On the night of 13 August 1961 the Wall began to go up, and in October the dispute over papers at Checkpoint Charlie turned into a standoff between American and Soviet tanks on Friedrichstraße. I tell it through the American diplomat who refused to identify himself at the line, and the sixteen hours that followed, from the late afternoon of 27 October to the morning of 28 October 1961. The tanks left the street, but the crossing still has a reconstructed guardhouse, a sign and a double row of paving stones that marks where the Wall ran. Stand at the corner of Friedrichstraße and Zimmerstraße, then go to Clayallee 135 to see the original guardhouse at the Allied Museum.

Chapters:
0:00 The rights behind the crossing
2:59 Stopped at the line
6:54 Tanks on Friedrichstraße
10:30 How the standoff ended
13:38 The crossing today

Sources:
https://www.stiftung-berliner-mauer.de/en/node/223
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v14/d196
https://www.bpb.de/themen/zeit-kulturgeschichte/deutschland-chronik/131560/13-august-1961/
https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/sites/184076/checkpoint-charlie
https://wwsf.deutsche-kinemathek.de/index.php/Detail/Object/Show/object_id/1115
https://www.alliiertenmuseum.de/en/
https://www.mauermuseum.de/

Narrated with an AI voice. The short breaks are read in Yusuf's own cloned voice. More at walkofberlin.com