Iain MacGregor

“Such was the carnival atmosphere that Brenner, her boss, his wife, and a local journalist managed to summon up the courage to walk directly toward the white line of the border crossing—where twenty-eight years ago tanks had famously faced one another—to present the East German guards with bottles of champagne. The guards refused the offer, but they didn’t point their weapons, or bark out warnings. It was a surreal moment as the joyous posse from the Adler walked back to the café and prepared the bar for guests—lots of them.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth

“The concert became the touchstone of a generation. Those who didn’t attend almost certainly watched it on television. Andreas Austilat still believes the concert represented not just a moment for rock ’n’ roll, but one that certainly affected his view on the whole city of Berlin and what he thought of the eastern half.”
― Iain MacGregor, Checkpoint Charlie: The Cold War, the Berlin Wall and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth