User:Itai/Travel between West Berlin and West Germany

Berlin Border Crossings Transit Agreement (1972)

Berlin Crisis
"We have previously indicated our readiness to remove any actual irritant in West Berlin, but freedom of that city is not negotiable."

- John F. Kennedy

"This island does not stand alone. You are a vital part of the whole free community of free men."

- Lyndon B. Johnson, August 19, 1961

Air

 * Berlin Air Safety Center

Autobahn

 * Helmstedt-Berlin Autobahn (Bundesautobahn 2)
 * Checkpoint Alpha to Checkpoint Bravo
 * 110-mile corridor (160 km according to )
 * Helmstedt is on the border separating the British zone from the Soviet zone
 * Berlin Crisis
 * 1961: US President Kennedy sends the 1,500 men of the 1st Battle Group, 18th Infantry of the 8th Infantry Division stationed in Mannheim, led by Col. Glover S. Johns Jr., to West Berlin along the Helmstedt-Berlin Autobahn, to protest Khrushchev's erection of the Berlin Wall. Movement from Helmstedt to Berlin began at 6:00 A.M., Sunday, August 20. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and Gen. Lucius D. Clay were sent to Berlin at the time, and welcome the troops. Movement was carried out in armored trucks.
 * "A unique quirk of German road history was the only-ever zebra crossing on an autobahn, situated on the A2 close to the border checkpoint until the late 1970s." (Helmstedt-Marienborn border crossing)
 * Travels along the road:
 * American
 * British (26 December 1979)
 * "The time was important because I could not afford to arrive at the next Soviet checkpoint in less than 2 hours otherwise I would have exceeded the strict 80kph speed limit somewhere along the route – and that was a crime and contrary to the Allied protocol."
 * Bundesautobahn 24
 * "The German divide, however, put a hold on further work and it wasn't before 1978 that construction was resumed, carried out by a GDR work force and paid for by West Germany." (Wikipedia article)