Checkpoint Charlie Stiftung

The Checkpoint Charlie Foundation is a legally recognized civil law foundation based in Berlin. It was established in 1994 by the Berlin House of Representatives to sustainably foster German-American relations and particularly to commemorate the role of the USA in Berlin from 1945 to 1994. Since the summer of 1995, the foundation has planned, organized, and funded 751 projects in both countries with over two million euros. It coordinates one of the largest non-governmental teacher exchange programs between the USA and Germany and manages key programs of the Berlin–Los Angeles city partnership. The foundation operates in a non-partisan, charitable, and selfless manner.

We promote relations between Berlin and the USA through exchange programs, educational scholarships, and cultural projects. Our goal is to strengthen transatlantic friendship by facilitating encounters among teachers, pupils, students, and cultural professionals, thereby fostering mutual understanding and sustainable cooperation.

The funding opportunities are aimed at German-American exchange projects of all kinds: teachers, education policymakers, and school administrators (teacher exchange programs STEP and EEP), students and graduates (City of Berlin Scholarship), pupils (host family programs, summer programs), artists and cultural workers, as well as civil society initiatives that promote transatlantic dialogue and intercultural learning in Berlin and the USA.