West Berlin
Encyclopedia
West Berlin was a political exclave that existed between 1949 and 1990. It comprised the western regions of Berlin
, which were bordered by East Berlin
and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American
, British
, and French
occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945. It was politically closely affiliated with West Germany
, although it had a special status, because its administration was formally conducted by the Western Allies
. East Berlin encompassed the region occupied and administered by the Soviet Union
, and was claimed as capital by East Germany. The Western Allies did not recognise this claim, as they asserted that the entire city of Berlin was legally under four-power administration. The Berlin Wall
, built in 1961, physically divided East and West Berlin until it fell in 1989.
With about two million inhabitants, West Berlin had the highest number of residents of any city in Cold War
-era Germany.
The Potsdam Agreement
established the legal framework for the occupation of Germany in the wake of World War II
. According to the agreement, Germany would be formally under the administration of the four major wartime Allies
—the United States, the United Kingdom, France
, and the Soviet Union
—until a German government acceptable to all parties would be established. The territory of Germany, as it existed in 1937, would be reduced by most of Eastern Germany thus creating the former eastern territories of Germany. The remaining territory would be divided into four zones, each administered by one of the allied countries. Berlin, which was surrounded by the Soviet zone of occupation—newly established in most of Middle Germany
—would be similarly divided, with the Western Allies occupying an enclave consisting of the western parts of the city. According to the agreement, the occupation of Berlin would end only as a result of a quadripartite agreement. The Western Allies were guaranteed three air corridors to their sectors of Berlin, and the Soviets also informally allowed road and rail access between West Berlin and the western parts of Germany (see section on traffic).
At first, this arrangement was officially only meant to be a temporary administrative structure, with all parties declaring that Germany and Berlin would soon be reunited. However, as the relations between the western allies and the Soviet Union soured and the Cold War began, the joint administration of Germany and Berlin broke down. Soon Soviet-occupied Berlin and western-occupied Berlin had separate city administrations. In 1948, the Soviets tried to force the Western Allies out of Berlin by imposing a land blockade on the western sectors: the Berlin Blockade
. The West responded by using its air corridors for supplying their part of the city with food and other goods in the Berlin Airlift. In May 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade, and West Berlin as a separate city with its own jurisdiction was maintained. By the end of 1949, two new states had been created out of occupied Germany—the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany
) in the West and the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) in the East—with West Berlin an enclave surrounded by, but not part of, the GDR.
The Western Allies remained the ultimate political authorities in West Berlin. All legislation of the "Abgeordnetenhaus", the domestic state and the adopted federal law, only applied under the proviso of the confirmation by the three Western Allied commanders-in-chief. If they approved a bill, it was enacted as part of West Berlin's statutory law. If the commanders-in-chief rejected a bill, it did not become law in West Berlin; this, for example, was the case with West German laws on military duty. West Berlin was run by the elected 'Governing Mayor' and the Senate of Berlin
(city government) seated at Rathaus Schöneberg
. Governing Mayor and Senators (ministers) had to be approved by the Western Allies and thus derived their authority from the occupying forces, not from their electoral mandate.
The Soviets unilaterally declared the occupation of East Berlin at an end along with the rest of East Germany. This move was, however, not recognised by the Western Allies, who continued to view all of Berlin as a jointly occupied territory belonging to neither of the two states. This view was supported by the continued practice of patrols of Allied soldiers of all four Allies in all four sectors. Thus, occasionally Western Allied soldiers were on patrol in East Berlin and Soviet soldiers were patrolling in West Berlin. After the Wall was built, East Germany wanted to control Western Allied patrols upon entering or leaving East Berlin, a practice that the Western Allies regarded as unacceptable. So, after protests to the Soviets, the patrols continued uncontrolled on both sides, with the tacit agreement that the western Allies would not use their patrolling privileges for helping Easterners to flee to the West.
In many ways, West Berlin functioned as the de facto
11th state
of West Germany, and was depicted on maps published in the West as being a part of West Germany. There was freedom of movement (to the extent allowed by geography) between West Berlin and West Germany. There were no separate immigration regulations for West Berlin: all immigration rules for West Germany were followed in West Berlin. West German entry visas
issued to visitors were stamped with "valid for entry into the Federal Republic of Germany including Berlin (West)", authorising entry to West Berlin as well as West Germany.
West Berlin remained a military occupation zone until 3 October 1990, the day of unification
of East Germany, East and West Berlin with the West German Federal Republic of Germany
. The West German Federal Government, as well as the governments of most western nations, considered East Berlin to be a "separate entity" from East Germany.
The ambiguous legal status of West Berlin meant that West Berliners were not eligible to vote in federal elections; instead, they were indirectly represented in the Bundestag
by 20 non-voting delegates chosen by the West Berlin House of Representatives. Similarly, the West Berlin Senate
sent non-voting delegates to the Bundesrat. However, as German citizens, West Berliners were able to stand for election, such as Social Democrat Chancellor Willy Brandt
, who was elected via his party's list of candidates. Also, men there were exempt from the Federal Republic's compulsory military service; this exemption made the city a popular destination for West German youths, which resulted in a flourishing counterculture
, which became one of the defining features of the city.
Communist countries, however, did not recognise West Berlin as part of West Germany and usually described it as a "third" German jurisdiction, called selbständige politische Einheit (independent political entity). On maps of East Berlin, West Berlin often did not appear as an adjacent urban area but as a monochrome terra incognita, sometimes showing the letters WB, meaning West Berlin, or overlaid with a legend or pictures.
This meant that West Berliners could circumvent some of these limitations if they had a second home in West Germany proper. For example, they could vote in Bundestag elections and they could be conscripted into West German military service.
, since governments of these countries held the view that West Germany was not authorised to issue legal papers for West Berliners. However, West Berliners travelling with West German passports carrying a secondary address in West Germany were treated as West Germans by the East German authorities.
Since West Berlin was not a sovereign state, it did not issue passports. West Berliners were issued an auxiliary identity card by the city state of Berlin (West) that was devoid of any West German federal symbols and did not indicate citizenship. From 11 June 1968, East Germany made it mandatory that West Berlin and West German transit passengers obtain a transit visa , issued upon entering East Germany, because by its second constitution East Germany considered West Germans and West Berliners as foreigners. Since identity cards had no pages to stamp visas, the Eastern visa departments stamped their visas onto separate leaflets which were loosely stuck into the identity cards, which until the mid-1980s, were little booklets. A fee of West German Deutsche Mark (DM) 5, levied by East Germany from the transit passengers, could be reimbursed by the West German Federal Government.
For entering visa-requiring western countries, like the USA, West Berliners commonly used West German passports. However, for countries which did not require stamped visas for entry, including Switzerland, Austria, and many members of the then European Economic Community
, West Berlin identity cards were also acceptable for entry. Occasionally, East Germany selectively banned travellers on their way through East Germany. From 13 April 1968, ministers and leading officials of the West German Federal Government were denied transit until further notice. In January 1970 East Germany interrupted transit traffic several times, because parliamentary committees of the West German Bundestag
met for sessions in West Berlin, which — according to the East German authorities — they were not allowed to do, since West Berlin was not a part of West Germany.
visited West Berlin and gave a public speech known for its famous phrase "Ich bin ein Berliner
".
The Four Power Agreement on Berlin
(September 1971) and the Transit Agreement
(May 1972) helped to slightly ease tensions over the status of West Berlin. While many restrictions remained in place, it also made it easier for West Berliners to travel to East Germany and it simplified the regulations for Germans travelling along the autobahn transit routes.
At the Brandenburg Gate
in 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan
provided a challenge to the then-Soviet premier: "General Secretary Gorbachev
, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
On 9 November 1989, the Wall was opened, and the two parts of the city were once again physically—though at this point not legally—united. The Two Plus Four Treaty, signed by the two German states and the four wartime allies, paved the way for German reunification
and an end to the western occupation of West Berlin. On 3 October 1990, West Berlin and East Berlin were united as the city of Berlin, which then acceded to the Federal Republic as a state. West Berlin and East Berlin thus both formally ceased to exist.
West Berlin's border was identical with the municipal boundary of Berlin as defined in the Greater Berlin Act
of 1920 and amended in 1938, and the border between the Soviet sector and the French, British and American sectors respectively, which followed the boundaries of Berlin administrative boroughs as defined in the same years. Another amendment was added in 1945 at the border between the British sector of Berlin and the Soviet zone such that the Wehrmacht airfield at Berlin-Gatow became British and the airfield at Berlin-Staaken
became Soviet. The resulting borderline of all these changes was complicated with a lot of geographical oddities, including a number of exclaves and enclaves that Greater Berlin had inside some neighbouring municipalities since 1920, all of which happened to become part of the British or American sectors after 1945, thus parts of West Berlin surrounded by East Germany.
Furthermore the Gatow/Staaken exchange in August 1945 resulted in the geographically western half of Berlin-Staaken, which was located at the western outskirts of the city, becoming de jure Soviet occupied. However, the de facto administration remained with the Borough of Spandau in the British sector. So all inhabitants of Staaken could vote for West Berlin's city state elections in 1948 and 1950. On 1 February 1951 East German Volkspolizei
surprised the West Staakeners and occupied western Staaken and ended the administration by the Spandau Borough; instead, western Staaken became an exclave of the Soviet occupied borough Berlin-Mitte
in the city centre. However, on June 1, 1952, western Staaken's de facto administration was conveyed to neighbouring East German Falkensee
in the East German district Nauen
. This situation was undone on 3 October 1990, the day of German unification, when West Staaken was reincorporated into united Berlin.
Under the Four Power Agreement on Berlin
in 1971, the Allies authorised West Berlin to negotiate territorial allocations with East Germany. On 20 December 1971, the first territorial re-allocations took place and included the exclaves numbered 1–3, 6, 8, 10 and 11 (mentioned below), connecting the latter with West Berlin and ceding the former six to East Germany as well as including a payment of four million West German Deutsche Mark to the East. The remaining exclaves were either ceded (No. 5, 7 and 12) to East Germany or territorially connected with West Berlin (No. 4 and 6) in a second redeployment in 1988.
West Berlin's twelve exclaves were the following:
states at all times, except of the period of the Berlin Blockade
by the Soviet Union (24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949), due to restrictions on passenger flight capacity imposed by the airlift.
Travelling to and from West Berlin by road or train always required passing through East German border checks, since West Berlin was an enclave surrounded by East Germany and East Berlin.
or Czechoslovakia
through East Germany, each traveller was also required to present a valid visa for the destination country.
The transit routes for road travel connecting West Berlin to other destinations usually consisted of autobahns and other highways, marked by Transit signs. Transit travellers were prohibited to leave the transit routes, and occasional traffic checkpoints would check for violators.
There were four transit routes between West Berlin and West Germany:
The latter three routes used autobahns built during the Nazi
era. They left West Berlin at Checkpoint Dreilinden, also called Checkpoint Bravo
(W)/Potsdam
-Drewitz (E). Transit routes to Poland were via today's A 11
to Nadrensee
-Pomellen (East Germany, GDR)/Kołbaskowo (Kolbitzow) (PL), eastwards via today's A 12
to Frankfurt upon Oder
(GDR)/Słubice (PL), or southeastwards via today's A 13 and A 15
to Forst in Lusatia/Baršć (GDR)/Zasieki (Berge)
(PL). Additional routes led to Denmark and Sweden by ferry between Rostock (GDR) and Gedser
(DK) and by ferry between Sassnitz
(GDR) and Rønne
(DK) or Trelleborg
(S). Routes to Czechoslovakia were via Schmilka (GDR)/Hřensko (Herrnskretschen)
(ČSSR) and via Fürstenau (a part of today's Geising
) (GDR)/Cínovec (Cinvald/Böhmisch Zinnwald) (ČSSR).
The transit routes were also used for East German domestic traffic. This meant that transit passengers could potentially meet with East Germans and East Berliners at restaurants at motorway rest stops. Since such meetings were deemed illegal by the East German government, border guards would calculate the travel duration from the time of entry and exit of the transit route. Excessive time spent for transit travel could arouse their suspicion and prompt questioning or additional checking by the border guards. Western coach
es could stop only at dedicated service areas, since the East German government was concerned that East Germans might potentially use coaches to escape into the West.
On 1 September 1951 East Germany, because of shortages in foreign currencies
, started to levy road tolls from cars using the transit routes. At first the toll amounted to Eastern Deutsche Mark
10 per passenger car and 10 to 50 for trucks, depending on size. Eastern Deutsche Marks had to be exchanged for Western Deutsche Mark a rate of 1:1. On 30 March 1955, East Germany raised the toll for passenger cars to 30 Deutsche Marks, but after West German protests, in June of the same year it changed it back to the previous rate. Following a new agreement between East and West Germany, starting from 1 January 1980 the Western Federal Government paid an annual lump sum of 50 million Western Deutsche Marks to the Eastern government, so that transit passengers no longer had to pay tolls individually.
via Schwanheide
(E)/Büchen
(W) in the North, with Hanover
via Marienborn (E)/Helmstedt (W) in the West, with Frankfurt upon Main via Gerstungen
(E)/Hönebach
(W) in the Southwest, and with Nuremberg
via Probstzella
(E)/Ludwigsstadt
(W) in the South of West Germany. These transit trains did not service domestic passengers of East Germany and made stops in East Germany almost only for East German border guards upon entering and leaving of the country. Until the construction of the Berlin Wall
, interzonal trains would also stop once on their way within East Germany for travellers having a visa for entering or leaving East Germany. Train travel from West Berlin to Czechoslovakia, Denmark (by ferry), Poland, or Sweden (by ferry) required a visa to enter East Berlin or East Germany to allow transfer to an international train—which also carried domestic passengers—bound for an international destination. One railway connection between West Berlin and Oebisfelde
(E)/Wolfsburg
(W) was reserved for freight trains only.
In July and August 1945, the three Western Allies and the Soviet Union decided that the railways, previously serviced by the Deutsche Reichsbahn
(German National Railway), should continue to be operated by one railway administration to service all four sectors. So West Berlin had — with the exception of a few small private railway lines — no separate railway administration. Furthermore, the operation of the Reichsbahn's Berlin S-Bahn
electric metropolitan transport network, consisting of commuter trains, was also maintained. After the founding of East Germany on 7 October 1949 it gained responsibility for the Reichsbahn in its territory. East Germany continued to run its railways under the official name Deutsche Reichsbahn, which thus maintained responsibility for almost all railway transport in all four sectors of Berlin. The GDR-controlled 'Bahnpolizei', the Reichsbahn's railway police, were authorised to patrol station premises and other railway property in the whole city including West Berlin.
