Mystery bidder buys Berlin's "Checkpoint Bravo"
BERLIN | Thu Sep 16, 2010 3:19pm EDT
BERLIN (Reuters) - A mystery telephone bidder purchased a piece of history in the form of "Checkpoint Bravo" -- once one of the busiest crossing points between East and West Berlin -- in an auction Thursday. The sole bidder secured the site -- which includes a derelict bridge and a crumbling cafe covered in graffiti, for 45,000 euros ($58,890) -- the minimum asking price. Less famous than its counterpart "Checkpoint Charlie," which lies in central Berlin, Checkpoint Bravo was built along a major motorway in the city's southwest to inspect travelers between the Allied and Soviet sectors in the early 1950s. It continued to be used to control movements from West Berlin into the Communist German Democratic Republic and from the East into the West until 1969. The road was then re-routed and the checkpoint moved to a site a short distance away.
(Writing by Michelle Martin, editing by Paul Casciato)
