I have been carrying some research in readiness to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the final closure of Checkpoint Alpha in 2020. The road was only “fenced” to the same extent as any ‘autobahn’ was fenced. Army Challenge Coin . A rest stop with a motel has now been built on part of the old GDR control portal's area. Food, gas and lodging can be obtained at the NAAFI (Navy, Army, Air … […] Alpha was in the British side. While the events of November 9, 1989, signaled the end of a divided Berlin, Checkpoint Charlie remained in operation until seven months later, when its … Additional points of interest include the car entry area and passport control, the control tower and the inspection garage. The first Allied control point at Helmstedt was opened on 1 July 1945 between the British and Soviet zones. Checkpoint Alpha foi o posto de controlo fronteiriço de Helmstedt–Marienborn (em alemão: Grenzübergang Helmstedt-Marienborn), chamado Grenzübergangsstelle Marienborn (GÜSt) (fronteira cruzando Marienborn) pela República Democrática Alemã (RDA). Border guards could be painstakingly thorough in their searches, which meant long waits and sometimes a car being taken to pieces (and possibly left that way). To West Germans it was Kontrollpunkt Helmstedt, to East Germans, Grenzübergangsstelle Marienborn, but outside Germany, the inner German border crossing point was most commonly referred to by the name given to it by the Allied powers, Checkpoint Alpha. Condition: Used and in good condition. The Memorial to the Division of Germany in Marienborn (Gedenkstätte Deutsche Teilung Marienborn) was opened on the site of the former East German control point at Checkpoint Alpha in 1996. However, the original checkpoint was eventually regarded too unsafe to operate efficiently. This was the only Autobahn that could be used by the allies to get to West-Berlin by land. At Checkpoint Alpha on the west end of the autobahn to Berlin is the Helmstedt Support Detachment. The name Checkpoint Alpha was consistently applied to the combined “Allied” (US, British, & French) facility. Between 1972 and 1974, the GDR erected a new control portal on a 35-hectare (86-acre) field situated on a hill near Marienborn, about 1.5 km (1,600 yards) east of the border. I to visited the site of the former Marienborn checkpoint museum Whilst much of it still exists it bears no resemblance to said checkpoint of my era. The experience was truly memorable–and pretty nerve-wracking. The West German buildings near Helmstedt have either been demolished or are now used for other purposes. 45 years after it first opened, the border crossing officially ceased controls when the social and economic systems of East and West Germany were united on 1 July 1990. Overall the trip by road was comfortable enough — although I still preferred to make the trip by rail using the British duty train which ran in the daytime as opposed to the US duty train that made the crossing in the middle of the night. I think the speed limit was so low because the American forces did not want the East Germans to have an excuse for ticketing us. I am sorry I cannot add specific dates as I am still carrying out research. The border crossing existed from 1945 to 1990 and was situated near the East German village of Marienborn at the edge of the Lappwald. After the dissolution of the Eastern Bloc and the reunification of Germany, the building at Checkpoint Charlie became a tourist attraction. We have considered that as us youngsters of the sixties are now in our 70’s this would be a final one off chance for us survivors of this period of the Cold War to get together. During the Berlin Blockade, which endured from June 1948 to May 1949, the Soviet checkpoint was closed. …it was a frightening road. Mixing the civilian (East & West German) and military (US/UK/FR/USSR) checkpoints gives a totally confusing and inaccurate portrait, because no traveler used both the military and civilian checkpoints. History It served as entry point to the Autobahn that lead through East Germany into West-Berlin. On the grounds of the former East German border control buildings, the "Gedenkstätte Deutsche Teilung Marienborn" was opened on August 13, 1996. Most travel routes from West Germany to East Germany and Poland also used this crossing. Its scope included the interzonal railway traffic as well as the motor vehicle traffic on the Reichsautobahn between Hanover and Berlin. From 1950 onwards, the East German Grenzpolizei (later the Grenztruppen der DDR) performed the border control on the eastern side of the checkpoint, with the exception of the Soviet military, which escorted Allied military traffic to and from West Berlin. While military travelers were not authorized to use any of the exits, there certainly were exits at many points along the road – in fact, one of the problems occasionally encountered was when a military traveler would use of the exits – sometimes this caused the traveler to encounter East German police, other times the traveler might make it back onto the autobahn corridor and no one would know unless the traveler mentioned it when processing through the checkpoint. The checkpoint marked the beginning or end of a 170km (110 mile) drive along a walled or fenced motorway through East Germany with no available