After the Berlin Blockade transit trains would leave and enter West Berlin only via one line through Berlin-Wannsee railway station
(W) and Potsdam Griebnitzsee railway station
(E). All transit trains would start or end in East Berlin, passing through West Berlin with only one stop in the Western Berlin Zoologischer Garten railway station
, which became West Berlin's main railway station. Until 1952, the Reichsbahn also permitted stops at other stations on the way through the Western sectors. After easing of tensions between East and West Germany, starting on 30 May 1976 transit trains going westwards, southwestwards, or southwards stopped once again at station of Wannsee. For transit trains going northwestwards, a shorter line was reopened on 26 September 1976 with an additional stop at the then Berlin-Spandau railway station
, entering East Germany at Staaken
. Many Reichsbahn employees working in West Berlin were West Berliners. Their East German employer, whose proceeds from ticket sales for Western Deutsche Marks contributed to East Germany's foreign revenues, tried to hold down wage social security
contributions in Western Deutsche Mark. Therefore, West Berlin employees of the Reichsbahn were paid partly in Eastern German currency. However, they could spend this money in East Germany and take their purchases to West Berlin, which other Westerners could not do to the same extent. West Berlin employees were trained in East Germany and employed under East German labour laws. West Berliners employed by the Reichsbahn were not included in the Western health insurance system. The Reichsbahn ran its own hospital for them in West Berlin, the building of which is now used as the headquarters of Bombardier Transportation
. For certain patients, the Reichsbahn would facilitate treatment in a hospital in East Berlin. In medical emergencies, the employees could use West Berlin doctors and hospitals, which would then be paid for by the Reichsbahn.
The GDR used the western stations to distribute propaganda and display posters with slogans like "Americans Go Home." On 1 May, May Day
, a state holiday in East and West, S-Bahn trains were sometimes decorated with the East German banner and a red flag.
and Mittellandkanal were open for inland navigation
, but only freight vessels were allowed to cross from West Berlin into East German waters. The Havel crossed at the East German border in Nedlitz (a part of Potsdam-Bornstedt
), continuing through the Elbe-Havel Canal
and then either taking the Elbe
northwestwards crossing the border again at Cumlosen
(E)/Schnackenburg
(W) or westwards following the Mittellandkanal to Buchhorst (Oebisfelde) (E)/Rühen
(W). Western freight vessels could stop only at dedicated service areas, because the East German government wanted to prevent any East Germans from boarding them. Through these waterways, West Berlin was connected with the western European inland navigation network, connecting to seaports like Hamburg and Rotterdam
, as well as industrial areas such as the Ruhr Area
, Mannheim
, Basel
, Belgium and eastern France.
In July and August 1945, the Western Allies and the Soviet Union decided that the operation and maintenance of the waterways and locks, which were previously run by the national German directorate for inland navigation , should be continued and reconstructed in all four sectors. So, except of some later built canals and locks, West Berlin had no separate inland navigation authority, but the East Berlin-based authority operated and maintained most waterways and locks.
The western entrance to the Teltowkanal, connecting several industrial areas of West Berlin for heavy freight transport, was blocked by East Germany in Potsdam-Klein Glienicke. Therefore, vessels going to the Teltowkanal had to take a detour via the river Spree
through West and East Berlin's city centre to enter the canal from the East. On 20 November 1981, East Germany reopened the western entrance, which required two more vessel border checkpoints — Dreilinden and Kleinmachnow
— because the waterway crossed the border between East Germany and West Berlin four times. Another transit waterway connected West Berlin via the East German vessel checkpoint at Hennigsdorf and the Oder-Havel Canal
with the Oder
river and Polish Szczecin (Stettin)
.
opened the first regular service for civilians on 4 July 1948 between West Berlin and Hamburg. Tickets were originally sold for pounds sterling
only. West Berliners and West Germans who had earlier fled East Germany or East Berlin, and thus could face imprisonment on entering East Germany or East Berlin, could only take flights for travel to and from West Berlin. To enable individuals threatened by East German imprisonment to fly to and from West Berlin the West German government subsidized the flights.
The flights between West Germany and West Berlin were under Allied control by the quadripartite Berlin Air Safety Center
. According to permanent agreements, three air corridors
to West Germany were provided, which were open only for British, French or U.S. military planes or civilian planes registered with companies in those countries.
The airspace controlled by the Berlin Air Safety Center comprised a radius of 20 miles (32.12 km) around the seat of the Center in the Kammergericht
building in Berlin-Schöneberg
— thus covering most of East and West Berlin and the three corridors, of the same width — one northwestwards to Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Airport, one westwards to Hanover, one southwestwards to Frankfurt upon Main (Rhein-Main Air Base
). Also the airspace expanding to a width of 20 miles (32.2 km) over the German-German border was subject to the control by the Berlin Air Safety Center.
The West German Lufthansa
and most other airlines were not permitted to fly to West Berlin. Flights of Lufthansa or the East German Interflug
servicing connections between East and West Germany (such as between West German Düsseldorf
and Hamburg and East German Leipzig
) began in August 1989, but these routes had to go through Czechoslovak or Danish airspace.
(GDR)), fell under Interzonal traffic
regulations overseen by three Allied military governments (the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SVAG)
, the Control Commission for Germany – British Element, and the Office of Military Government/United States (OMGUS)
). On 27 May 1952, East Germany closed its border with West Germany and its 115 kilometres (71.5 mi)-long border with West Berlin. From then on West Berliners required a permit to enter East Germany. East German border checkpoints were established in East German suburbs of West Berlin, and most streets were gradually closed for interzonal travel into East Germany. The last checkpoint to remain open was located at the Glienicker Brücke towards Potsdam, until it was also closed by East Germany on 3 July 1953. The checkpoint at Staaken's Heerstraße remained open only for transit traffic to West Germany.
This caused hardship for many West Berlin residents, especially those who had friends and family in East Germany. However, East Germans could still enter West Berlin. A number of cemeteries located in East Germany were also affected by the closure. Many church congregations in Berlin owned cemeteries outside the city, so many West Berlin congregations had cemeteries that were located in East Germany. For example, the Friedhof vor Charlottenburg (in Cemetery in front/outside of Charlottenburg) was located in the East German suburb of Dallgow
, yet belonged to Catholic congregations in Berlin-Charlottenburg
. So many West Berliners wishing to visit the grave of a relative or friend on cemeteries located in East Germany were now unable to do so. Until 1961, East Germany sparsely issued permits to West Berliners to visit the cemeteries on the Catholic feast of All Saints on 1 November and on the Protestant Day of Repentance and Prayer.
In 1948–1952, the Reichsbahn connected the western suburbs of West Berlin to its S-Bahn network. Train routes servicing these suburbs formerly went through West Berlin stations, but ceased to make stops in the western stations or terminated service before entering West Berlin. Private West Berlin railway lines like the Neukölln-Mittenwalder Eisenbahn (NME), connecting the East German Mittenwalde
with West Berlin-Neukölln
and the Bötzowbahn between West Berlin-Spandau
and East German Hennigsdorf
, were disrupted at the border between West Berlin and East Germany on 26 October 1948 and August 1950, respectively. Tramways and bus routes that connected West Berlin with its East German suburbs and were operated by West Berlin's public transport operator Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe Gesellschaft (BVG-West)
ceased operation on 14 October 1950, after West Berlin tram and bus drivers had been repeatedly stopped and arrested by East German police. The BVG (West) terminated route sections that extended into East Germany, like the southern end of tram line 47 to Schönefeld, the southwestern end of tram line 96 to Kleinmachnow
, as well as two bus lines to Glienicke at the Nordbahn
, north, and to Falkensee
, northwest of West Berlin.
The Reichsbahn shut down all of its West Berlin terminal stations and redirected its trains to stations in East Berlin, starting with Berlin Görlitzer Bahnhof — closed on 29 April 1951 — before serving rail traffic with Görlitz
and the southeast of East Germany. On 28 August 1951, trains usually serving Berlin Lehrter Bahnhof were redirected to stations in East Berlin, while trains from West Germany were redirected to the Western Berlin Zoologischer Garten. The Reichsbahn also closed down both Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof and Berlin Nordbahnhof
, on 18 May 1952.
On 28 August 1951, the Reichsbahn opened a new connection — from Spandau via Berlin Jungfernheide station — for the S-Bahn lines connecting East German suburbs to the west of West Berlin (namely Falkensee, Staaken) with East Berlin, thus circumventing the centre of West Berlin. In June 1953, the Reichsbahn further cut off West Berlin from its East German suburbs by the introduction of additional express S-Bahn trains . These routes originated from several East German suburbs bordering West Berlin (such as Falkensee, Potsdam, Oranienburg
, Staaken, and Velten
), crossing West Berlin non-stop until reaching its destinations in East Berlin. However, also the regular S-Bahn connections with West Berlin's East German suburbs, stopping at every Western station, continued. From 17 June to 9 July 1953, East Germany blocked off any traffic between East and West due to the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
.
From 4 October 1953, all S-Bahn trains crossing the border between East Germany and Berlin had to pass a border checkpoint in East Germany. Travellers from East Germany were checked before entering any part of Berlin, to identify individuals intending to escape into West Berlin or smuggling rationed or rare goods into West Berlin. S-Bahn trains were checked at Hoppegarten
, Mahlow and Zepernick in East Germany bordering East Berlin and in Hohen Neuendorf
, Potsdam-Griebnitzsee and Staaken
-Albrechtshof in East Germany bordering West Berlin. On 4 June 1954, the Bahnhof Hennigsdorf Süd station located next to West Berlin was opened solely for border controls, also to monitor West Berliners entering or leaving East Berlin, which they could still do freely, while they were not allowed to cross into East Germany proper without a special permit.
In 1951, the Reichsbahn began construction work on the Berlin outer-circle railway line . This circular line connected all train routes heading for West Berlin and accommodated all domestic GDR traffic, thus directing railway traffic into East Berlin while by-passing West Berlin. Commuters in the East German suburbs around West Berlin now boarded Sputnik express trains, which took them into East Berlin without crossing any western sectors. With the completion of the Außenring, there was no further need for express S-Bahn trains crossing the West Berlin border and thus their service ended on 4 May 1958, while stopping S-Bahn trains continued service. However, while East Germans could get off in West Berlin, West Berliners needed the hard-to get permits to enter East Germany by S-Bahn. With the construction of the Berlin Wall on 13 August 1961, any remaining railway traffic between West Berlin and its East German suburbs ended. The rail traffic between East and West Berlin was sharply reduced and restricted to few checkpoints under GDR control. East Berliners and East Germans were then unable to freely enter and leave West Berlin. However, international visitors could obtain visas for East Berlin upon crossing one of the checkpoints at the Wall.
Following the policy of détente
of the Federal Government under Chancellor Willy Brandt
, West Berliners could again apply for visas to visit East Germany, which were granted more freely than in the period until 1961. On 4 June 1972, West Berlin's public transport operator BVG could open its first bus line into the East German suburbs since 1950 (line E to Potsdam via Checkpoint Bravo as it was known to the US military). This route was open only to persons bearing all the necessary East German permits and visas. For visits to East Germany, West Berliners could use four checkpoints along the East German border around West Berlin: The two road transit checkpoints Dreilinden (W)/Drewitz (E) and Berlin-Heiligensee
(W)/Stolpe (E) as well as the old transit checkpoint at Heerstraße (W)/Staaken (E) and the checkpoint at Waltersdorfer Chaussee (W)/Schönefeld (E), which was also open for travellers boarding international flights at Schönefeld Airport.
While the Soviets blocked all transport to West Berlin (Berlin Blockade between 24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949) they increased the supplies for food in East Berlin in order to gain the compliance of West Berliners who at that time still had free access to East Berlin. West Berliners buying food in East Berlin were regarded as approving of the Soviet attempt to repress the Western Allies from West Berlin. This was seen as support by the communists and as treason by most Westerners. Until that time all over Germany food and other necessary supplies had been available only with ration stamps issued by one's municipality, this was until the Communist putsch in Berlin's city government in September 1948 – the unitary City Council of Greater Berlin for East and West.
By July 1948 a mere 19,000 West Berliners out of a total of almost 2 million covered their food requirements in East Berlin. So 99% of the West Berliners preferred to live with shorter supplies than before the Blockade but support the Western Allies' position. In West Germany rationing of most products had ended with the introduction of the Western Deutsche Mark on 21 June 1948. The new currency was also introduced in West Berlin on 24 June and this, at least officially was the justification for the Soviet Blockade due to which, rationing in West Berlin had to continue. However in the course of the Berlin Air Lift some supplies were increased beyond the pre-Blockade level and therefore certain rations in West Berlin were raised.
While West Berliners were officially welcome to buy food in East Berlin, the Soviets tried to prevent them buying other essential supplies there, particularly coal and fuel. For this reason, on 9 November 1948, they opened checkpoints on 70 streets entering West Berlin and closed the others for horse carriages, lorries and cars, later (16 March 1949) the Soviets erected roadblocks on the closed streets. From 15 November 1948 West Berlin ration stamps were no longer accepted in East Berlin. All the same, the Soviets started a campaign with the slogan The smart West Berliner buys at the HO
, the HO being the Soviet zone chain of shops. They also opened so-called "Free Shops" in the Eastern Sector, offering supplies without ration stamps, but at extremely high prices in Eastern Deutsche Marks
. Ordinary East and West Berliners could only afford to buy there if they had revenues in Western Deutsche Mark and bartered the needed Eastern Deutsche Mark on the spontaneous currency markets, which developed in the British sector at the Zoo station. Their demand and supply determined a barter ratio in favour of the Western Deutsche Mark with more than 2 Eastern Deutsche Marks offered for one Western Deutsche Mark. After the Blockade – when holders of Western Deutsche Marks could buy as much they could afford, up to five and six east marks were offered for one west mark. In the East however, the Soviets had arbitrarily decreed a rate of 1 for 1 and exchanging at other rates was criminalised.
On 12 May 1949 the Blockade ended and all roadblocks and checkpoints between East and West Berlin were removed. The Berlin Airlift, however, continued until 30 September 1949 to amass sufficient supplies in West Berlin in readiness for another possible blockade, ensuring that an airlift could then be re-started with ease. On 2 May 1949 the power stations in East Berlin again started to supply West Berlin with sufficient electricity, which had to be rationed to some hours a day after the usual supplies had been interrupted at the start of the Blockade. However, the Western Allies and the West Berlin City Council decided to be self sufficient in terms of electricity generation capacity, to be independent of Eastern supplies and not to be held to ransom by the eastern authorities. On 1 December 1949 the new powerhouse West ' onMouseout='HidePop("61192")' href="/topics/Ernst_Reuter">Reuter
West) went on line and West Berlin's electricity board declared independence from Eastern supplies. However, for a time Eastern electricity continued to be supplied albeit intermittently. Supply was interrupted from 1 July until the end of 1950 and then started again until 4 March 1952, when the East finally switched it off. From then on West Berlin turned into an 'electricity island' within a pan-European electricity grid that had developed from the 1920s, because electricity transfers between East and West Germany never fully ceased. The 'electricity island' situation was noticed most in situations of particularly high demand; in other areas of Europe peaks in demand could be met by tapping into electricity supplies from neighbouring areas, but in West Berlin this was not an option and for certain users the lights would go out.
In 1952 West Berliners were restricted entry to East Germany proper by means of a hard-to-obtain East German permit. Free entry to East Berlin remained possible until 1961 and the building of the Wall. Berlin's underground
(Untergrundbahn, U-Bahn) and Berlin's S-Bahn
(a metropolitan public transit network), rebuilt after the war, continued to span all occupation sectors. Many people lived in one half of the city and had family, friends, and jobs in the other. However, the East continuously reduced the means of public transport between East and West, with private cars being a very rare privilege in the East and still a luxury in the West.
