Update on Checkpoint Charlie

For how long will you be in Berlin? The reproduction of the sandbagged checkpoint is outdoors/free. When I visited a year ago, there was a long but steadily moving queue of visitors waiting to take photos. There is useful signage/historic photos there, as well.
I did enjoy the museum (I don't remember if I paid?), thoughtfully curated and not very big, but I am a huge history fan. Yes, there were some tacky souvenir shops in the vicinity, but no different than around any other famous landmark? (I am not sure what you mean by commercialized.)
Either way, I don't think it would take more than 45 minutes - hour.

Checkpoint Charlie is a garish spectacle with no relation to past reality. The adjacent museum relatively speaking is ok. I have been across at CP Charlie when the wall was up so the current “display” evokes memories but on the whole is as I opened with.

Don’t waste your valuable time.

I was back in Berlin just a few weeks ago. The last time I had visited was before the wall came down. Pass on Checkpoint Charlie. Go see the Brandenburg Tor, but do it be 0900 when the crowds show up. Do get tickets to the Reichstag. Do walk the Tiergarten and see the Soviet Victory Memorial.

Take a couple pics of what the places looked like in 1945. It will be eye opening.

When this topic comes up, there is usually confusion between the rebuilt checkpoint itself (totally skippable) and the museum, which I liked a lot. I am a Cold War junkie, and I found the details about escape attempts very interesting.

The DDR Museum is also privately operated, I think, and I liked it, too.

Berlin has very many worthwhile historical miseums and sites covering aspects of 20th-century history. The typical visitor will not have enough time in the city to see all of them. My philosophy is to be sure I allow enough time to fully cover the museums I do go to, rather than running from one to another and only hitting the highlights. Others take the opposite approach (it's a matter of personal preference), but in spread-out Berlin, that could lead to spending quite a lot of time traveling back and forth, not seeing anything.

If you end up not going to the Museum at Checkpoint Charlie and are sorry to have missed it, I recommend checking out the movie, "Balloon", a fictionalized recounting of one family's escape. It used to be available through Kanopy, which your local public library may subscribe to. There may be other sources as well. The film is in German with English subtitles.

I've been to Berlin three times (most recently in February) and I still haven't seen everything I want to. I visited the Checkpoint Charlie museum a number of years ago and I found it interesting enough however I'm a big Cold War aficionado. The immediate area is quite busy and there were scammers playing a card game and trying to entice unwitting passers by to join them and plenty of beggars. I have no doubt that there were probably pick pockets operating in the area as well so if you do go then have your wits about you.

I will be in Berlin in September for nights #58-60 since 2015. I have not been in the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, and I have not taken a photo at the "rebuilt" Checkpoint Charlie (and I have no problem with people who do such things). BUT... I have found it cool to stand at the site where history happened... particularly the 1961 standoff between US and East German/Russian tanks. There used to be placards at the site that recounted the event -- not sure if they are still there or not.

I suppose that if you did not have any previous/Soviet era experience with it you might not be able to appreciate what it represents. For me, seeing it brings back a very strong emotional jolt as I recall the absolute terror of passing from East to West while smuggling things for my waiting relatives. Cherries, a sewing machine, books, all things we hauled through there. My mother, herself a German who had lived inside occupied Berlin until she met my father, was pulled to the side and searched. It was terrifying as I stood there wondering now what now with my sewing machine in tow.
There are a few of these places that serve the purpose of highlighting those days. The mine fields, fences, guard dog, guns and soldiers, towers are gone, the memories are strong. The first time I heard shooting at night is forever in my head. I always visit Checkpoint Charlie when I am in Berlin.

Powerful story Mack. We will be in Berlin in 3 weeks. I will reconsider seeing Checkpoint Charlie after reading your reply and be open to better understanding the history many like you experienced.

I recommend the Berlin Wall Memorial on Bernauer Strasse as a glimpse of what was once. If you pay attention as you walk, you will be able to see the lines on the sidewalks and pavement to mark East and West.
If you were in Berlin when this all took place, the construction of Mauer that followed the fences, mine fields, towers and patrolling guards will all come flooding back. If not, this will provide some context. There are images and a memorial for the people who failed in their attempts to reach freedom. For me, those images were a reminder of why we heard shooting at night and then the news of the following day describing failure or occasionally success escaping from the Russian controlled East.
We lived (when we stayed in my grandfather's garden) literally yards away from the wire. At my grandfathers request, I once pulled a rake through the wire. A worker had leaned it there when they went for lunch. In hindsight, that was probably not a great idea, but it was before they got serious with the gun towers and mine fields etc. This was during the construction of those things.