ABSTRACT
Alexandra Hildebrandt's actions at Checkpoint Charlie, which were undertaken without the approval of city officials, and her oft repeated accusation that the SPD and PDS-ruled Berlin Senate was dragging its feet on commemorating the Wall for political reasons, ultimately catapulted the issue of political management onto the public agenda. Criticism of the fact that "a private individual has set up a memorial cemetery practically single-handedly" was ultimately the point on which the political parties in Berlin were in agreement. According to Bundestag members, the Brandenburg Gate was also an ideal place of commemoration on account of its "proximity to other national sites of remembrance, such as the Holocaust memorial and thememorial to the Sinti and Roma people murdered during the Nazi dictatorship". At Checkpoint Charlie, tourists would be presented with part of their own history in the form of the global political dimensions of the city's history, while the Brandenburg Gate would become a symbol of the national history of division.