Starting on 15 January 1953 the tram network was interrupted. East Berlin's public transport operator Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG-East, BVB as of 1 January 1969) staffed all trams, whose lines crossed the sectorial border, with women drivers, which were not permitted as drivers by the BVG (West), West Berlin's public transport operator. Instead of changing the Western rules, so that the Easterly intended interruption of the cross-border tram traffic would not happen, the BVG (West) insisted on male drivers. So cross-border tram traffic ended on 16 January. In East German propaganda this was a point for the East, arguing that the West did not allow drivers coming with their trams from the East to continue along their line into the West, but remaining silent on the fact that the end of cross-border tram traffic was most welcome to the East. The underground and the S-Bahn networks, except the above-mentioned traverse S-Bahn trains, continued to provide services between East and West Berlin. However, occasionally the East Berlin police – in the streets and on cross-border trains in East Berlin – identified suspicious behaviour (such as carrying heavy loads westwards) and watched out for unwelcome Westerners.
Once in a while West Germans were banned from entering East Berlin. This was the case between 29 August and 1 September 1960, when so-called homecomers from all around West Germany and West Berlin met for a convention in that city. The homecomers from a long compulsory detention in the Soviet Union, with their special experiences there, were highly unwelcome in East Berlin. Since they could not be recognised by their identification papers all West Germans were banned for these days from East Berlin. West Berliners were allowed, since the quadripartite Allied status quo provided for their free movement around all four sectors. From 8 September 1960 on, the East subjected all West Germans to apply for a permit before entering East Berlin.
As the communist government in the East gained tighter control, and the economic recovery in the West significantly outperformed the Eastern development, more than a hundred thousand East Germans and East Berliners left East Germany and East Berlin for the West every year. East Germany closed the borders between East and West Germany and sealed off the border with West Berlin in 1952; but because of the quadripartite Allied status of the city, the 46 kilometres (28.6 mi)-long sectorial border between East and West Berlin remained open. As there was freedom of movement between West Berlin and West Germany, Easterners could use the city as a transit point to West Germany, usually travelling there by air.
To stop this drain of people defecting, the East German government built the Berlin Wall, thus physically closing off West Berlin from East Berlin and East Germany, on 13 August 1961. All Eastern streets, bridges, paths, windows, doors, gates or sewers opening to West Berlin were systematically sealed off by walls, concrete elements, barbed wire or bars. The Wall was directed against the Easterners, who by its construction were no longer allowed to leave the East, except with an Eastern permit, not usually granted.
Westerners were still granted visas on entering East Berlin. Initially eight street checkpoints were opened, and one checkpoint in the Berlin Friedrichstraße railway station
, which was reached by one line of the Western underground (today's U 6
), two Western S-Bahn lines, one under and one above ground (approximate to today's S 2
and S 3
, however lines changed a lot from 1990 onwards), and transit trains between West Germany and West Berlin started and ended there.
The eight street checkpoints were – from North to South along the Wall – on Bornholmer Straße, Chausseestraße, Invalidenstraße, Brandenburg Gate
, Friedrichstraße
(Checkpoint Charlie
in US military denomination, since this crossing was to their sector), Heinrich-Heine-Straße (also Checkpoint Delta), and Sonnenallee
.
When the construction of the Wall started after midnight early on 13 August, West Berlin's Governing Mayor Willy Brandt
was on a West German federal election campaigning tour in West Germany. Arriving by train in Hanover at 4a.m. he was informed about the Wall and flew back to West Berlin's Tempelhof Central Airport
.
In the course of the day he protested along with many other West Berliners on Potsdamer Platz
and at the Brandenburg Gate. On 14 August, under the pretext that Western demonstrations required it, the East closed the checkpoint at the Brandenburg Gate, 'until further notice', a situation that was to last until 22 December 1989, when it was finally reopened.
On 26 August 1961 East Germany generally banned West Berliners from entering the Eastern sector. West Germans and other nationals however could still get visas on entering East Berlin. Since intra-city phone lines had been cut by the East already in May 1952 (see below) the only remaining way of communication with family or friends on the other side was by mail or at meeting in a motorway restaurant on a transit route, because the transit traffic remained unaffected throughout.
On 18 May 1962 East Germany opened the so-called Tränenpalast
checkpoint hall (Palace of Tears) at Berlin Friedrichstraße station, where Easterners had to say a sometimes tearful farewell to returning Westerners as well as the few Easterners who had managed to get a permit to visit the West. Until June 1963 the East deepened its border zone around West Berlin in East Germany and East Berlin by clearing existing buildings and vegetation to create an open field of view, sealed off by the Berlin Wall towards the West and a second wall or fence of similar characteristics to the East, observed by armed men in towers, ordered to shoot possible refugees.
Finally in 1963 West Berliners were again allowed to visit East Berlin. On this occasion a further checkpoint for pedestrians only was opened on the Oberbaumbrücke
. West Berliners were granted visas for a one-day-visit between 17 December 1963 and 5 January the following year. 1.2 million out of a total 1.9 million West Berliners visited East Berlin during this period. In 1964, 1965 and 1966 East Berlin was opened again to West Berliners, but each time only for a limited period.
East Germany found particular joy in playing with the different legal statuses it assigned to East Germans, East Berliners, West Germans, and West Berliners, as well as citizens from other countries in the world. Until 1990 East Germany designated each Border crossings in East Berlin for certain categories of persons, with only one street checkpoint being open simultaneously for West Berliners and West Germans (Bornholmer Straße) and Berlin Friedrichstraße railway station being open for all travellers.
On 9 September 1964, the East German Council of Ministers (government) decided to allow Eastern pensioners to visit family in West Germany or West Berlin. According to the specified regulations valid from 2 November on Eastern pensioners could apply, and were usually allowed, to travel into the West to visit relatives once a year for a maximum of four weeks. If pensioners decided not to return, the government did not miss them as manpower, unlike younger Easterners, who were subject to a system of labour and employment, which demanded almost everybody work in the Eastern command production system.
On 2 December 1964 East Germany, always short of hard currency, decreed that every Western visitor had to buy a minimum of 5 Eastern Mark der Deutschen Notenbank per day (MDN, 1964–1968 the official name of the East German mark, to distinguish it from the West Deutsche Mark) at the still held arbitrary compulsory rate of 1:1. The five marks had to be spent, as exporting Eastern currency was illegal, which is why importing it after having bargained for it at the currency market at Zoo station was also illegal. Western pensioners and children were spared from the compulsory exchange (officially in , i.e. minimum exchange). Not long after East Germany held the first cash harvest from the new compulsory exchange rules by allowing West Berliners to visit East Berlin once more for a day during the Christmas
season. The following year, 1965, East Germany opened the travelling season for West Berliners on 18 December. In 1966 it opened for a second harvest of Western money between the Easter
(10 April) and Pentecost
(29 May) holidays and later again at Christmas.
The situation only changed fundamentally after 11 December 1971 when, representing the two German states, the Western Egon Bahr
and the Eastern Michael Kohl signed the Transit Agreement
. This followed by a comparable agreement for West Berliners, once more allowing regular visits to East Germany and East Berlin.
After ratification of the Agreement and specifying the pertaining regulations West Berliners could apply for the first time again for visas for any chosen date to East Berlin or East Germany from 3 October 1972 onwards. If granted, a one-day-visa entitled them to leave the East until 2a.m. the following day. West Berliners were now spared the visa fee of 5 Western Deutsche Marks, not to be confused with the compulsory exchange amounting to the same sum, but yielding in return 5 Eastern marks. This financial relief did not last long, because on 15 November 1973 East Germany doubled the compulsory exchange to 10 Eastern marks, payable in West German Deutsche Marks at par.
One-day-visas for East Berlin were now issued in a fast procedure on entering East Berlin; visas for longer stays and visas for East Germany proper needed a prior application, which could be a lengthy procedure. To ease the application for West Berliners seeking such Eastern visas, the GDR Foreign Ministry was later allowed to open Offices for the Affairs of Visits and Travelling in West Berlin, but were not allowed to show any official symbols of East Germany. The Eastern officials working commuted every morning and evening between East and West Berlin. Their uniforms showed no official symbols except the name Büro für Besuchs- und Reiseangelegenheiten. They accepted visa applications and handed out confirmed visas issued in the East, to the West Berlin applicants. A shed formerly housing one such Büro für Besuchs- und Reiseangelegenheiten can be found on Waterlooufer 5–7 in Berlin-Kreuzberg
, close to Hallesches Tor underground station
. The disagreement about Berlin's status was one of the most important debates of the Cold War.
Another form of traffic between East and West Berlin was the transfer of West Berlin's sewage into East Berlin and East Germany through the sewer pipes built in the late 19th and early 20th century. The sewage flowed into the East because most of the pre-war premises for sewage treatment, mostly sewage farm
s, happened to be in the East after the division of the city. Sewer pipes, however, once discovered as a way to flee the East, were blocked by bars. West Berlin paid for the treatment of its sewage in Western Deutsche Marks which were desperately needed by the Eastern government. Since the methods used in the East did not meet Western standards, West Berlin increased the capacity of modern sewage treatment within its own territory, so that the amount of its sewage treated in the East had considerably reduced by the time the Wall came down.
Similar was the situation with refuse. The removal, burning or disposal of the ever-growing amount of West Berlin's rubbish became a costly problem, but here too an agreement was found, since West Berlin would pay in Western Deutsche Marks. On 11 December 1974 East Germany and West Berlin's garbage utility company BSR signed a contract to dispose of refuse on a dump right beside the Wall in East German Groß-Ziethen (today a part of Schönefeld). An extra checkpoint, solely open for Western bin lorries was opened there. Later a second dump, further away, was opened in Vorketzin, a part of Ketzin
.
As for the S-Bahn, operated in all of Berlin by the East German Reichsbahn, the construction of the Wall meant a deep cut into its integrated network of lines, especially for Berlin's circular S-Bahn line around all of the Western and Eastern inner city. The lines were separated and those mostly located in West Berlin were continued, but only accessible from West Berlin with all access in East Berlin closed. However, even before the Wall had been built, West Berliners increasingly refrained from using the S-Bahn, since boycotts against it were issued, the argument being that every S-Bahn ticket bought provided the GDR government with valuable Western Deutsche Marks.
Usage dropped further as the Western public transport operator BVG (West) offered parallel bus lines and expanded its network of underground lines. After the construction of the Wall usage dropped so much that running the S-Bahn lines in West Berlin turned into a loss-making exercise: wages and maintenance costs – however badly it was carried out outdid the proceeds from ticket sales. So the Reichsbahn finally agreed to surrender operation of the S-Bahn in West Berlin, as had been determined by all Allies in 1945, and on 29 December 1983 the Allies, the Senate of Berlin (West; i.e. the city state government) and the Reichsbahn signed an agreement to change the operator from Reichsbahn to BVG (West) which took effect on 9 January 1984.
On 9 November 1989 East Germany opened the borders for East Germans and East Berliners, who could then freely enter West Berlin. West Berlin itself had never restricted their entry. For West Berliners and West Germans the opening of the border for free entry lasted longer. The regulation concerning one-day-visas on entering the East and the compulsory minimum exchange of 25 Western Deutsche Marks by 1989, continued. However, more checkpoints were opened. Finally on 22 December 1989 East Germany granted West Berliners and West Germans free entry without charge at the existing checkpoints, demanding only valid papers. Eastern controls were slowly eased into spot checks and finally abolished on 30 June 1990, the day East and West introduced the union concerning currency, economy and social security .
and U 8
and the S-Bahn line S 2
(today partly also used by other lines). On the sealing off of West Berlin from East Berlin by the Berlin Wall the entrances of the stations on these lines located in East Berlin were shut, however western trains were allowed to continue to pass through without stopping. Passengers in these trains experienced the empty and barely lit ghost stations where time had stood still since 13 August 1961. West Berlin's public transport operator BVG (West) paid the east an annual charge in Western Deutsche Marks for its underground lines to use the tunnels under East Berlin. U 6
and S 2
also had one subterranean stop at the Eastern Berlin Friedrichstraße railway station
, the only station beneath East Berlin where western U Bahn trains were still allowed to stop. Passengers could change there between U 6, S 2 and the elevated S 3 (then starting and ending in Friedrichstraße) or for the transit trains to West Germany, buy duty free tobacco and liquor for west marks in GDR run kiosks, or enter East Berlin through an inbuilt checkpoint.
, separate from West Germany's Deutsche Bundespost
, and issuing its own postage stamps until 1990. However the separation was merely symbolic; in reality West Berlin's postal service was completely integrated with West Germany's, using the same postal code system. East and West engaged each other in postal battles in 1948/1949 (during the Blockade) and 1959/1960 (World Year of the Refugees) refusing to transport messages with stamps showing values in the new East or West German currency or with special stamps showing subjects related to the Blockade or the fate of the World War II refugees
.
The Post Office also ran the telephone network in Berlin. It was in a sorry state in all four sectors, because by July 1945, before the Western Allies took control of their sectors, the Soviets had dismantled and deported almost all automatic telephone switches, allowing direct dialling instead of operator connected calling. So Berlin's telephone network dropped from hundreds of thousands of connected telephones to a mere 750 in use by end of 1945, all of which were assigned to Allied staff or utility services. Rebuilding the system became a lengthy enterprise because of the post-war economic crisis and the following Berlin Blockade. On 25 February 1946 calls between Berlin and any of the four Allied zones of occupation were again made possible. In April 1949 the Eastern branch of the Deutsche Post disconnected all 89 existing telephone lines from West Berlin into the Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany.
Meanwhile West Berlin was integrated into the West German telephone network, using the same international dialling code as West Germany, +49, with the area code 030. On 27 May 1952 the Eastern Deutsche Post cut all 4,000 lines connecting East and West Berlin. In order to reduce Eastern tapping of telecommunications between West Berlin and West Germany microwave radio relay connections were built, which wirelessly transmitted telephone calls between antenna towers in West Germany and West Berlin, where two of which were built, one antenna in Berlin-Wannsee
and later a second in Berlin-Frohnau
, finished on 16 May 1980 with a height of 358 m (1,175 ft) (this tower was demolished on 8 February 2009).
Following the détente, on 31 January 1971 East Germany allowed the opening of 10 telephone lines between East and West Berlin. The Western area code for East Berlin was then 00372 (international access prefix 00, East German country code 37, area code 2). Calls from East Berlin were only possible with operator assistance. On 24 June 1972 East Germany opened 32 local exchanges (including Potsdam) in the East German suburbia of West Berlin for calls from West Berlin. From 14 April 1975 East Berliners could once again dial directly to West Berlin, without operator assistance. East Germany conceded to an increase in lines between East and West Berlin to 120 on 15 December 1981. However, private phones were very rare in the East. In 1989, the 17 million East Germans (including East Berliners) were served by only 4 million telephones, only half of which were installed in private homes, the rest being in offices, companies, public telephone kiosks, and the like.
In the American Sector:
In the British Sector:
In the French Sector:
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, which were bordered by East Berlin
East Berlin
East Berlin was the name given to the eastern part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin that was established in 1945. The American, British and French sectors became West Berlin, a part strongly associated with West Germany but a free city...
and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945. It was politically closely affiliated with West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
, although it had a special status, because its administration was formally conducted by the Western Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
. East Berlin encompassed the region occupied and administered by the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and was claimed as capital by East Germany. The Western Allies did not recognise this claim, as they asserted that the entire city of Berlin was legally under four-power administration. The Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
, built in 1961, physically divided East and West Berlin until it fell in 1989.
