The article is vastly misleading. The "checkpoint charlie
museum" is an initiative by a private person and was
installed on leased property, the leasing contract expired
2004-12-31 and the bank, who owns the property, didnt want
crosses and graves any more (or, they speculated that they
could actually sell the property for a hefty profit)
The parties went to court, and the judge decided in favor
of the property owner. Four out of five experts rated the
whole thing more a tourist attraction laden with historical inaccuracies than a piece of art or a memorial.
The date (4th july) set for razing the whole shebang is
totally coincidental. Its not that checkpoint charlie
is flattened after all.
The whole episode, of course, went ballistic with the
private initiator, the bank, the ruling political parties
and the opposition parties all slinging large amounts of
mud at each other.
Yeah, right. Given the sick demonization of Americans rife in German media and society (most recently, American businesses were compared to a plague of locusts!), I have no doubt this is meant as just another petty insult from the oh, so morally superior descendants of the Nazis...