Bravo as bidder buys a Berlin icon

A MYSTERY telephone bidder bought a piece of history in the form of "Checkpoint Bravo" - once one of the busiest crossing points between East and West Berlin - in an auction yesterday.

The sole bidder secured the site - which includes a derelict bridge and a crumbling cafe covered in graffiti, for 37,000 - the minimum asking price.

Less famous than its counterpart "Checkpoint Charlie", which lies in central Berlin, Checkpoint Bravo was built along a motorway in the city's south-west to inspect travellers between the Allied and Soviet sectors in the early 1950s.

It continued to be used to control movements from West Berlin into the Communist German Democratic Republic and from the East into the West until 1969. The road was then re-routed.