With about two million inhabitants, West Berlin had the highest number of residents of any city in Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
-era Germany.
Origins
Potsdam Agreement
The Potsdam Agreement was the Allied plan of tripartite military occupation and reconstruction of Germany—referring to the German Reich with its pre-war 1937 borders including the former eastern territories—and the entire European Theatre of War territory...
established the legal framework for the occupation of Germany in the wake of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. According to the agreement, Germany would be formally under the administration of the four major wartime Allies
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
—the United States, the United Kingdom, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
—until a German government acceptable to all parties would be established. The territory of Germany, as it existed in 1937, would be reduced by most of Eastern Germany thus creating the former eastern territories of Germany. The remaining territory would be divided into four zones, each administered by one of the allied countries. Berlin, which was surrounded by the Soviet zone of occupation—newly established in most of Middle Germany
Middle Germany
Central Germany is an economic and cultural region in Germany. Its exact borders depend on context, but it is often defined as being a region within the federal states of Saxony, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, or a smaller part of this region .The name dates from the German Empire, when the region...
—would be similarly divided, with the Western Allies occupying an enclave consisting of the western parts of the city. According to the agreement, the occupation of Berlin would end only as a result of a quadripartite agreement. The Western Allies were guaranteed three air corridors to their sectors of Berlin, and the Soviets also informally allowed road and rail access between West Berlin and the western parts of Germany (see section on traffic).
At first, this arrangement was officially only meant to be a temporary administrative structure, with all parties declaring that Germany and Berlin would soon be reunited. However, as the relations between the western allies and the Soviet Union soured and the Cold War began, the joint administration of Germany and Berlin broke down. Soon Soviet-occupied Berlin and western-occupied Berlin had separate city administrations. In 1948, the Soviets tried to force the Western Allies out of Berlin by imposing a land blockade on the western sectors: the Berlin Blockade
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War and the first resulting in casualties. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under Allied...
. The West responded by using its air corridors for supplying their part of the city with food and other goods in the Berlin Airlift. In May 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade, and West Berlin as a separate city with its own jurisdiction was maintained. By the end of 1949, two new states had been created out of occupied Germany—the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
) in the West and the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany) in the East—with West Berlin an enclave surrounded by, but not part of, the GDR.
Legal status
According to the legal theory followed by the Western Allies, the occupation of most of Germany ended in 1949 with the declaration of the Federal Republic of Germany (23 May 1949) and the German Democratic Republic (7 October 1949). However, because the occupation of Berlin could only be ended by a quadripartite agreement, Berlin remained an occupied territory under the formal sovereignty of the allies. Hence, the Grundgesetz (the constitution of the Federal Republic) was not applicable to West Berlin. In addition, West German federal law did not apply to West Berlin, but the House of Representatives of Berlin used to vote in every new federal law without debate to maintain legal status with the pre-1990 Federal Republic of Germany.Senate of Berlin
The Senate of Berlin is the executive body governing the city of Berlin, which at the same time is a state of Germany. According to the Constitution of Berlin the Senate consists of the Governing Mayor of Berlin and up to eight Senators appointed by the Governing Mayor, two of whom are appointed ...
(city government) seated at Rathaus Schöneberg
Rathaus Schöneberg
Rathaus Schöneberg is the city hall for the Borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg in Berlin.-History:It was constructed between 1911–1914 for Schöneberg, at that time an independent city not yet incorporated into Berlin, which took place in 1920....
. Governing Mayor and Senators (ministers) had to be approved by the Western Allies and thus derived their authority from the occupying forces, not from their electoral mandate.
The Soviets unilaterally declared the occupation of East Berlin at an end along with the rest of East Germany. This move was, however, not recognised by the Western Allies, who continued to view all of Berlin as a jointly occupied territory belonging to neither of the two states. This view was supported by the continued practice of patrols of Allied soldiers of all four Allies in all four sectors. Thus, occasionally Western Allied soldiers were on patrol in East Berlin and Soviet soldiers were patrolling in West Berlin. After the Wall was built, East Germany wanted to control Western Allied patrols upon entering or leaving East Berlin, a practice that the Western Allies regarded as unacceptable. So, after protests to the Soviets, the patrols continued uncontrolled on both sides, with the tacit agreement that the western Allies would not use their patrolling privileges for helping Easterners to flee to the West.
In many ways, West Berlin functioned as the de facto
De facto
De facto is a Latin expression that means "concerning fact." In law, it often means "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but not officially established." It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or...
11th state
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...
of West Germany, and was depicted on maps published in the West as being a part of West Germany. There was freedom of movement (to the extent allowed by geography) between West Berlin and West Germany. There were no separate immigration regulations for West Berlin: all immigration rules for West Germany were followed in West Berlin. West German entry visas
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
issued to visitors were stamped with "valid for entry into the Federal Republic of Germany including Berlin (West)", authorising entry to West Berlin as well as West Germany.
West Berlin remained a military occupation zone until 3 October 1990, the day of unification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
of East Germany, East and West Berlin with the West German Federal Republic of Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
. The West German Federal Government, as well as the governments of most western nations, considered East Berlin to be a "separate entity" from East Germany.
The ambiguous legal status of West Berlin meant that West Berliners were not eligible to vote in federal elections; instead, they were indirectly represented in the Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
by 20 non-voting delegates chosen by the West Berlin House of Representatives. Similarly, the West Berlin Senate
Senate of Berlin
The Senate of Berlin is the executive body governing the city of Berlin, which at the same time is a state of Germany. According to the Constitution of Berlin the Senate consists of the Governing Mayor of Berlin and up to eight Senators appointed by the Governing Mayor, two of whom are appointed ...
sent non-voting delegates to the Bundesrat. However, as German citizens, West Berliners were able to stand for election, such as Social Democrat Chancellor Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....
, who was elected via his party's list of candidates. Also, men there were exempt from the Federal Republic's compulsory military service; this exemption made the city a popular destination for West German youths, which resulted in a flourishing counterculture
Counterculture
Counterculture is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a cultural group, or subculture, that run counter to those of the social mainstream of the day, the cultural equivalent of political opposition. Counterculture can also be described as a group whose behavior...
, which became one of the defining features of the city.
Communist countries, however, did not recognise West Berlin as part of West Germany and usually described it as a "third" German jurisdiction, called selbständige politische Einheit (independent political entity). On maps of East Berlin, West Berlin often did not appear as an adjacent urban area but as a monochrome terra incognita, sometimes showing the letters WB, meaning West Berlin, or overlaid with a legend or pictures.
Citizenship
While East Germany established an East German citizenship as part of its second constitution in 1967, a distinct West German citizenship did not exist. Instead, West Germany continued the definition of pre-WW2 German citizenship for all ethnic or naturalised Germans in West Germany, East Germany or any part of Berlin. So while West Berlin was not unanimously regarded as part of the Federal Republic, its citizens were treated like West German citizens by West German authorities, save for the limitations imposed by West Berlin's legal status.This meant that West Berliners could circumvent some of these limitations if they had a second home in West Germany proper. For example, they could vote in Bundestag elections and they could be conscripted into West German military service.
Immigration
The Federal Republic of Germany issued West German passports to West Berliners on request that showed West Berlin as their place of residence. However, West Berliners could not use their passports for crossing East German borders and were denied entrance by any country of the Eastern BlocEastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
, since governments of these countries held the view that West Germany was not authorised to issue legal papers for West Berliners. However, West Berliners travelling with West German passports carrying a secondary address in West Germany were treated as West Germans by the East German authorities.
Since West Berlin was not a sovereign state, it did not issue passports. West Berliners were issued an auxiliary identity card by the city state of Berlin (West) that was devoid of any West German federal symbols and did not indicate citizenship. From 11 June 1968, East Germany made it mandatory that West Berlin and West German transit passengers obtain a transit visa , issued upon entering East Germany, because by its second constitution East Germany considered West Germans and West Berliners as foreigners. Since identity cards had no pages to stamp visas, the Eastern visa departments stamped their visas onto separate leaflets which were loosely stuck into the identity cards, which until the mid-1980s, were little booklets. A fee of West German Deutsche Mark (DM) 5, levied by East Germany from the transit passengers, could be reimbursed by the West German Federal Government.
For entering visa-requiring western countries, like the USA, West Berliners commonly used West German passports. However, for countries which did not require stamped visas for entry, including Switzerland, Austria, and many members of the then European Economic Community
European Economic Community
The European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) The European Economic Community (EEC) (also known as the Common Market in the English-speaking world, renamed the European Community (EC) in 1993The information in this article primarily covers the EEC's time as an independent...
, West Berlin identity cards were also acceptable for entry. Occasionally, East Germany selectively banned travellers on their way through East Germany. From 13 April 1968, ministers and leading officials of the West German Federal Government were denied transit until further notice. In January 1970 East Germany interrupted transit traffic several times, because parliamentary committees of the West German Bundestag
Bundestag
The Bundestag is a federal legislative body in Germany. In practice Germany is governed by a bicameral legislature, of which the Bundestag serves as the lower house and the Bundesrat the upper house. The Bundestag is established by the German Basic Law of 1949, as the successor to the earlier...
met for sessions in West Berlin, which — according to the East German authorities — they were not allowed to do, since West Berlin was not a part of West Germany.
Naming conventions
Most Westerners called the Western sectors "Berlin", unless further distinction was necessary. The West German Federal government officially called West Berlin "Berlin (West)", whereas the East German government commonly referred to it as "Westberlin"; it began to use "Berlin (West)" only in the late 1980s. Starting from 31 May 1961, East Berlin was officially called Berlin, Capital of the GDR , or simply "Berlin," by East Germany, and "Berlin (Ost)" by the West German Federal government. Other names used by West German media included "Ost-Berlin", "Ostberlin", or "Ostsektor". These different naming conventions for the divided parts of Berlin when followed by individuals, governments, or media commonly indicated their political leanings.Period following the building of the Wall
On 26 June 1963, U.S. President John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
visited West Berlin and gave a public speech known for its famous phrase "Ich bin ein Berliner
Ich bin ein Berliner
"Ich bin ein Berliner" is a quotation from a June 26, 1963, speech by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin. He was underlining the support of the United States for West Germany 22 months after the Soviet-supported East Germany erected the Berlin Wall as a barrier to prevent movement...
".
The Four Power Agreement on Berlin
Four Power Agreement on Berlin
The Four Power Agreement on Berlin also known as the Berlin Agreement or the Quadripartite Agreement on Berlin was agreed on 3 September 1971 by the four wartime allied powers, represented by their Ambassadors...
(September 1971) and the Transit Agreement
Transit Agreement (1972)
The Transit Agreement of 26 May 1972 arranged access to and from West Berlin from West Germany and secured the right of West Berliners to visit East Berlin and East Germany also secured the rights of GDR citizens to visit the FRG, but only in cases of family emergency.-References:*...
(May 1972) helped to slightly ease tensions over the status of West Berlin. While many restrictions remained in place, it also made it easier for West Berliners to travel to East Germany and it simplified the regulations for Germans travelling along the autobahn transit routes.
At the Brandenburg Gate
Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate is a former city gate and one of the most well-known landmarks of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city centre at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which...
in 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
provided a challenge to the then-Soviet premier: "General Secretary Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
On 9 November 1989, the Wall was opened, and the two parts of the city were once again physically—though at this point not legally—united. The Two Plus Four Treaty, signed by the two German states and the four wartime allies, paved the way for German reunification
German reunification
German reunification was the process in 1990 in which the German Democratic Republic joined the Federal Republic of Germany , and when Berlin reunited into a single city, as provided by its then Grundgesetz constitution Article 23. The start of this process is commonly referred by Germans as die...
and an end to the western occupation of West Berlin. On 3 October 1990, West Berlin and East Berlin were united as the city of Berlin, which then acceded to the Federal Republic as a state. West Berlin and East Berlin thus both formally ceased to exist.
Exclaves
Greater Berlin Act
The Greater Berlin Act , in full the Law Regarding the Reconstruction of the New Local Authority of Berlin , was a law passed by the Prussian government in 1920 that greatly expanded the size of the German capital of Berlin.-History:...
of 1920 and amended in 1938, and the border between the Soviet sector and the French, British and American sectors respectively, which followed the boundaries of Berlin administrative boroughs as defined in the same years. Another amendment was added in 1945 at the border between the British sector of Berlin and the Soviet zone such that the Wehrmacht airfield at Berlin-Gatow became British and the airfield at Berlin-Staaken
Staaken
Staaken is a locality at the western rim of Berlin within the borough of Spandau. In the west it shares border with the Brandenburg municipalities of Falkensee and Dallgow-Döberitz in the Havelland district. Buildings range from small detached houses in the west to larger 1960s and 1970s housing...
became Soviet. The resulting borderline of all these changes was complicated with a lot of geographical oddities, including a number of exclaves and enclaves that Greater Berlin had inside some neighbouring municipalities since 1920, all of which happened to become part of the British or American sectors after 1945, thus parts of West Berlin surrounded by East Germany.
Furthermore the Gatow/Staaken exchange in August 1945 resulted in the geographically western half of Berlin-Staaken, which was located at the western outskirts of the city, becoming de jure Soviet occupied. However, the de facto administration remained with the Borough of Spandau in the British sector. So all inhabitants of Staaken could vote for West Berlin's city state elections in 1948 and 1950. On 1 February 1951 East German Volkspolizei
Volkspolizei
The Volkspolizei , or VP, were the national police of the German Democratic Republic . The Volkspolizei were responsible for most law enforcement in East Germany, but its organisation and structure were such that it could be considered a paramilitary force as well...
surprised the West Staakeners and occupied western Staaken and ended the administration by the Spandau Borough; instead, western Staaken became an exclave of the Soviet occupied borough Berlin-Mitte
Mitte (locality)
Mitte is a central locality of Berlin in the homonymous district of Mitte. Until 2001 it was itself an autonomous district....
in the city centre. However, on June 1, 1952, western Staaken's de facto administration was conveyed to neighbouring East German Falkensee
Falkensee
Falkensee is a town in the Havelland district, Brandenburg, Germany. It is the most populated municipality of its district and it is situated at the western border of Berlin.-History:...
in the East German district Nauen
Nauen
Nauen is a town in the Havelland district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 38 km west of Berlin and 26 km northwest of Potsdam.-History:...
. This situation was undone on 3 October 1990, the day of German unification, when West Staaken was reincorporated into united Berlin.
Under the Four Power Agreement on Berlin
Four Power Agreement on Berlin
The Four Power Agreement on Berlin also known as the Berlin Agreement or the Quadripartite Agreement on Berlin was agreed on 3 September 1971 by the four wartime allied powers, represented by their Ambassadors...
in 1971, the Allies authorised West Berlin to negotiate territorial allocations with East Germany. On 20 December 1971, the first territorial re-allocations took place and included the exclaves numbered 1–3, 6, 8, 10 and 11 (mentioned below), connecting the latter with West Berlin and ceding the former six to East Germany as well as including a payment of four million West German Deutsche Mark to the East. The remaining exclaves were either ceded (No. 5, 7 and 12) to East Germany or territorially connected with West Berlin (No. 4 and 6) in a second redeployment in 1988.
