The photograph shows an Allied checkpoint at the zonal border near Berlin, presumably Checkpoint Dreilinden (Checkpoint Baker) on the autobahn toward West Germany. In front of a light-colored wooden building, the flags of the three Western powers — the United States, Great Britain, and France — flutter as a visible sign of joint occupation authority. A sign on the building indicates the British, French, and American checkpoints and instructs all passersby to report to their respective control points. Uniformed soldiers inspect the passing vehicles, including a VW Beetle and a bus — a typical everyday scene of regulated but controlled access to the Western enclave city of Berlin. The checkpoint stands as a symbol of the geopolitical reality of the Cold War: in 1955, West Berlin was accessible only through Allied territory and under Allied supervision, every entry a visible act of a divided world.