Checkpoint Rudi

摘要

Checkpoint Charlie is one of those must-see tourist attractions that are best avoided. This crossing-point between the old East and West Berlin features hordes of teenagers and street vendors selling communist paraphernalia. But a detour to nearby Kochstrasse is worthwhile, for it forms a checkpoint of its own—the front line in a culture war featuring two big newspaper names: Bild Zettung, Germany's leading tabloid, owned by Axel Springer, and the left-wing Tages-zeitung (TAZ). On January 21st the district's residents joined the battle by voting to rename part of the street Rudi Dutschke Strasse, after the 1968 student leader shot by a Bild-reader.