West Berlin's twelve exclaves were the following:
- 1–3 Böttcherberg (0.30 ha/0.74 acre): three unconnected, uninhabited and unused pieces of land, belonged to West Berlin's Borough of ZehlendorfZehlendorf (Berlin)Zehlendorf is a locality within the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf in Berlin. Before Berlin's 2001 administrative reform Zehlendorf was a borough in its own right, consisting of the locality of Zehlendorf as well as Wannsee, Nikolassee and Dahlem...
, ceded to East Germany in 1971, since then a part of PotsdamPotsdamPotsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
. - 4 Erlengrund (0.51 ha/1.26 acre): Allotment clubAllotment (gardening)An allotment garden, often called simply an allotment, is a plot of land made available for individual, non-professional gardening. Such plots are formed by subdividing a piece of land into a few or up to several hundreds of land parcels that are assigned to individuals or families...
, seasonally inhabited, belonging to the Borough of SpandauSpandauSpandau is the fifth of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is the fourth largest and westernmost borough, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and along the western bank of the Havel, but the least populated.-Overview:...
, territorially connected with West Berlin, when East Germany ceded the adjacent tract of land in 1988. Until 1988, the members of the allotment club in West Berlin could only access it via a short passage while accompanied by East German border guards. Except for emergency rescuers, no one else was allowed to access the exclave. The path to Erlengrund was fenced on both sides so not to allow access to East Germans. - 5 Falkenhagener Wiese (45.44 ha/112.28 acre): unused grassland, belonged to the Borough of Spandau, ceded to East Germany in 1988, since then a part of FalkenseeFalkenseeFalkensee is a town in the Havelland district, Brandenburg, Germany. It is the most populated municipality of its district and it is situated at the western border of Berlin.-History:...
. - 6 Fichtewiese (3.51 ha/8.67 acre): Allotment club, seasonally inhabited, belonging to the Borough of Spandau, and territorially connected with West Berlin, when East Germany ceded the adjacent tract of land in 1988. Until 1988, the allotment holders had to pass East German border controls on their way between Fichtewiese and the rest of West Berlin. Except for emergency rescuers, no one else was allowed to access the exclave. The path connecting Fichtewiese with West Berlin was fenced on both sides so not to allow access to East Germans.
- 7 Finkenkrug, (3.45 ha/8.53 acre): inhabited by East Germans, five km away from West Berlin's border, and belonged to the Borough of Spandau, ceded to East Germany in 1971, since then a part of Falkensee.
- 8 Große Kuhlake (8.03 ha/19.84 acre): unused grassland, belonged to the Borough of Spandau, ceded to East Germany in 1971.
- 9 Laßzins-Wiesen (13.49 ha/33.33 acre): unused grassland, belonged to the Borough of Spandau, ceded to East Germany in 1988, since then a part of SchönwaldeSchönwalde-GlienSchönwalde-Glien is a community in the Havelland district, in Brandenburg, Germany.-History:The municipality shared its borders with the former West Berlin, and so during the period 1961-1990 it was separated from it by the Berlin Wall....
. - 10 Nuthewiesen (3.64 ha/8.99 acre): uninhabited wet meadows, belonged to the Borough of Zehlendorf, ceded to East Germany in 1971, since then a part of Potsdam.
- 11 SteinstückenSteinstückenSteinstücken, a small settlement with approximately 200 inhabitants, is the southernmost territory of the Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, belonging to Wannsee...
(12.67 ha/31.31 acre): inhabited by West Berliners and belonging to the Borough of Zehlendorf. It was territorially connected with West Berlin, when East Germany ceded a small strip of land in 1971. Until 1971, the inhabitants had to pass East German border controls on their way between Steinstücken and the main area of West Berlin. Except for emergency rescuers and repair personnel, no one else was allowed to access the exclave. The road connecting Steinstücken was immured on both sides not allowing Easterners to enter it. - 12 Wüste Mark (21.83 ha/53.94 acre): despite its name (meaning "desert border region" in English), not a wasteland, but a seasonally tilled acreage, belonging to the Borough of Zehlendorf, ceded to East Germany in 1988, and since then a part of StahnsdorfStahnsdorfStahnsdorf is a municipality in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany.-Geography:It is situated 20 km southwest of Berlin , and 12 km east of Potsdam.-History:...
. Wüste Mark is a tract of land adjacent to Wilmersdorf's forest cemetery in Güterfelde. Until 1988, the West Berlin farmer tilling the land was allowed after filing a formal request to cross with his tractor through East Germany.
Transport and transit travel
West Berliners could travel to West Germany and all Western and non-alignedNon-Aligned Movement
The Non-Aligned Movement is a group of states considering themselves not aligned formally with or against any major power bloc. As of 2011, the movement had 120 members and 17 observer countries...
states at all times, except of the period of the Berlin Blockade
Berlin Blockade
The Berlin Blockade was one of the first major international crises of the Cold War and the first resulting in casualties. During the multinational occupation of post-World War II Germany, the Soviet Union blocked the Western Allies' railway and road access to the sectors of Berlin under Allied...
by the Soviet Union (24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949), due to restrictions on passenger flight capacity imposed by the airlift.
Travelling to and from West Berlin by road or train always required passing through East German border checks, since West Berlin was an enclave surrounded by East Germany and East Berlin.
Road traffic
For travel from West Berlin through East Germany by car or rail a valid passport was required for citizens of West Germany and other western nationals to be produced at East German border checks; West Berliners could only get admission through their identity cards (see above). For travel from West Berlin to Denmark, West Germany, or Sweden, via dedicated East German transit routes , East German border guards issued a transit visa for a fee of 5 Western Deutsche Mark. For journeys between West Berlin and PolandPeople's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
or Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
through East Germany, each traveller was also required to present a valid visa for the destination country.
The transit routes for road travel connecting West Berlin to other destinations usually consisted of autobahns and other highways, marked by Transit signs. Transit travellers were prohibited to leave the transit routes, and occasional traffic checkpoints would check for violators.
There were four transit routes between West Berlin and West Germany:
- One between West Berlin's Heerstraße with the East German checkpoint in DallgowDallgow-DöberitzDallgow-Döberitz is a municipality in the Havelland district, in Brandenburg, Germany.-Geography:It consists of the villages Dallgow-Döberitz, Rohrbeck and Seeburg. To the east it shares border with the Spandau borough of Berlin. Neighbouring Brandenburg municipalities are Falkensee in the north...
until 1951, then replaced by StaakenStaakenStaaken is a locality at the western rim of Berlin within the borough of Spandau. In the west it shares border with the Brandenburg municipalities of Falkensee and Dallgow-Döberitz in the Havelland district. Buildings range from small detached houses in the west to larger 1960s and 1970s housing...
for destinations in Northern GermanyNorthern Germany- Geography :The key terrain features of North Germany are the marshes along the coastline of the North Sea and Baltic Sea, and the geest and heaths inland. Also prominent are the low hills of the Baltic Uplands, the ground moraines, end moraines, sandur, glacial valleys, bogs, and Luch...
(originally via highway F 5Bundesstraße 5The Bundesstraße 5 or B5 is a German federal highway running in a northwesterly to southeasterly direction from the Danish border near Niebüll to Frankfurt . It provides a direct route for motorists traveling between Berlin and Hamburg. In Berlin B5 forms among others the following squares and...
) at the Eastern checkpoint in Horst (a part of today's NostorfNostorfNostorf is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.-History:Between 1945 and 1982 Nostorf's component village of Horst served as East German inner German border crossing for cars travelling along F 5 between the Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany ,...
) and the Western Lauenburg upon ElbeLauenburg/ElbeLauenburg/Elbe is a town in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated at the northern bank of the river Elbe, east of Hamburg. It is the southernmost town of Schleswig-Holstein. Lauenburg belongs to the Kreis of Herzogtum Lauenburg and had a population of 11,900 as of 2002...
. These were replaced in 20 November 1982 by a new autobahn crossing at ZarrentinZarrentinZarrentin is a town in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated on the Schaalsee lake, 19 km southeast of Ratzeburg, and 34 km west of Schwerin.-History:...
(E)/GudowGudowGudow is a municipality in the district of Lauenburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany.-History:Between 1982 and 1990 Gudow served as West German inner German border crossing for cars travelling along Bundesautobahn 24 between the East German Democratic Republic, or West Berlin and the West German...
(W). On 1 January 1988, the new Stolpe checkpoint opened on this route to West Berlin. This is part of today's Hohen NeuendorfHohen NeuendorfHohen Neuendorf is a town in the Oberhavel district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is located north west of Berlin.-Geography:Hohen Neuendorf is situated upon the Havel river and is bordered by the Berlin area Frohnau to the south, Muehlenbeck to the east, Birkenwerder and Oranienburg to the north,...
(E)/Berlin-HeiligenseeHeiligenseeHeiligensee is a locality within Reinickendorf, a borough of the German capital, Berlin. It has 17,780 inhabitants and an area of .-Overview:...
(W). - A second transit route led to Northwestern and Western GermanyWestern GermanyThe geographic term Western Germany is used to describe a region in the west of Germany. The exact area defined by the term is not constant, but it usually includes, but does not have the borders of, North Rhine-Westphalia and Hesse...
— following today's A 2 — crossing the inner German border at MarienbornHelmstedt-Marienborn border crossingThe Border checkpoint Helmstedt–Marienborn , named Grenzübergangsstelle Marienborn by the German Democratic Republic , was the largest and most important border crossing on the Inner German border during the division of Germany...
(E)/HelmstedtHelmstedtHelmstedt is a city located at the eastern edge of the German state of Lower Saxony. It is the capital of the District of Helmstedt. Helmstedt has 26,000 inhabitants . In former times the city was also called Helmstädt....
(W), also called Checkpoint Alpha. - A third route to Southwestern Germany consisted of today's A 9 and A 4 with border crossing at WarthaWartha (Eisenach)Wartha is a town in the subdivision of Wartha-Göringen which forms part of the independent-city district of Eisenach in Thuringia state, Germany.Near Wartha was a former major road border crossing on the Inner German border between East and West Germany...
(E)/HerleshausenHerleshausen-Location:Herleshausen lies north of a section of the boundary with Thuringia in the thickly wooded area between the Ringgau and the Thuringian Forest with the Thuringian Forest Nature Park in the southeast...
(W),. - A fourth (via today's A 9) to Southern GermanySouthern GermanyThe term Southern Germany is used to describe a region in the south of Germany. There is no specific boundary to the region, but it usually includes all of Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, and the southern part of Hesse...
had border crossings originally at Mount Juchhöh (E)/TöpenTöpenTöpen is a municipality in Upper Franconia in the district of Hof in Bavaria in Germany.-History:Between 1945 and 1966 Töpen served as West German inner German border crossing for cars travelling between the Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany , or West Berlin and the American zone of occupation ...
(W) and later at Hirschberg upon SaaleHirschberg, ThuringiaHirschberg is a town in the Saale-Orla-Kreis district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated on the river Saale, 20 km south of Schleiz, 12 km northwest of Hof , and 25 km southwest of Plauen .-History:...
(E)/ Rudolphstein (a part of today's Berg in Upper FranconiaBerg, Upper FranconiaBerg is a municipality in the district of Hof in Bavaria in Germany.-History:Between 1966 and 1990 Berg's component village Rudolphstein served as West German inner German border crossing for cars travelling between the East German Democratic Republic, or West Berlin and the West German Federal...
) (W).
The latter three routes used autobahns built during the Nazi
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
era. They left West Berlin at Checkpoint Dreilinden, also called Checkpoint Bravo
Checkpoint Bravo
Checkpoint Bravo was the name given by the Western Allies to the main autobahn border crossing points between West Berlin and the German Democratic Republic It was known in German as Grenzübergangsstelle Drewitz-Dreilinden...
(W)/Potsdam
Potsdam
Potsdam is the capital city of the German federal state of Brandenburg and part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. It is situated on the River Havel, southwest of Berlin city centre....
-Drewitz (E). Transit routes to Poland were via today's A 11
Bundesautobahn 11
is an autobahn in eastern Germany that was opened in 1936. As it is partly in a dilapidated state, it is currently undergoing modernisation works on various stretches...
to Nadrensee
Nadrensee
Nadrensee is a municipality in the Vorpommern-Greifswald district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany....
-Pomellen (East Germany, GDR)/Kołbaskowo (Kolbitzow) (PL), eastwards via today's A 12
Bundesautobahn 12
is an autobahn in eastern Germany, connecting Berlin to the Polish border.- Exit list :...
to Frankfurt upon Oder
Frankfurt (Oder)
Frankfurt is a town in Brandenburg, Germany, located on the Oder River, on the German-Polish border directly opposite the town of Słubice which was a part of Frankfurt until 1945. At the end of the 1980s it reached a population peak with more than 87,000 inhabitants...
(GDR)/Słubice (PL), or southeastwards via today's A 13 and A 15
Bundesautobahn 15
is an autobahn in eastern Germany. It is one of the original Reichsautobahns and connected Breslau to Berlin. Construction was not finished during World War II, and the autobahn was single-lane only until the German reunification, after which it was upgraded....
to Forst in Lusatia/Baršć (GDR)/Zasieki (Berge)
Zasieki
Zasieki is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Brody, within Żary County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland, close to the German border. It lies approximately south-west of Brody, west of Żary, and west of Zielona Góra....
(PL). Additional routes led to Denmark and Sweden by ferry between Rostock (GDR) and Gedser
Gedser
Gedser is a town at the southern tip of the Danish island of Falster in the Guldborgsund Municipality in Sjælland region. It is the southernmost town in Denmark. The town has a population of 809...
(DK) and by ferry between Sassnitz
Sassnitz
Sassnitz is a town on the Jasmund peninsula, Rügen Island, in the Federal State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The population as of 2007 was 10,747....
(GDR) and Rønne
Rønne
Rønne is the largest town on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea. It has a population of 13,904 . Once a municipality in its own right, it is now the administrative centre of the Bornholm municipality....
(DK) or Trelleborg
Trelleborg
Trelleborg is a locality and the seat of Trelleborg Municipality, Skåne County, Sweden with 25,643 inhabitants in 2005. It is the southernmost town in Sweden.-History:...
(S). Routes to Czechoslovakia were via Schmilka (GDR)/Hřensko (Herrnskretschen)
Hrensko
Hřensko is a small village of approximately 320 inhabitants in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic on the border with Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the Kamenice and Labe rivers and was established during the 15th century as a trading settlement...
(ČSSR) and via Fürstenau (a part of today's Geising
Geising
Geising is a municipal subdivision of Altenberg in the Sächsische Schweiz-Osterzgebirge district, in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Ore Mountains, close to the border with the Czech Republic, 13 km north of Teplice, and 32 km south of Dresden. Since 1 January...
) (GDR)/Cínovec (Cinvald/Böhmisch Zinnwald) (ČSSR).
The transit routes were also used for East German domestic traffic. This meant that transit passengers could potentially meet with East Germans and East Berliners at restaurants at motorway rest stops. Since such meetings were deemed illegal by the East German government, border guards would calculate the travel duration from the time of entry and exit of the transit route. Excessive time spent for transit travel could arouse their suspicion and prompt questioning or additional checking by the border guards. Western coach
Coach (vehicle)
A coach is a large motor vehicle, a type of bus, used for conveying passengers on excursions and on longer distance express coach scheduled transport between cities - or even between countries...
es could stop only at dedicated service areas, since the East German government was concerned that East Germans might potentially use coaches to escape into the West.
