Watchtower at Checkpoint Charlie Razed

Wrecking crews have demolished a watchtower at the former Checkpoint Charlie crossing, one of the last reminders of the Berlin Wall to fall victim to developers who have remade Berlin since German reunification.

City officials said they could not save the old lookout, which was reduced to rubble under the cover of darkness Thursday, because it was not classified as a historical landmark.

Still, the squat concrete tower once used by Soviet and East German soldiers to oversee the east-west border--and to peer at U.S. guards on the other side--was a tourist attraction.

Rainer Hildebrandt, director of the nearby Checkpoint Charlie Museum, which documents the history of the wall, said he tried to save the tower in talks with a real estate developer who wants to erect an office building on the site.

“They waited until it was dark, and we were told nothing in advance. We had often discussed how the tower could be moved, but now it is too late,” he said in a telephone interview.

Alerted by a passerby, Hildebrandt said he failed to persuade the workers to halt the demolition.

At the former crossing, a metal strip set in the asphalt and huge portraits of U.S. and Soviet soldiers in the middle of the street still mark where the Cold War most famously divided the European continent.

In the 10 years since reunification, the main Friedrichstrasse avenue running north from the former border has been lined with boutiques and luxury car showrooms. Against that backdrop, the bare plot surrounding the watchtower became an eyesore.

U.S. and Soviet tanks had faced each other across the checkpoint as the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961. Now, a few scattered sections are all that remain of the 97-mile barrier.