Checkpoint

The fall of the Berlin Wall changed the world. It brought an end to Communist regimes right across Europe, and finished Russia as a superpower. And yet it happened entirely by accident, as a result of two badly chosen words at a press conference. That Thursd…

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged the United States to be a 'mutually respectful partner' and reject nationalism as Germany marks 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Recalling the United States' key role in helping to bring down the hat…

Mass protests had been erupting throughout eastern Europe for months. In Czechoslovakia, a poet named Vaclav Havel was leading the velvet revolution. Poland had already ripped off the yoke of single-party Communist rule. And protesters were out in the streets…

GREENSBURG, Pa. (Tribune News Service) Three decades ago, on Nov. 9, 1989, U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Rafferty was at home in West Berlin when word came over the Armed Forces Network that East Germans would soon be able to travel unimpeded to the West. The commu…

Berlin – Every Berliner knows him. And millions of tourists have taken photos with a picture of him. His faded, larger-than-life-sized portrait has loomed for 25 years over Checkpoint Charlie, the historic U.S.-controlled border crossing that stood for three …

November 9, 2019, marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the physical embodiment of the Iron Curtain separating East and West in the Cold War. The Wall was built in 1961 to stop East Germans escaping to the West, but thousands found ways t…

The scene was Potsdamer Platz in the heart of divided Berlin at about 5 a.m. on Nov. 12, 1989. On the far side of the Wall that had become the quintessential symbol of Moscows brutal domination in Eastern Europe the first hint of dawn was breaking. Ive alway…

Gerardy Malie/Getty The scene was Potsdamer Platz in the heart of divided Berlin at about 5 a.m. on Nov. 12, 1989. On the far side of the Wall that had become the quintessential symbol of Moscows brutal domination in Eastern Europe the first hint of dawn was…

Berlin Every Berliner knows him. And millions of tourists have taken photos with a picture of him. His faded, larger-than-life-sized portrait has loomed for 25 years over Checkpoint Charlie, the historic U.S.-controlled border crossing that stood for three de…

Saturday marks the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the barrier that divided West Berlin from East, and enclosed the West from the rest of East Germany. From 1961 to 1989, the iconic wall stood and symbolised the height of Cold War tensions.…