On 1 September 1951 East Germany, because of shortages in foreign currencies
Foreign exchange reserves
Foreign-exchange reserves in a strict sense are 'only' the foreign currency deposits and bonds held by central banks and monetary authorities. However, the term in popular usage commonly includes foreign exchange and gold, Special Drawing Rights and International Monetary Fund reserve positions...
, started to levy road tolls from cars using the transit routes. At first the toll amounted to Eastern Deutsche Mark
East German mark
The East German mark commonly called the eastern mark , in East Germany only Mark, was the currency of the German Democratic Republic . Its ISO 4217 currency code was DDM...
10 per passenger car and 10 to 50 for trucks, depending on size. Eastern Deutsche Marks had to be exchanged for Western Deutsche Mark a rate of 1:1. On 30 March 1955, East Germany raised the toll for passenger cars to 30 Deutsche Marks, but after West German protests, in June of the same year it changed it back to the previous rate. Following a new agreement between East and West Germany, starting from 1 January 1980 the Western Federal Government paid an annual lump sum of 50 million Western Deutsche Marks to the Eastern government, so that transit passengers no longer had to pay tolls individually.
Railway
Four transit train connections—earlier also called interzonal train —connected West Berlin with HamburgHamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
via Schwanheide
Schwanheide
Schwanheide is a municipality in the Ludwigslust-Parchim district, in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.-History:Between 1945 and 1990 Schwanheide served as East German inner German border crossing for rail transport...
(E)/Büchen
Büchen
Büchen is a municipality in the district of Lauenburg, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is situated on the Elbe-Lübeck Canal, approx. 13 km northeast of Lauenburg/Elbe, and 45 km east of Hamburg....
(W) in the North, with Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
via Marienborn (E)/Helmstedt (W) in the West, with Frankfurt upon Main via Gerstungen
Gerstungen
Gerstungen is a municipality in the Wartburgkreis district of Thuringia, Germany.-History:Between 1945 and 1990 Gerstungen served as East German inner German border crossing on the Thuringian Railway...
(E)/Hönebach
Wildeck
Wildeck is a community in Hersfeld-Rotenburg district in northeastern Hesse, Germany lying right at the boundary with Thuringia, 54 km southeast of Kassel.- Location :...
(W) in the Southwest, and with Nuremberg
Nuremberg
Nuremberg[p] is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. Situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal, it is located about north of Munich and is Franconia's largest city. The population is 505,664...
via Probstzella
Probstzella
Probstzella is a municipality in the district Saalfeld-Rudolstadt, in Thuringia, Germany.-History:Between 1945 and 1990 Probstzella station served as East German inner German border crossing for rail transport...
(E)/Ludwigsstadt
Ludwigsstadt
Ludwigsstadt is a municipality in the district of Kronach, in the Upper Franconian region of Bavaria, Germany. It is situated at the state's northern border in the Franconian Forest mountain range, north of Kronach, and south of Saalfeld in Thuringia, the only Bavarian municipality north of the...
(W) in the South of West Germany. These transit trains did not service domestic passengers of East Germany and made stops in East Germany almost only for East German border guards upon entering and leaving of the country. Until the construction of the Berlin Wall
Berlin Wall
The Berlin Wall was a barrier constructed by the German Democratic Republic starting on 13 August 1961, that completely cut off West Berlin from surrounding East Germany and from East Berlin...
, interzonal trains would also stop once on their way within East Germany for travellers having a visa for entering or leaving East Germany. Train travel from West Berlin to Czechoslovakia, Denmark (by ferry), Poland, or Sweden (by ferry) required a visa to enter East Berlin or East Germany to allow transfer to an international train—which also carried domestic passengers—bound for an international destination. One railway connection between West Berlin and Oebisfelde
Oebisfelde
Oebisfelde is a village and a former municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Oebisfelde-Weferlingen. It is accessed by Bundesstraße 188.- Geography :...
(E)/Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located on the River Aller northeast of Braunschweig , and is mainly notable as the headquarters of Volkswagen AG...
(W) was reserved for freight trains only.
In July and August 1945, the three Western Allies and the Soviet Union decided that the railways, previously serviced by the Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn
Deutsche Reichsbahn was the name of the following two companies:* Deutsche Reichsbahn, the German Imperial Railways during the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich and the immediate aftermath...
(German National Railway), should continue to be operated by one railway administration to service all four sectors. So West Berlin had — with the exception of a few small private railway lines — no separate railway administration. Furthermore, the operation of the Reichsbahn's Berlin S-Bahn
Berlin S-Bahn
The Berlin S-Bahn is a rapid transit system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It consists of 15 lines and is integrated with the mostly underground U-Bahn to form the backbone of Berlin's rapid transport system...
electric metropolitan transport network, consisting of commuter trains, was also maintained. After the founding of East Germany on 7 October 1949 it gained responsibility for the Reichsbahn in its territory. East Germany continued to run its railways under the official name Deutsche Reichsbahn, which thus maintained responsibility for almost all railway transport in all four sectors of Berlin. The GDR-controlled 'Bahnpolizei', the Reichsbahn's railway police, were authorised to patrol station premises and other railway property in the whole city including West Berlin.
After the Berlin Blockade transit trains would leave and enter West Berlin only via one line through Berlin-Wannsee railway station
Berlin-Wannsee railway station
Berlin-Wannsee station is a railway station opened in 1874 which lies in the Wannsee district of Berlin, the capital city of Germany...
(W) and Potsdam Griebnitzsee railway station
Potsdam Griebnitzsee railway station
Potsdam Griebnitzsee is a railway station in the western outskirts of Berlin, the capital city of Germany. The station is located in the east of the Babelsberg suburb of the city of Potsdam in the state of Brandenburg, and about outside the Berlin city boundary...
(E). All transit trains would start or end in East Berlin, passing through West Berlin with only one stop in the Western Berlin Zoologischer Garten railway station
Berlin Zoologischer Garten railway station
Berlin Zoologischer Garten station was the central transport facility in West Berlin during the division of the city, and thereafter for the western central area of Berlin until opening of the new Berlin Central Station on 28 May 2006...
, which became West Berlin's main railway station. Until 1952, the Reichsbahn also permitted stops at other stations on the way through the Western sectors. After easing of tensions between East and West Germany, starting on 30 May 1976 transit trains going westwards, southwestwards, or southwards stopped once again at station of Wannsee. For transit trains going northwestwards, a shorter line was reopened on 26 September 1976 with an additional stop at the then Berlin-Spandau railway station
Berlin-Stresow railway station
Stresow is a railway station in the Spandau district of Berlin, named after the Stresow neighbourhood east of the Havel river. It is served by the S-Bahn lines and ....
, entering East Germany at Staaken
Staaken
Staaken is a locality at the western rim of Berlin within the borough of Spandau. In the west it shares border with the Brandenburg municipalities of Falkensee and Dallgow-Döberitz in the Havelland district. Buildings range from small detached houses in the west to larger 1960s and 1970s housing...
. Many Reichsbahn employees working in West Berlin were West Berliners. Their East German employer, whose proceeds from ticket sales for Western Deutsche Marks contributed to East Germany's foreign revenues, tried to hold down wage social security
Social security
Social security is primarily a social insurance program providing social protection or protection against socially recognized conditions, including poverty, old age, disability, unemployment and others. Social security may refer to:...
contributions in Western Deutsche Mark. Therefore, West Berlin employees of the Reichsbahn were paid partly in Eastern German currency. However, they could spend this money in East Germany and take their purchases to West Berlin, which other Westerners could not do to the same extent. West Berlin employees were trained in East Germany and employed under East German labour laws. West Berliners employed by the Reichsbahn were not included in the Western health insurance system. The Reichsbahn ran its own hospital for them in West Berlin, the building of which is now used as the headquarters of Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation
Bombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Canadian firm, Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Transportation is one of the world's largest companies in the rail-equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Its headquarters are in Berlin, Germany....
. For certain patients, the Reichsbahn would facilitate treatment in a hospital in East Berlin. In medical emergencies, the employees could use West Berlin doctors and hospitals, which would then be paid for by the Reichsbahn.
The GDR used the western stations to distribute propaganda and display posters with slogans like "Americans Go Home." On 1 May, May Day
May Day
May Day on May 1 is an ancient northern hemisphere spring festival and usually a public holiday; it is also a traditional spring holiday in many cultures....
, a state holiday in East and West, S-Bahn trains were sometimes decorated with the East German banner and a red flag.
Waterways
Two waterways via the rivers and canals HavelHavel
The Havel is a river in north-eastern Germany, flowing through the German states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Brandenburg, Berlin and Saxony-Anhalt. It is a right tributary of the Elbe river and in length...
and Mittellandkanal were open for inland navigation
Inland navigation
Inland navigation is transport with ships via inland water between inland ports or quays and wharfs.-See also:* Code Européen des Voies de la Navigation Intérieure -External links:...
, but only freight vessels were allowed to cross from West Berlin into East German waters. The Havel crossed at the East German border in Nedlitz (a part of Potsdam-Bornstedt
Bornstedt (Potsdam)
Bornstedt is a borough of Potsdam, Germany. It is bordered by the Pappelallee and the Castle Park of Sanssouci to the south, the Amundsenstraße to the west, and by the Nedlitzer Straße to the north and east...
), continuing through the Elbe-Havel Canal
Elbe-Havel Canal
The Elbe–Havel Canal is a 56-kilometre-long waterway in Germany. It links Magdeburg, on the River Elbe, with Brandenburg on the River Havel.Since 2003, the Elbe-Havel Canal has been connected to the Mittelland Canal by the unique Magdeburg Water Bridge, which crosses above the River Elbe. The...
and then either taking the Elbe
Elbe
The Elbe is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Krkonoše Mountains of the northwestern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia , then Germany and flowing into the North Sea at Cuxhaven, 110 km northwest of Hamburg...
northwestwards crossing the border again at Cumlosen
Cumlosen
Cumlosen is a municipality in the Prignitz district, in Brandenburg, Germany.-History:Between 1945 and 1990 Cumlosen served as East German inner German border crossing for inland navigation on the Elbe...
(E)/Schnackenburg
Schnackenburg
Schnackenburg is a town in the Lüchow-Dannenberg district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated on the left bank of the Elbe. It is part of the Samtgemeinde Gartow.-Etymology of the toponym:...
(W) or westwards following the Mittellandkanal to Buchhorst (Oebisfelde) (E)/Rühen
Rühen
Rühen is a municipality in the district of Gifhorn, in Lower Saxony, Germany.-History:Between 1945 and 1990 Rühen served as West German inner German border crossing for inland navigation on the Mittellandkanal...
(W). Western freight vessels could stop only at dedicated service areas, because the East German government wanted to prevent any East Germans from boarding them. Through these waterways, West Berlin was connected with the western European inland navigation network, connecting to seaports like Hamburg and Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
, as well as industrial areas such as the Ruhr Area
Ruhr Area
The Ruhr, by German-speaking geographers and historians more accurately called Ruhr district or Ruhr region , is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With 4435 km² and a population of some 5.2 million , it is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany...
, Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
, Basel
Basel
Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...
, Belgium and eastern France.
In July and August 1945, the Western Allies and the Soviet Union decided that the operation and maintenance of the waterways and locks, which were previously run by the national German directorate for inland navigation , should be continued and reconstructed in all four sectors. So, except of some later built canals and locks, West Berlin had no separate inland navigation authority, but the East Berlin-based authority operated and maintained most waterways and locks.
The western entrance to the Teltowkanal, connecting several industrial areas of West Berlin for heavy freight transport, was blocked by East Germany in Potsdam-Klein Glienicke. Therefore, vessels going to the Teltowkanal had to take a detour via the river Spree
Spree
The Spree is a river that flows through the Saxony, Brandenburg and Berlin states of Germany, and in the Ústí nad Labem region of the Czech Republic...
through West and East Berlin's city centre to enter the canal from the East. On 20 November 1981, East Germany reopened the western entrance, which required two more vessel border checkpoints — Dreilinden and Kleinmachnow
Kleinmachnow
Kleinmachnow is a municipality in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany.-Geography:It is situated southwest of the centre of Berlin, immediately neighbouring the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, and east of Potsdam...
— because the waterway crossed the border between East Germany and West Berlin four times. Another transit waterway connected West Berlin via the East German vessel checkpoint at Hennigsdorf and the Oder-Havel Canal
Oder-Havel Canal
The Oder-Havel Canal is a German canal built between 1908 and 1914, originally known as the Hohenzollern Canal. Together with Hohensaaten-Friedrichsthaler Wasserstraße, the Oderhaltung and the Schwedter Querfahrt it forms the Havel-Oder-Wasserstraße...
with the Oder
Oder
The Oder is a river in Central Europe. It rises in the Czech Republic and flows through western Poland, later forming of the border between Poland and Germany, part of the Oder-Neisse line...
river and Polish Szczecin (Stettin)
Szczecin
Szczecin , is the capital city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the country's seventh-largest city and the largest seaport in Poland on the Baltic Sea. As of June 2009 the population was 406,427....
.
Air traffic
Air traffic was the only connection between West Berlin and the Western world that was not directly under East German control. British European AirwaysBritish European Airways
British European Airways or British European Airways Corporation was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. The airline operated European and North African routes from airports around the United Kingdom...
opened the first regular service for civilians on 4 July 1948 between West Berlin and Hamburg. Tickets were originally sold for pounds sterling
Pound sterling
The pound sterling , commonly called the pound, is the official currency of the United Kingdom, its Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, British Antarctic Territory and Tristan da Cunha. It is subdivided into 100 pence...
only. West Berliners and West Germans who had earlier fled East Germany or East Berlin, and thus could face imprisonment on entering East Germany or East Berlin, could only take flights for travel to and from West Berlin. To enable individuals threatened by East German imprisonment to fly to and from West Berlin the West German government subsidized the flights.
Berlin Air Safety Center
The Berlin Air Safety Centre was established by the Allied Control Authority Coordinating Committee on the 12 December 1945. Operations began in February 1946 under quadripartite flight rules Paragraph 4...
. According to permanent agreements, three air corridors
West Berlin Air Corridor
During the Cold War era , the West Berlin Air Corridors comprised three regulated airways for civil and military air traffic of the Western Allies between West Berlin and West Germany passing over the former East Germany's territory. The corridors were under control of the all-Allied Berlin Air...
to West Germany were provided, which were open only for British, French or U.S. military planes or civilian planes registered with companies in those countries.
The airspace controlled by the Berlin Air Safety Center comprised a radius of 20 miles (32.12 km) around the seat of the Center in the Kammergericht
Kammergericht
The Kammergericht is the Oberlandesgericht for the state of Berlin. Its name differs from Germany's other state courts for historic reasons. There are no other courts called Kammergericht in Germany.-Overview:...
building in Berlin-Schöneberg
Schöneberg
Schöneberg is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg....
