlin, immediately neighbouring the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, and east of Potsdam...
.
History
The checkpoint was the nearest motorway border crossing point to the Helmstedt-Marienborn border crossingHelmstedt-Marienborn border crossing
The Border checkpoint Helmstedt–Marienborn , named Grenzübergangsstelle Marienborn by the German Democratic Republic , was the largest and most important border crossing on the Inner German border during the division of Germany...
("Checkpoint Alpha") on the border of West Germany, making it part of the shortest highway transit route between West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
and West Berlin.
The checkpoint was shifted slightly during 1969 from Drewitz (part of Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
), 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
Nikolassee
Nikolassee is a locality of Berlin in the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf. Until the latter was created in 2001, Nikolassee was part of the borough of Zehlendorf.-History:...
(part of district Zehlendorf
Zehlendorf (Berlin)
Zehlendorf is a locality within the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf in Berlin. Before Berlin's 2001 administrative reform Zehlendorf was a borough in its own right, consisting of the locality of Zehlendorf as well as Wannsee, Nikolassee and Dahlem...
).
Since German reunification
The site of the original, pre-1969 checkpoint (rest stop, adjacent car park and abandoned highway) was used in filming the Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die AutobahnpolizeiAlarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei
Alarm für Cobra 11 – Die Autobahnpolizei is a long-running, popular German television series about a two-man team of highway police, originally set in Berlin and later in North Rhine-Westphalia. The series has been broadcast in countries worldwide....
television series. The site itself, "which includes a derelict bridge and a crumbling cafe covered in graffiti," was auctioned in September 2010 for €45,000.
The vast site of the East-German checkpoint was eventually converted into a commercial park named :de:Europarc Dreilinden. All that remains of the checkpoint is the former main control tower that now houses a museum of the checkpoint.
See also
- Berlin border crossingsBerlin border crossingsThe Berlin border crossings were created as a result of the postwar division of Germany. Prior to the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, travel between the Eastern and Western sectors of Berlin was totally uncontrolled, although restrictions were increasingly introduced by the Soviet and East...
- Checkpoint Alpha
- Checkpoint CharlieCheckpoint CharlieCheckpoint Charlie was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War....