Checkpoint Charlie

The boys and I went to the Checkpoint Charlie museum yesterday.  Lots of large photographs about people escaping to the west.  Harrowing stories about hot air balloons, homemade submarines, underground tunnels, space carved out between two surfboards atop a car.  Hard to fathom that the wall fell just a little over 20 years ago.  It all seems so distant and strange now.  Still it seems that you cannot tell this particular Berlin story without a little propaganda.  The winning side's propaganda. There is an exhibit describing Picasso's Guernica, posters with insipring words from Gandhi and an entire room dedicated to Ronald Reagan ( they even have a chainsaw that he used on his ranch in CA). Nothing really about Gorbachev.  Nor much about what life in Eastern Germany was really like. It feels very uneven and even a bit kitschy.
And there is unfortunate modern art scattered about the place.  Many artists have tried to capture what the wall meant to the city, or a create an image that reflected the division.  But most images seem to fall short to me.  There is the vague outline of a person, usually in black charcoal, some barbed wire and a bleak sunrise or sunset in the background. Keith Haring, graffiti artist extraordinaire, really got it right.  Hope.  Struggle.  We're all connected. Bright colors.  Someone will probably paint over it tomorrow.

The museum is privately owned and operated and therefore that may be why there is not a scholarly approach to the material.  In addition, the area around Checkpoint Charlie is being revamped and modernized. The actual guard station has been removed and a replica has been put in its place, complete with some guy in a military uniform of questionable origin and an American flag who will take pictures with you and your family in front of sandbags for 2 Euros.  It is a shame to turn it into a tourist trap, but in a Berlin trying to come to terms with its past, maybe a surreal experience is just right.