— thus covering most of East and West Berlin and the three corridors, of the same width — one northwestwards to Hamburg-Fuhlsbüttel Airport, one westwards to Hanover, one southwestwards to Frankfurt upon Main (Rhein-Main Air Base
Rhein-Main Air Base
Rhein-Main Air Base was a U.S. Air Force / NATO military airbase near the city of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It occupied the south side of Frankfurt International Airport. Its airport codes are discontinued....
). Also the airspace expanding to a width of 20 miles (32.2 km) over the German-German border was subject to the control by the Berlin Air Safety Center.
The West German Lufthansa
Lufthansa
Deutsche Lufthansa AG is the flag carrier of Germany and the largest airline in Europe in terms of overall passengers carried. The name of the company is derived from Luft , and Hansa .The airline is the world's fourth-largest airline in terms of overall passengers carried, operating...
and most other airlines were not permitted to fly to West Berlin. Flights of Lufthansa or the East German Interflug
Interflug
Interflug was the state airline of East Germany from 1963 to 1991, when it ceased operations following German reunification...
servicing connections between East and West Germany (such as between West German Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
and Hamburg and East German Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
) began in August 1989, but these routes had to go through Czechoslovak or Danish airspace.
Traffic between West Berlin and East Germany
Until 1953, travelling from West Berlin into East Germany (German Democratic RepublicGerman Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
(GDR)), fell under Interzonal traffic
Interzonal traffic
The term inter-zonal traffic was used to describe the cross-border traffic between the four designated garrison zones in Germany between 1945 and 1973 that were created in 1945 by the victors of the Second World War.- History :...
regulations overseen by three Allied military governments (the Soviet Military Administration in Germany (SVAG)
Soviet Military Administration in Germany
The Soviet Military Administration in Germany was the Soviet military government, headquartered in Berlin-Karlshorst, that directly ruled the Soviet occupation zone of Germany from the German surrender in May 1945 until after the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in October...
, the Control Commission for Germany – British Element, and the Office of Military Government/United States (OMGUS)
Office of Military Government, United States
The Office of Military Government, United States was the United States military-established government created shortly after the end of hostilities in occupied Germany in World War II. Under General Lucius D...
). On 27 May 1952, East Germany closed its border with West Germany and its 115 kilometres (71.5 mi)-long border with West Berlin. From then on West Berliners required a permit to enter East Germany. East German border checkpoints were established in East German suburbs of West Berlin, and most streets were gradually closed for interzonal travel into East Germany. The last checkpoint to remain open was located at the Glienicker Brücke towards Potsdam, until it was also closed by East Germany on 3 July 1953. The checkpoint at Staaken's Heerstraße remained open only for transit traffic to West Germany.
This caused hardship for many West Berlin residents, especially those who had friends and family in East Germany. However, East Germans could still enter West Berlin. A number of cemeteries located in East Germany were also affected by the closure. Many church congregations in Berlin owned cemeteries outside the city, so many West Berlin congregations had cemeteries that were located in East Germany. For example, the Friedhof vor Charlottenburg (in Cemetery in front/outside of Charlottenburg) was located in the East German suburb of Dallgow
Dallgow-Döberitz
Dallgow-Döberitz is a municipality in the Havelland district, in Brandenburg, Germany.-Geography:It consists of the villages Dallgow-Döberitz, Rohrbeck and Seeburg. To the east it shares border with the Spandau borough of Berlin. Neighbouring Brandenburg municipalities are Falkensee in the north...
, yet belonged to Catholic congregations in Berlin-Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg
Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...
. So many West Berliners wishing to visit the grave of a relative or friend on cemeteries located in East Germany were now unable to do so. Until 1961, East Germany sparsely issued permits to West Berliners to visit the cemeteries on the Catholic feast of All Saints on 1 November and on the Protestant Day of Repentance and Prayer.
In 1948–1952, the Reichsbahn connected the western suburbs of West Berlin to its S-Bahn network. Train routes servicing these suburbs formerly went through West Berlin stations, but ceased to make stops in the western stations or terminated service before entering West Berlin. Private West Berlin railway lines like the Neukölln-Mittenwalder Eisenbahn (NME), connecting the East German Mittenwalde
Mittenwalde
Mittenwalde is a town in the Dahme-Spreewald district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 30 km southeast of Berlin ....
with West Berlin-Neukölln
Neukölln
Neukölln is the eighth borough of Berlin, located in the southeastern part of the city and was part of the former American sector under the Four-Power occupation of the city...
and the Bötzowbahn between West Berlin-Spandau
Spandau
Spandau is the fifth of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is the fourth largest and westernmost borough, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and along the western bank of the Havel, but the least populated.-Overview:...
and East German Hennigsdorf
Hennigsdorf
Hennigsdorf is a town in the district of Oberhavel, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated north-west of Berlin, just across the city border, which is formed mainly by the Havel river.-History:...
, were disrupted at the border between West Berlin and East Germany on 26 October 1948 and August 1950, respectively. Tramways and bus routes that connected West Berlin with its East German suburbs and were operated by West Berlin's public transport operator Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe Gesellschaft (BVG-West)
Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe
The is the main public transport company of Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It manages the city's U-Bahn underground railway, tram, bus and ferry networks, but not the S-Bahn urban rail system....
ceased operation on 14 October 1950, after West Berlin tram and bus drivers had been repeatedly stopped and arrested by East German police. The BVG (West) terminated route sections that extended into East Germany, like the southern end of tram line 47 to Schönefeld, the southwestern end of tram line 96 to Kleinmachnow
Kleinmachnow
Kleinmachnow is a municipality in the Potsdam-Mittelmark district, in Brandenburg, Germany.-Geography:It is situated southwest of the centre of Berlin, immediately neighbouring the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, and east of Potsdam...
, as well as two bus lines to Glienicke at the Nordbahn
Glienicke/Nordbahn
Glienicke/Nordbahn is a municipality in the Oberhavel district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It ls located right north of Berlin.-Landscape:Glienicke/Nordbahn is located on the northern outskirts of Berlin. The addition "Nordbahn" is based on the proximity to the 19th century-built railway line...
, north, and to Falkensee
Falkensee
Falkensee is a town in the Havelland district, Brandenburg, Germany. It is the most populated municipality of its district and it is situated at the western border of Berlin.-History:...
, northwest of West Berlin.
The Reichsbahn shut down all of its West Berlin terminal stations and redirected its trains to stations in East Berlin, starting with Berlin Görlitzer Bahnhof — closed on 29 April 1951 — before serving rail traffic with Görlitz
Görlitz
Görlitz is a town in Germany. It is the easternmost town in the country, located on the Lusatian Neisse River in the Bundesland of Saxony. It is opposite the Polish town of Zgorzelec, which was a part of Görlitz until 1945. Historically, Görlitz was in the region of Upper Lusatia...
and the southeast of East Germany. On 28 August 1951, trains usually serving Berlin Lehrter Bahnhof were redirected to stations in East Berlin, while trains from West Germany were redirected to the Western Berlin Zoologischer Garten. The Reichsbahn also closed down both Berlin Anhalter Bahnhof and Berlin Nordbahnhof
Berlin Nordbahnhof
Berlin Nordbahnhof is a railway station in the Mitte district of Berlin, Germany. It is served by the Berlin S-Bahn and local bus and tram lines.-History:...
, on 18 May 1952.
On 28 August 1951, the Reichsbahn opened a new connection — from Spandau via Berlin Jungfernheide station — for the S-Bahn lines connecting East German suburbs to the west of West Berlin (namely Falkensee, Staaken) with East Berlin, thus circumventing the centre of West Berlin. In June 1953, the Reichsbahn further cut off West Berlin from its East German suburbs by the introduction of additional express S-Bahn trains . These routes originated from several East German suburbs bordering West Berlin (such as Falkensee, Potsdam, Oranienburg
Oranienburg
Oranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Oberhavel.- Geography :Oranienburg is a town located on the banks of the Havel river, 35 km north of the centre of Berlin.- Division of the town :...
, Staaken, and Velten
Velten
Velten is a town in the Oberhavel district of Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated 10 km southwest of Oranienburg, and 24 km northwest of Berlin.-History:...
), crossing West Berlin non-stop until reaching its destinations in East Berlin. However, also the regular S-Bahn connections with West Berlin's East German suburbs, stopping at every Western station, continued. From 17 June to 9 July 1953, East Germany blocked off any traffic between East and West due to the Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
Uprising of 1953 in East Germany
The Uprising of 1953 in East Germany started with a strike by East Berlin construction workers on June 16. It turned into a widespread anti-Stalinist uprising against the German Democratic Republic government the next day....
.
From 4 October 1953, all S-Bahn trains crossing the border between East Germany and Berlin had to pass a border checkpoint in East Germany. Travellers from East Germany were checked before entering any part of Berlin, to identify individuals intending to escape into West Berlin or smuggling rationed or rare goods into West Berlin. S-Bahn trains were checked at Hoppegarten
Hoppegarten
Hoppegarten is a municipality in the district Märkisch-Oderland, in Brandenburg, Germany.-History:The actual municipality was created in 2003 when the former municipalities of Hönow and Münchehofe were united with Dahlwitz-Hoppegarten...
, Mahlow and Zepernick in East Germany bordering East Berlin and in Hohen Neuendorf
Hohen Neuendorf
Hohen Neuendorf is a town in the Oberhavel district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is located north west of Berlin.-Geography:Hohen Neuendorf is situated upon the Havel river and is bordered by the Berlin area Frohnau to the south, Muehlenbeck to the east, Birkenwerder and Oranienburg to the north,...
, Potsdam-Griebnitzsee and Staaken
Staaken
Staaken is a locality at the western rim of Berlin within the borough of Spandau. In the west it shares border with the Brandenburg municipalities of Falkensee and Dallgow-Döberitz in the Havelland district. Buildings range from small detached houses in the west to larger 1960s and 1970s housing...
-Albrechtshof in East Germany bordering West Berlin. On 4 June 1954, the Bahnhof Hennigsdorf Süd station located next to West Berlin was opened solely for border controls, also to monitor West Berliners entering or leaving East Berlin, which they could still do freely, while they were not allowed to cross into East Germany proper without a special permit.
In 1951, the Reichsbahn began construction work on the Berlin outer-circle railway line . This circular line connected all train routes heading for West Berlin and accommodated all domestic GDR traffic, thus directing railway traffic into East Berlin while by-passing West Berlin. Commuters in the East German suburbs around West Berlin now boarded Sputnik express trains, which took them into East Berlin without crossing any western sectors. With the completion of the Außenring, there was no further need for express S-Bahn trains crossing the West Berlin border and thus their service ended on 4 May 1958, while stopping S-Bahn trains continued service. However, while East Germans could get off in West Berlin, West Berliners needed the hard-to get permits to enter East Germany by S-Bahn. With the construction of the Berlin Wall on 13 August 1961, any remaining railway traffic between West Berlin and its East German suburbs ended. The rail traffic between East and West Berlin was sharply reduced and restricted to few checkpoints under GDR control. East Berliners and East Germans were then unable to freely enter and leave West Berlin. However, international visitors could obtain visas for East Berlin upon crossing one of the checkpoints at the Wall.
Following the policy of détente
Détente
Détente is the easing of strained relations, especially in a political situation. The term is often used in reference to the general easing of relations between the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1970s, a thawing at a period roughly in the middle of the Cold War...
of the Federal Government under Chancellor Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....
, West Berliners could again apply for visas to visit East Germany, which were granted more freely than in the period until 1961. On 4 June 1972, West Berlin's public transport operator BVG could open its first bus line into the East German suburbs since 1950 (line E to Potsdam via Checkpoint Bravo as it was known to the US military). This route was open only to persons bearing all the necessary East German permits and visas. For visits to East Germany, West Berliners could use four checkpoints along the East German border around West Berlin: The two road transit checkpoints Dreilinden (W)/Drewitz (E) and Berlin-Heiligensee
Heiligensee
Heiligensee is a locality within Reinickendorf, a borough of the German capital, Berlin. It has 17,780 inhabitants and an area of .-Overview:...
(W)/Stolpe (E) as well as the old transit checkpoint at Heerstraße (W)/Staaken (E) and the checkpoint at Waltersdorfer Chaussee (W)/Schönefeld (E), which was also open for travellers boarding international flights at Schönefeld Airport.
Traffic between East and West Berlin
While East and West Berlin became formally separate jurisdictions in September 1948, and while there were travel restrictions in all other directions, for more than a decade, freedom of movement existed between the western sectors and the eastern sector of the city. However, time and again Soviet and later East German authorities imposed temporary restrictions for certain persons, certain routes, and certain means of transport. Gradually the eastern authorities disconnected and separated the two parts of the city.While the Soviets blocked all transport to West Berlin (Berlin Blockade between 24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949) they increased the supplies for food in East Berlin in order to gain the compliance of West Berliners who at that time still had free access to East Berlin. West Berliners buying food in East Berlin were regarded as approving of the Soviet attempt to repress the Western Allies from West Berlin. This was seen as support by the communists and as treason by most Westerners. Until that time all over Germany food and other necessary supplies had been available only with ration stamps issued by one's municipality, this was until the Communist putsch in Berlin's city government in September 1948 – the unitary City Council of Greater Berlin for East and West.
By July 1948 a mere 19,000 West Berliners out of a total of almost 2 million covered their food requirements in East Berlin. So 99% of the West Berliners preferred to live with shorter supplies than before the Blockade but support the Western Allies' position. In West Germany rationing of most products had ended with the introduction of the Western Deutsche Mark on 21 June 1948. The new currency was also introduced in West Berlin on 24 June and this, at least officially was the justification for the Soviet Blockade due to which, rationing in West Berlin had to continue. However in the course of the Berlin Air Lift some supplies were increased beyond the pre-Blockade level and therefore certain rations in West Berlin were raised.
While West Berliners were officially welcome to buy food in East Berlin, the Soviets tried to prevent them buying other essential supplies there, particularly coal and fuel. For this reason, on 9 November 1948, they opened checkpoints on 70 streets entering West Berlin and closed the others for horse carriages, lorries and cars, later (16 March 1949) the Soviets erected roadblocks on the closed streets. From 15 November 1948 West Berlin ration stamps were no longer accepted in East Berlin. All the same, the Soviets started a campaign with the slogan The smart West Berliner buys at the HO
Handelsorganisation
The Handelsorganisation was a national retail business owned by the central administration of the Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany and from 1949 on by the state of the German Democratic Republic. It was created in 1948...
, the HO being the Soviet zone chain of shops. They also opened so-called "Free Shops" in the Eastern Sector, offering supplies without ration stamps, but at extremely high prices in Eastern Deutsche Marks
East German mark
The East German mark commonly called the eastern mark , in East Germany only Mark, was the currency of the German Democratic Republic . Its ISO 4217 currency code was DDM...
. Ordinary East and West Berliners could only afford to buy there if they had revenues in Western Deutsche Mark and bartered the needed Eastern Deutsche Mark on the spontaneous currency markets, which developed in the British sector at the Zoo station. Their demand and supply determined a barter ratio in favour of the Western Deutsche Mark with more than 2 Eastern Deutsche Marks offered for one Western Deutsche Mark. After the Blockade – when holders of Western Deutsche Marks could buy as much they could afford, up to five and six east marks were offered for one west mark. In the East however, the Soviets had arbitrarily decreed a rate of 1 for 1 and exchanging at other rates was criminalised.
