Historic Photos – Checkpoint Charlie Foundation

Historic photos

Here we would like to share some historic photos of Berlin between the 1940s and 1990s with you. Almost all of these photos have been given to us by the photographers – often members of the US military – who were stationed in Berlin to share with the public. They depict various parts of West Berlin in the 1960s, including US facilities, the Berlin wall, and general scenes of life in Berlin. Some also show scenes in East Berlin.

If you believe that you hold the rights to one of these photos, or if you are depicted in one of these photos and wish to have it removed, please contact us. If you have more information you would like to share, especially about the locations, people or dates of the photos, we would like to hear from you.

More than 10,316 days since the Fall of the Berlin Wall

The Berlin Wall has now been down for more than 10316 days – longer than it stood. This picture was provided to us by Michael Dunn, a participant in our Welcome Home Program, who was just a young GI stationed in Berlin.

Michael Dunn, a young American soldier stationed in West Berlin, pokes his hand through the open Berlin Wall in 1989.

West Berlin in the 1960s
Most of these pictures were provided to us by Phillip Bargoil, a US soldier posted in Berlin in the 1960s, who took them himself and provided them to us to make publicly available. They have been scanned from prints.

The Helmstedt Checkpoint (Checkpoint Alpha), where you would cross from West Germany to East Germany.

The photographer, Phil Bargoil, with some members of his unit.

Street scene at the corner of Uhlandstr. and Kurfürstendamm.

US Barracks, probably part of Andrews Barracks.

Bricked up windows at Bernauer Str.; the facade was part of the wall.

A cart used by tunnel diggers to remove earth from a tunnel. The diggers would dig the tunnel from the West, not the East.

A viewing platform at Checkpoint Charlie

Screens obscured the view of the Berlin Wall by East Berliners at the corner of Bernauer Str. and Schwedter Str.

Looking from the west to the east at an unknown location, perhaps Gartenstr. in Wedding

The Church of Reconciliation, which stood in the middle of the "Death Strip" at Bernauer Str. It was destroyed by the East German government in the 1980s.

The wall near the Doreenstadt Friedhof II, in Mitte. A piece of the wall still stands here, but the graves have been moved.

Anhalter Bahnhof in West Berlin, from which many Jewish Berliners were deported to death camps in the 1930s and 1940s. It was destroyed during the war and never rebuilt, because all the lines went to destinations in the East.

The Brandenburg gate, with the second generation of the wall.

Houses on the Eastern side of the wall at Zimmerstrasse (Mitte) as seen from Kreuzberg, in the American sector.

The second generation of the wall at the end of the French Sector, almost certainly somewhere along Bernauer Str.

Soviet War Memorial, Treptower Park. Date unknown

Tauentziehenstr., Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche. Exact date Uknown

The Kongresshalle, the "Pregnant Oyster" - before the roof collapse.

Airlift Memorial at Tempelhof Airport. Exact date Uknown

The Berlin Hilton, now the Intercontinental, in Budapester Str. Exact date unknown

"You are leaving the American Sector" sign at Bethanienplatz, Kreuzberg. Exact date unknown.

Gedächtniskirche, seen from the Kurfürstendamm

The Brandenburg gate, seen from the Western side.

A Soviet tank on display in East Germany, seen from a US vehicle. Exact date unknown

The Dreilinden border crossing. Exact date unknown.