By ČTK / Published 18 June 2008
Berlin, June 17 (CTK) - Former Czech President Vaclav Havel, along with former German and Polish foreign ministers, Hans-Dietrich Genscher and Wladyslaw Bartoszewski, have signed an appeal for the establishment of a museum of Cold War in Berlin, the German daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote Tuesday.
The permanent exhibition on the Cold War history is to be situated at the Checkpoint Charlie, former border crossing between East and West Berlin.
Havel and other personalities called on the German government and the Berlin Town Hall to secure suitable premises for this purpose at Checkpoint Charlie, Sueddeutsche Zeitung writes, referring to the petition that the paper has at its disposal.
The Checkpoint Charlie currently houses a private museum of the Berlin Wall focused on the division of Berlin during the Cold War. It is one of the major tourist attractions.
The signatories, supporting a new museum, say they want this locality to become a place of serious confrontations with the 20th-century history.
The personalities recall in their appeal that the world has considerably changed during the past two decades since the end of Cold War, so even visitors to Berlin can hardly find any traces of the previous division of the city.
The Berlin Senate self-governing body has already formed a working group promoting for the idea to establish the Cold War museum.
The institution should recollect the formation of two antagonistic military blocs as well as the subsequent events such as the Cuban crisis and the escalation of peace movements.
Unlike Havel, former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev does not support the project much very enthusiastically.
The museum is to be funded by municipal and state resources as well as EU subsidies
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