McDonald's said earlier this year that it planned to open a new outlet at Berlin's Checkpoint Charlie, completing the landmark's 20-year transformation from Cold War front line to money-making tourist hotspot.

The 120-seater restaurant will be opposite the Mauermuseum dedicated to the Berlin Wall that used to divide the city, and hopes to be selling its burgers, fries and other products from mid-2010, a spokeswoman said.

The 600-square-metre (6,500-square-feet) restaurant, on the site of where Soviet and US tanks famously faced off in 1961, is a "top location," the Bild daily cited the American fast food giant as saying.

Spokeswoman Christiane Woerle said that McDonald's, which has come to symbolise American capitalism more than any other firm, has applied for planning permission with the German authorities.

McCapitalism

Checkpoint Charlie was the main crossing point for foreigners between East and West Berlin from the post-war division of the city until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

 Alexandra Hildebrandt, initiator of a memorial dedicated to the 1065 people who lost their lives trying to cross the wall that separated Communist east Berlin from west Berlin from 1961 to 1989, stands between the 1065 crosses at the memorial's site at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin (2005)

"I think it's great," said Alexandra Hildebrandt, 40, who runs the Mauermuseum. “Checkpoint Charlie symbolises the United States and so does McDonald's. They go well together."

Another Berliner, Matthias Fischer, 39, added: "McDonald's is definitely a gain for every local and tourist. Because the food here was rubbish."

Simon Sturdee/AFP/Expatica

Photos credit: chez_sugi; AFP