Last Sat 9 Nov 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Checkpoint Charlie was no more.
This momentous event which triggered the fall of the Warsaw Pact, of communist rule in Eastern Europe and eventually of Communist rule in Russia was caused by two players i.e. President Ronald Reagan of the US and Mikhail Gorbachev the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
Reagan is remembered for his clarion call in a speech made at the iconic Brandenburg Gate.
“Tear down this wall”, also known as the Berlin Wall Speech, is the speech on Friday, June 12, 1987. The name is derived from a line in the middle of the speech: “Mr. Gorbachev…Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Here are 2 books on Gorbachev from my library. Without him, the dissolution of Communist rule in Eastern Europe and Russia would not have been so peaceful. For a more nuanced view of Gorbachev’s “contributions” to the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification see p 486 Taubman hardback 2017ed.
I visited the Brandenburg Gate and Checkpoint Charlie while in Berlin for a Lex Mundi conference in 2016.
Poser- why was the checkpoint called Checkpoint Charlie?