Checkpoint Charlie

October 1, 2019
A big-picture history of a Berlin divided by postwar ideologies--and barbed wire. London-based publisher MacGregor brings a useful perspective to his study of divided Berlin by reminding American readers that the Cold War was fought not just by the U.S. and the Soviet Union, but by many allies on both sides--especially, among the occupying powers, the U.K. and France. Checkpoint Charlie, long a metaphor for a carved-up Germany, stood near the boundary of the American and Soviet sectors and became a potent symbol of the struggle between East and West: It was there that American and Soviet tanks held a standoff in 1961 and there where the Berlin Wall rose. At the beginning, the author observes that the division of Germany into communist and noncommunist parts helped create a buffer zone that, foremost, protected the Soviet Union from overland attack. It also created two very different nations, one wealthy and one desperately poor; when reunited in 1990, the weak economy of East Germany fell apart. As noted by a German journalist the author interviewed, "too many East Germans lost their jobs and their confidence in this new order. That is one of the reasons, in my opinion, for the rise of the Neo-Nazi movements in East Germany today." There is little of the gripping thriller in MacGregor's sober account, with its specific details of such things as the exact configuration of the no-man's land between East and West, with its "3.6-meter-high Grenzwall" and "BT-11 guard tower, manned 24/7 by teams of 2-5 with clear fields of fire" and the rotational schedule of the U.S. Berlin Brigade. Yet there are plenty of human-interest stories as well, such as MacGregor's portrait of the Greek-born cantor who helped rebuild the city's tiny surviving Jewish community and who "seemed to float between the two halves of the city pre-1961." Cold War Berlin is already well documented, but MacGregor writes with depth and precision of events that still reverberate.

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October 28, 2019
British publisher and historian MacGregor (To Hell on a Bike) delivers a colorful, kaleidoscopic history of the Berlin Wall from the perspectives of soldiers, military police, journalists, spies, and citizens from England, America, and West and East Germany. Highlights include the story of a top-secret American special forces unit stationed in West Berlin and tasked with sabotaging the Soviet army in case of invasion; in such a scenario, the soldiers’ life expectancy was estimated to be 72 hours. MacGregor also unearths little-known facts, including the average amount West Germany paid from 1961 to 1989 to ransom more than 30,000 East German political prisoners (250,000 marks, or €100,000 in today’s money), and the nickname for the area near Dresden that was the only part of East Germany without access to West German TV (“Valley of the Clueless”). The book’s strongest sections are set during and immediately after the wall’s construction and in the years leading up to its fall. MacGregor’s dramatic reconstruction of the night the wall fell features the enlightening viewpoint of Maj. Gen. Robert Corbett, commandant of Berlin’s British sector. This is a readable yet cursory account; those seeking a more comprehensive picture will find it in Frederick Taylor’s The Berlin Wall. Agent: George Lucas, InkWell Management.

November 1, 2019
For Americans growing up during the 1950s and 1960s, Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie was the all-too-familiar symbol of the Cold War confrontation between East and West, between communism and the free world. If World War III were to break out, it often seemed that this unremarkable little hut might be the flashpoint igniting universal conflagration. Briton MacGregor details the significance of this history-laden fulcrum as part of the larger story of Berlin. When the wall went up in 1961, dozens of crossing points from one sector of the city to the others were sealed, and Checkpoint Charlie figured in the tense 1961 display of brinkmanship between Soviet and American tanks. There President Kennedy delivered his famous Ich bin ein Berliner address, followed years later by President Reagan's challenge to tear down the wall. When finally the wall fell in 1989, celebrations centered at the old guardhouse, which now sits in a Berlin museum. MacGregor chronicles the tragic stories of those who died trying to escape the suffocating East German regime. Includes maps, illustrations, and a bibliography.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

October 18, 2019

The Berlin Wall divided Germany for 28 years, standing as the most potent symbol of the Cold War. Thirty years since its fall, little remains of the barrier, but its specter serves as a reminder of what happens when fear, mistrust, oppression, and paranoia dominate the relationships among countries. Editor and publisher MacGregor brilliantly captures the events that led to the creation of the wall and the people who successfully escaped East Germany. Fans of intrigue will delight in his accounts of the military personnel and journalists who regularly crossed Checkpoint Charlie, which was first set up in August 1961 and eventually became the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War. Checkpoint Charlie late became the place of a standoff between the Soviet Union and the United States in October 1961. In November 1989, East German leadership allowed free passage of its citizens into West Berlin for the first time in decade; MacGregor captures how other countries reacted, and the care taken to ensure that this volatile situation proceeded peacefully. VERDICT A fascinating take on the importance of level-headed people and international agreements working together to manage tense geopolitical situations.--Beth Dalton, Littleton, CO

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