Allierten Museum Visit

Quick trip down to the Dahlem neighborhood to check out the Allierten ("Allied") Museum that chronicles the events from the initial steps of the four Allied powers in the post-war administration of Germany to the fall of the Berlin Wall. Free entry!

Dahlem was the center of the American Sector of post-war Berlin and the Museum is housed within the old base movie theatre for the US troops and families stationed here. 

Built in 1953, the Outpost Theatre channeled architectural ideas from Berlin's 1920's and 30's timeframe.

The main exhibits room sits in the former theatre. An annex building nearby houses a mix of permanent and temporary exhibits. In between the two, in the old car park, sits a British Hastings Airlift airplane, a DDR guard tower + Wall remnant, and a later version of the Checkpoint Charlie gatehouse.

They somehow got their hands on one old watchtower and Wall section. The Berlin Wall itself did not course through Dahlem neighborhood.

The famous "You Are Leaving" signs for the various Allied sektors.

The CIA built a spy tunnel underneath the Wall in the early 50's and jacked into a telephone exchange on the DDR side so they could listen in to the voice traffic of East Germany. Eventually it was discovered and the Soviets had a field day with the press event, showing off to the world how the American's were trying to spy on them. Which of course we were.

The "Luftbrücke" (Airlift) exhibit featured a bit of the artificial metal runway that was discovered at Gatow during construction work at the airport in 1997. We've run across bits of this stuff at Tempelhof too, hiding off in little-used corners of the field.

The British Hastings TG 503 Airlift veteran.

Another prize: the original facade of the Checkpoint Charlie gatehouse. After Reunification the Wall itself and most associated infrastructure was hurriedly removed. It was only later that someone saw the historical value of the monstrous concept. The Charlie gatehouse was removed but then later replaced with a replica. The rest of the original gatehouse is gone to history, but the wooden facade and doorframe was rescued from the scrapheap.