History is not only words in a book. You can get to know history better, if you can experience it in real life.

This is the story of my trip to Berlin to learn about The Berlin Wall and see it for myself.

At the end of World War II, the German capital of Berlin was divided in half and a wall was built to keep each group on their own side. One half, the East side, belonged to Russia and was the Communist side.

The other half, West Berlin, belonged to the Allied Forces and was controlled by America, Great Britain, and France. Each country controlled a part of West Berlin.

Checkpoint Charlie in the late 1940's.

After we arrived in Berlin, we found our hotel and checked in. The man at the front desk gave us a map of the city so we could find what we were looking for. We set out on foot to find the location of Checkpoint Charlie. The city has grown and changed since the end of the war and what is around Checkpoint Charlie is very modern, but the original building is still there. 

My brother, sister, and I got our picture taken with one of the ‘guards’.

The next morning we set out on foot to see what is left of the Berlin Wall. We saw a lot of interesting graffiti. It was everywhere.