Day 2 of the 2018 Welcome Home tour began with visiting the Allied Museum of Berlin and exploring the neighboring housing area on Hüttenweg which used to house many U.S. military personnel and their families. We stopped by the former Gen. Lucius D. Clay Headquaters on Clayallee, and also walked through the site of the former McNair Barracks, once the home of several battalions of the Berlin Brigade. Several members of this year’s tour lived and/or worked here and were moved to visit their old stomping grounds. Most buildings on this site are now occupied by the German Federal Archives (German: Bundesarchiv).

After a tasty lunch at a canteen located in the City Hall of Schöneberg -- one of the capital’s districts -- which was one of the stops on the U.S. President J.F. Kennedy’s 1963 visit to Berlin, the tour continued through parts of the former West Berlin. One of the stops was at the famous Olympic Stadium, the site of the 1936 Summer Olympics. The final item on the agenda for the day was a guided tour through the historic Reichstag Building, the current home of the German Parliament, the Bundestag.

Since 2008, the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation has organized regular tours for the U.S. military veterans who were stationed in Berlin anytime between between 1945 and 1989. This year's Welcome Home tour hosted ten former U.S. soldiers and airmen who each spent two or more years serving with their U.S. military in the American sector of West Berlin.

Our 2018 Welcome Home tour officially kicked off on Sunday, September 23, with a sightseeing trip to Potsdam, a suburb of the German capital, located in the former Soviet sector of then-divided Berlin. Tour participants visited Cecilienhof Palace, the site of the Potsdam Conference attended by the leadership of the USA, UK, and the Soviet Union in the summer of 1945, the park of Sanssouci Palace, and enjoyed a bus ride through the old part of Potsdam.

Perhaps the most memorable stop that day, however, was on the Glienicker Brücke, a bridge across the Havel River that connects the German capital and its wealthy suburb of Potsdam. During the division of Germany, this bridge formed the border between the West and East parts of the divided Berlin. Several tour members remembered visiting the infamous "Bridge of Spies" at the height of the Cold War and were particularly moved by the opportunity to stand on it freely today. *All photos are by the Checkpoint Charlie Stiftung staff.

This past week, the Checkpoint Charlie Foundation hosted a group of ten U.S. military veterans who were stationed in West Berlin during the Cold War. For many of them this was their first visit back -- and their first time to experience a united German capital -- thirty or more years since they left. Throughout the next days we will be sharing some photos of the highlights of their trip. It has been a pleasure for all of us at CCF to assist you on this memorable and emotional visit!

This photo pf the group was taken at the Berlin State Parliament (Abgeordnetenhaus of Berlin) after their meeting with Ralf Wieland, its current President. Photo courtesy of the Berlin State Parliament staff.