exits for travellers between West Germany and West Berlin or vice versa. One hundred miles further east, along a 1930s-vintage autobahn, came Checkpoint Bravo which funnelled them into the south-western tip of the US sector of Berlin. Around 1,000 people worked here – passport control and custom officers, East German border troops and civilian employees. This was the only Autobahn that could to get to West-Berlin by land. The memorial site is accessible via the nearby rest stop's exit and can only be explored on foot. The Checkpoint Alpha had already been up and running for 5 years at this point, and the soviets decided to fine alternatives to restrict the people flow in and out of Berlin. The Allied side of the checkpoint for entry into West Berlin was named Checkpoint Bravo, and Checkpoint Charlie was the Allied checkpoint for entry into (and exit from) East Berlin. Ein Kurzfilm über den ehemaligen Checkpoint Alpha der heute ein Museum und Mahnmal zugleich ist. Checkpoint Charlie: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie! It showed what it was like trying to cross border […]. Berlin Brigade. I’m a big fan of a Wegbier to quench my thirst while exploring Berlin and beer in Berlin is generally cheaper than water […] There is another exhibition, Customs of the GDR, which focuses on the technical process for customs checks at the border crossing, in the former customs control area. The allied duty trains also stopped at Helmstedt. The crossing interrupted the Bundesautobahn 2 (A 2) between the junctions Helmstedt-Ost and Ostingersleben. Helmstadt Support Detachment. Checkpoint Alpha was located in the town of Helmsted, It served as entry point to the Autobahn that leads through East Germany into West-Berlin. The memorial is operated by the state of Saxony-Anhalt and features exhibitions and guided tours. This illegal time was by a US lady in British E type Jaguar. Für Westdeutsche war es Kontrollpunkt Helmstedt, für Ostdeutsche, Grenzübergangsstelle Marienborn, aber außerhalb Deutschlands wurde der innerdeutsche Grenzübergang am häufigsten mit dem Namen bezeichnet, der ihm von den Alliierten gegeben wurde – Checkpoint Alpha. BTW, we were instructed not to stop or pay any attention to the East German checkpoints- only the Allied and Soviet ones. The name Checkpoint Charlie comes from the NATO phonetic alphabet (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie). All went well, and we had no problems reaching Berlin, but the leadup to the trip was pretty impressive. Friedrich Christian Delius and Peter Joachim Lapp, This page was last edited on 25 October 2020, at 08:41. I can’t speak for the entire fifty-odd years of the Autobahn Corridor, but I will say that the description offered here is considerably more bleak and depressing than the actual roadway, at least as of the early 1980’s when I was NCOIC of the US Helmstedt Support Detachment traveled that road regularly. Checkpoint Alpha: Das ABC der Berliner Grenzübergänge. The checkpoint at Helmstedt-Marienborn, along with its counterparts in Berlin, Checkoint Bravo at Dreilinden and Checkpoint Charlie on Friedrichstrasse, was one of the most important border crossings of the Cold War. The former main office building now houses a permanent exhibition – The GDR Marienborn Border Crossing: Bulwark, Eye of the Needle, Seismograph – made up of film and photo exhibits, documents and objects of interest. The Allied side of the checkpoint for entry into West Berlin was named Checkpoint Bravo, while Checkpoint Charlie was the Allied checkpoint for entry into (and exit from) East Berlin. The nomenclature of "checkpoint", as opposed to the East German "Grenzübergangsstelle" (which literally means "border-crossing-place") was a result of the Western Allies not recognising the legitimacy of East Germany as a state. The connection between these checkpoints gained its importance from being the shortest connection between the western zones and Berlin, at 170 km (110 miles). Media related to Grenzübergang Helmstedt-Marienborn at Wikimedia Commons, Coordinates: 52°12′56″N 11°04′52″E / 52.215514°N 11.081044°E / 52.215514; 11.081044, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Halt! I just finished ” The Berlin Wall,” by Frederick Taylor, and parts of it reminded me of the trip friends and I–all teachers at Heidelberg American High School– took in 1964 at Easter time (as I recall) from Heidelberg to Berlin via Helmstedt. The imposed speed limit described by Margaret Coffey did not apply to British or French travellers. The Helmstedt-Marienborn checkpoint was one of three checkpoints used by the Western Allies. Happy to contribute further if required. Hier Grenze - Auf den Spuren der innerdeutschen Grenze, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Helmstedt–Marienborn_border_crossing&oldid=985323518, Articles lacking sources from November 2014, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. If I may I would like to put my twopenny worth in. Crossing inspections were nerve-racking affairs even for those who knew that they had done nothing wrong. The Helmstedt-Marienborn checkpoint was one of three checkpoints used by the Western Allies. Checkpoint Charlie was the crossing point for the allied forces between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War.