What an interesting historical about a time that should never ever be repeated again. There was a lot of research that went into this book and there is sad to say lots of places to go for all the research.

I have really been enjoying historical non-fiction as of late and this book was a great find! The research was extensive and I learned a lot about this famous military gate, as I hadn't known much about it before reading this book.

I feel this book should be awarded five stars as it is compelling, comprehensive, thoroughly researched and clearly told, but at times the tempo drags with a surfeit of detail. It is, however, a very worthwhile book to read for anyone interested in European history.
The 30th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down is approaching - Nov 7, 2019 - a perfect time to read this history of events and collection of eyewitness reports.

I wish my brother would chime in with some of his experiences there, and he had many, but he doesn't read my reviews. Even without his tales and insights, this book provides a wealth of experiences from a variety of people as well as detailing the operations of the wall beginning to end.

I can't share quotes from the book as I was granted ARC from Simon & Schuster through NetGalley.
The book will be available Nov 5.

The bookends of this high-level history of Cold War Berlin are the middle-of-the-night surprise building of the first version of the Wall in 1961, and then, in 1989, the announcement of free travel between East and West Germany, resulting in an exultant stream of East Berliners crossing, and not long after, the end of the Wall and the reunification of East and West Germany.

Those bookends are detailed and exciting, filled with human interest stories. In between, there are also some affecting tales of successful and deadly escape attempts, a description of JFK’s famous visit to Berlin, the fascinating story of the huge East Germany concert by Bruce Springsteen, and a wonderful story of a Greek Auschwitz survivor who stayed in Germany and became a cantor who served Jewish communities on both sides of the Wall.

There are some tough-going patches in the middle, though, as author MacGregor gets a little too caught up in documenting military vehicles and titles of various Cold War operational groups, which tends to get in the way of what should be a compelling narrative of espionage operations.

TL;DR

Iain MacGregor’s Checkpoint Charlie tracks the history of the Berlin Wall through the people that lived it. This history is rooted in the lives that built, crossed, and brought down the barrier. Highly recommended for history buffs.

Review: Checkpoint Charlie

Ever since I started researching my honeymoon trip to Europe, I’ve become interested in European history. As someone who also enjoys following politics, I’ve also taken an interest in how Russia affects the political and strategic motivations of nations. These two interests have merged into a fascination with Cold War history. No other country, no other city, represents the Cold War than Berlin, Germany. The city split between the Allies at the end of World War II came to symbolize the struggle of East versus West, Capitalism versus Communism. France, Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union divided up Germany into East and West. The nations also split Berlin, and as the ideologies clashed, the city paid the price. Eventually, the Berlin Wall is erected, and the famous crossing in the American section of Berlin takes its place in history. Checkpoint Charlie served as the gateway between capitalist West Berlin and communist East Berlin. In Iain MacGregor’s Checkpoint Charlie the history of this contentious crossing comes alive. MacGregor explores the conflict through the people that inhabited the city, that crossed the border, that lived on the front line of the Cold War.

Iain MacGregor spans the end of World War II to the 90s to show how Berlin split and reunited. In turn, he’s told a story about a very specific portion of the city and the people who lived and worked close to it. The book starts with a border crossing, and we get to see how high tensions were. Checkpoint Charlie follows the border from a semi-open stop to the chaos of the first barrier to the horrors of death alley to finally the collapse and the Soviet soldiers brave decision to not respond with force. But MacGregor puts more than just a chronological retelling of events. He highlights various groups and individuals unique to this situation. For example, he talks about the special force soldiers who basically signed up for a suicide mission in the event of World War III; or Estrongo Nachama, a Jewish cantor, who served and helped the East German Jews survive.

Liaison Missions

I loved this book; it’s filled with excellent details, narratives, and accounts. If I had to pick my favorite section, it would be the chapter describing the various liaison missions for France, Britain, and the U.S. Basically, these were legal, acknowledged spies who operated on the other side of the border. Their missions do not sound like what fiction has taught us spies do, but those missions sound as wild, as dangerous, and as vital to winning the Cold War. To oversimplify, these soldiers were tourists seeking out military information to take pictures of, and to record movements. But that doesn’t convey the danger to which they were subjected.

The chapter dedicated to Major Arthur Nicholson, Jr. deeply affected me. It brought home not only the dangers of the liaison missions but how a single life moves nations. Major Nicholson gave his life for the U.S. nation, and his sacrifice gets an entire chapter here. MacGregor uses the chapter to show the U.S. played the murder to its advantage politically but also how that strategy constrained the U.S. I found fascinating how MacGregor connected the soldier level to national strategy. I wish the book had more of this analysis.

More Politics, Please

The view for most of the book is on the ground. We get a little of the national strategies, but I would have liked more. For example in the chapter on tunnels, how did the Eastern German and Soviet governments try to stop tunneling, other than hoping to discover the escapees? Was it more than a local nuisance? I enjoyed the times that MacGregor connected the local to the global, but I wanted more. His interest was more the people up front and center. Nevertheless, the actions at the border drove national policy. This is not a knock; I just enjoyed seeing the picture from far away as well as up close.

Historical Method

While we do get some of the larger consequences of the Cold War, the hyper focus on the Berlin border remains consistent throughout. Bystanders, guards, soldiers, and diplomats all get equal treatment in the book to give a holistic view of the era. The book had a western bias, though, as many of the interviews come from West Germans. It would have been interesting to get more of the Eastern view. But much of the narrative is built on interviews and firsthand accounts. So, I wonder if it was more difficult to get people who looked back on that time positively.

Also, with interviews, we have to recognize that memories change. But I believe that MacGregor did enough research to blend the interviews in naturally. The quotes add to the tension and immediacy of the moments. While MacGregor is able to describe the horror of trying to escape the East, the interviews drive home that horror much more effectively.

Conclusion

Iain MacGregor’s Checkpoint Charlie lays out the history of the border between East and West Berlin in all too human terms. This account is well research, packed with historical info, and full of first hand accounts. This book appeals to anyone interested in the history of the Cold War or the city of Berlin. It’s a must for understanding the unique time that was the Cold War.

8.5 out of 10!

Really enjoyed this great history of Checkpoint Charlie. The author did a great job incorporating primary sources into this book. Highly Recommended. I will recommend that my library buy a copy of this book for our collection.

I LOVED this perspective of an important piece of history. The writing was informative, yet engaging. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to review this book!