On 12 May 1949 the Blockade ended and all roadblocks and checkpoints between East and West Berlin were removed. The Berlin Airlift, however, continued until 30 September 1949 to amass sufficient supplies in West Berlin in readiness for another possible blockade, ensuring that an airlift could then be re-started with ease. On 2 May 1949 the power stations in East Berlin again started to supply West Berlin with sufficient electricity, which had to be rationed to some hours a day after the usual supplies had been interrupted at the start of the Blockade. However, the Western Allies and the West Berlin City Council decided to be self sufficient in terms of electricity generation capacity, to be independent of Eastern supplies and not to be held to ransom by the eastern authorities. On 1 December 1949 the new powerhouse West ' onMouseout='HidePop("61192")' href="/topics/Ernst_Reuter">Reuter
Ernst Reuter
Ernst Rudolf Johannes Reuter was the German mayor of West Berlin from 1948 to 1953, during the time of the Cold War.- Early years :...
West) went on line and West Berlin's electricity board declared independence from Eastern supplies. However, for a time Eastern electricity continued to be supplied albeit intermittently. Supply was interrupted from 1 July until the end of 1950 and then started again until 4 March 1952, when the East finally switched it off. From then on West Berlin turned into an 'electricity island' within a pan-European electricity grid that had developed from the 1920s, because electricity transfers between East and West Germany never fully ceased. The 'electricity island' situation was noticed most in situations of particularly high demand; in other areas of Europe peaks in demand could be met by tapping into electricity supplies from neighbouring areas, but in West Berlin this was not an option and for certain users the lights would go out.
In 1952 West Berliners were restricted entry to East Germany proper by means of a hard-to-obtain East German permit. Free entry to East Berlin remained possible until 1961 and the building of the Wall. Berlin's underground
Berlin U-Bahn
The Berlin is a rapid transit railway in Berlin, the capital city of Germany, and is a major part of the public transport system of that city. Opened in 1902, the serves 173 stations spread across ten lines, with a total track length of , about 80% of which is underground...
(Untergrundbahn, U-Bahn) and Berlin's S-Bahn
Berlin S-Bahn
The Berlin S-Bahn is a rapid transit system in and around Berlin, the capital city of Germany. It consists of 15 lines and is integrated with the mostly underground U-Bahn to form the backbone of Berlin's rapid transport system...
(a metropolitan public transit network), rebuilt after the war, continued to span all occupation sectors. Many people lived in one half of the city and had family, friends, and jobs in the other. However, the East continuously reduced the means of public transport between East and West, with private cars being a very rare privilege in the East and still a luxury in the West.
Starting on 15 January 1953 the tram network was interrupted. East Berlin's public transport operator Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG-East, BVB as of 1 January 1969) staffed all trams, whose lines crossed the sectorial border, with women drivers, which were not permitted as drivers by the BVG (West), West Berlin's public transport operator. Instead of changing the Western rules, so that the Easterly intended interruption of the cross-border tram traffic would not happen, the BVG (West) insisted on male drivers. So cross-border tram traffic ended on 16 January. In East German propaganda this was a point for the East, arguing that the West did not allow drivers coming with their trams from the East to continue along their line into the West, but remaining silent on the fact that the end of cross-border tram traffic was most welcome to the East. The underground and the S-Bahn networks, except the above-mentioned traverse S-Bahn trains, continued to provide services between East and West Berlin. However, occasionally the East Berlin police – in the streets and on cross-border trains in East Berlin – identified suspicious behaviour (such as carrying heavy loads westwards) and watched out for unwelcome Westerners.
Once in a while West Germans were banned from entering East Berlin. This was the case between 29 August and 1 September 1960, when so-called homecomers from all around West Germany and West Berlin met for a convention in that city. The homecomers from a long compulsory detention in the Soviet Union, with their special experiences there, were highly unwelcome in East Berlin. Since they could not be recognised by their identification papers all West Germans were banned for these days from East Berlin. West Berliners were allowed, since the quadripartite Allied status quo provided for their free movement around all four sectors. From 8 September 1960 on, the East subjected all West Germans to apply for a permit before entering East Berlin.
As the communist government in the East gained tighter control, and the economic recovery in the West significantly outperformed the Eastern development, more than a hundred thousand East Germans and East Berliners left East Germany and East Berlin for the West every year. East Germany closed the borders between East and West Germany and sealed off the border with West Berlin in 1952; but because of the quadripartite Allied status of the city, the 46 kilometres (28.6 mi)-long sectorial border between East and West Berlin remained open. As there was freedom of movement between West Berlin and West Germany, Easterners could use the city as a transit point to West Germany, usually travelling there by air.
To stop this drain of people defecting, the East German government built the Berlin Wall, thus physically closing off West Berlin from East Berlin and East Germany, on 13 August 1961. All Eastern streets, bridges, paths, windows, doors, gates or sewers opening to West Berlin were systematically sealed off by walls, concrete elements, barbed wire or bars. The Wall was directed against the Easterners, who by its construction were no longer allowed to leave the East, except with an Eastern permit, not usually granted.
Westerners were still granted visas on entering East Berlin. Initially eight street checkpoints were opened, and one checkpoint in the Berlin Friedrichstraße railway station
Berlin Friedrichstraße railway station
Berlin Friedrichstraße is a railway station in the German capital Berlin. It is located on the Friedrichstraße, a major north-south street in the Mitte district of Berlin, adjacent to the point where the street crosses the Spree river...
, which was reached by one line of the Western underground (today's U 6
U6 (Berlin U-Bahn)
U6 is a 19.9 km-long line on the Berlin U-Bahn with 29 stations. It belongs to the Großprofilnetz, that is larger profile rail vehicles run through its larger tunnels...
), two Western S-Bahn lines, one under and one above ground (approximate to today's S 2
S2 (Berlin)
S2 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Bernau to Blankenfelde over:*the Berlin-Szczecin railway, opened on 1 August 1842 and electrified on 8 August 1924,...
and S 3
S3 (Berlin)
S3 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Erkner to Spandau over:*the Lower Silesian-Markish Railway, opened on 23 October 1842 and electrified in 1928,*the Stadtbahn, opened on 7 February 1882 and electrified on 11 June 1928 and...
, however lines changed a lot from 1990 onwards), and transit trains between West Germany and West Berlin started and ended there.
Brandenburg Gate
The Brandenburg Gate is a former city gate and one of the most well-known landmarks of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city centre at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which...
, Friedrichstraße
Friedrichstraße
The Friedrichstraße is a major culture and shopping street in central Berlin, forming the core of the Friedrichstadt neighborhood. It runs from the northern part of the old Mitte district to the Hallesches Tor in the district of Kreuzberg...
(Checkpoint Charlie
Checkpoint Charlie
Checkpoint Charlie was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War....
in US military denomination, since this crossing was to their sector), Heinrich-Heine-Straße (also Checkpoint Delta), and Sonnenallee
Sonnenallee, Berlin
The Sonnenallee is a street in Berlin, Germany, connecting the districts of Neukölln and Treptow-Köpenick. The street is 5 km long, crossing Baumschulenstraße at its south east end and terminating at Hermannplatz in the north west. Sonnenallee was constructed at the end of the 19th century...
.
Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm , was a German politician, Mayor of West Berlin 1957–1966, Chancellor of West Germany 1969–1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany 1964–1987....
was on a West German federal election campaigning tour in West Germany. Arriving by train in Hanover at 4a.m. he was informed about the Wall and flew back to West Berlin's Tempelhof Central Airport
Tempelhof Central Airport
Tempelhof Central Airport was a United States Military airfield in West Berlin, Germany between 1945 and 1994.During its operational life, it was garrisoned by the United States Air Force, with units of the United States Army Berlin Brigade located within the facility...
.
In the course of the day he protested along with many other West Berliners on Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Platz
Potsdamer Platz is an important public square and traffic intersection in the centre of Berlin, Germany, lying about one kilometre south of the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag , and close to the southeast corner of the Tiergarten park...
and at the Brandenburg Gate. On 14 August, under the pretext that Western demonstrations required it, the East closed the checkpoint at the Brandenburg Gate, 'until further notice', a situation that was to last until 22 December 1989, when it was finally reopened.
On 26 August 1961 East Germany generally banned West Berliners from entering the Eastern sector. West Germans and other nationals however could still get visas on entering East Berlin. Since intra-city phone lines had been cut by the East already in May 1952 (see below) the only remaining way of communication with family or friends on the other side was by mail or at meeting in a motorway restaurant on a transit route, because the transit traffic remained unaffected throughout.
On 18 May 1962 East Germany opened the so-called Tränenpalast
Tränenpalast
The Tränenpalast is the Berlin colloquialism for the former border crossing station at the Berlin Friedrichstrasse railway station. The name comes from the many tearful goodbyes that took place in front of the building, where visiting citizens of the divided city had to say farewell to their East...
checkpoint hall (Palace of Tears) at Berlin Friedrichstraße station, where Easterners had to say a sometimes tearful farewell to returning Westerners as well as the few Easterners who had managed to get a permit to visit the West. Until June 1963 the East deepened its border zone around West Berlin in East Germany and East Berlin by clearing existing buildings and vegetation to create an open field of view, sealed off by the Berlin Wall towards the West and a second wall or fence of similar characteristics to the East, observed by armed men in towers, ordered to shoot possible refugees.
Finally in 1963 West Berliners were again allowed to visit East Berlin. On this occasion a further checkpoint for pedestrians only was opened on the Oberbaumbrücke
Oberbaumbrücke
The Oberbaum Bridge is a double-deck bridge crossing Berlin's River Spree, considered one of the city landmarks. It links Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg, former boroughs that were divided by the Berlin Wall, and has become an important symbol of Berlin’s unity....
. West Berliners were granted visas for a one-day-visit between 17 December 1963 and 5 January the following year. 1.2 million out of a total 1.9 million West Berliners visited East Berlin during this period. In 1964, 1965 and 1966 East Berlin was opened again to West Berliners, but each time only for a limited period.
East Germany found particular joy in playing with the different legal statuses it assigned to East Germans, East Berliners, West Germans, and West Berliners, as well as citizens from other countries in the world. Until 1990 East Germany designated each Border crossings in East Berlin for certain categories of persons, with only one street checkpoint being open simultaneously for West Berliners and West Germans (Bornholmer Straße) and Berlin Friedrichstraße railway station being open for all travellers.
On 9 September 1964, the East German Council of Ministers (government) decided to allow Eastern pensioners to visit family in West Germany or West Berlin. According to the specified regulations valid from 2 November on Eastern pensioners could apply, and were usually allowed, to travel into the West to visit relatives once a year for a maximum of four weeks. If pensioners decided not to return, the government did not miss them as manpower, unlike younger Easterners, who were subject to a system of labour and employment, which demanded almost everybody work in the Eastern command production system.
On 2 December 1964 East Germany, always short of hard currency, decreed that every Western visitor had to buy a minimum of 5 Eastern Mark der Deutschen Notenbank per day (MDN, 1964–1968 the official name of the East German mark, to distinguish it from the West Deutsche Mark) at the still held arbitrary compulsory rate of 1:1. The five marks had to be spent, as exporting Eastern currency was illegal, which is why importing it after having bargained for it at the currency market at Zoo station was also illegal. Western pensioners and children were spared from the compulsory exchange (officially in , i.e. minimum exchange). Not long after East Germany held the first cash harvest from the new compulsory exchange rules by allowing West Berliners to visit East Berlin once more for a day during the Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
season. The following year, 1965, East Germany opened the travelling season for West Berliners on 18 December. In 1966 it opened for a second harvest of Western money between the Easter
Easter
Easter is the central feast in the Christian liturgical year. According to the Canonical gospels, Jesus rose from the dead on the third day after his crucifixion. His resurrection is celebrated on Easter Day or Easter Sunday...
(10 April) and Pentecost
Pentecost
Pentecost is a prominent feast in the calendar of Ancient Israel celebrating the giving of the Law on Sinai, and also later in the Christian liturgical year commemorating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Christ after the Resurrection of Jesus...
(29 May) holidays and later again at Christmas.
The situation only changed fundamentally after 11 December 1971 when, representing the two German states, the Western Egon Bahr
Egon Bahr
Egon Karl-Heinz Bahr is a German SPD politician.The former journalist was the creator of the "Ostpolitik" promoted by West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, for whom he served as Secretary of the Prime Minister's Office from 1969 until 1972...
and the Eastern Michael Kohl signed the Transit Agreement
Transit Agreement (1972)
The Transit Agreement of 26 May 1972 arranged access to and from West Berlin from West Germany and secured the right of West Berliners to visit East Berlin and East Germany also secured the rights of GDR citizens to visit the FRG, but only in cases of family emergency.-References:*...
. This followed by a comparable agreement for West Berliners, once more allowing regular visits to East Germany and East Berlin.
After ratification of the Agreement and specifying the pertaining regulations West Berliners could apply for the first time again for visas for any chosen date to East Berlin or East Germany from 3 October 1972 onwards. If granted, a one-day-visa entitled them to leave the East until 2a.m. the following day. West Berliners were now spared the visa fee of 5 Western Deutsche Marks, not to be confused with the compulsory exchange amounting to the same sum, but yielding in return 5 Eastern marks. This financial relief did not last long, because on 15 November 1973 East Germany doubled the compulsory exchange to 10 Eastern marks, payable in West German Deutsche Marks at par.
One-day-visas for East Berlin were now issued in a fast procedure on entering East Berlin; visas for longer stays and visas for East Germany proper needed a prior application, which could be a lengthy procedure. To ease the application for West Berliners seeking such Eastern visas, the GDR Foreign Ministry was later allowed to open Offices for the Affairs of Visits and Travelling in West Berlin, but were not allowed to show any official symbols of East Germany. The Eastern officials working commuted every morning and evening between East and West Berlin. Their uniforms showed no official symbols except the name Büro für Besuchs- und Reiseangelegenheiten. They accepted visa applications and handed out confirmed visas issued in the East, to the West Berlin applicants. A shed formerly housing one such Büro für Besuchs- und Reiseangelegenheiten can be found on Waterlooufer 5–7 in Berlin-Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg, a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte since 2001, is one of the best-known areas of Berlin...
, close to Hallesches Tor underground station
Hallesches Tor (Berlin U-Bahn)
The underground station Hallesches Tor is part of the Berlin U-Bahn network at the intersection of the east-west bound U1 and the north-south bound U6 in the Kreuzberg district.-Overview:...
. The disagreement about Berlin's status was one of the most important debates of the Cold War.
Another form of traffic between East and West Berlin was the transfer of West Berlin's sewage into East Berlin and East Germany through the sewer pipes built in the late 19th and early 20th century. The sewage flowed into the East because most of the pre-war premises for sewage treatment, mostly sewage farm
Sewage farm
Sewage farms comprise agricultural land irrigated and fertilised with sewage.A precursor to modern sewage treatment systems, household sewage was collected from towns and cities and transported to nearby farm lands. During the middle ages this was accomplished with hand-carried buckets, but as...
s, happened to be in the East after the division of the city. Sewer pipes, however, once discovered as a way to flee the East, were blocked by bars. West Berlin paid for the treatment of its sewage in Western Deutsche Marks which were desperately needed by the Eastern government. Since the methods used in the East did not meet Western standards, West Berlin increased the capacity of modern sewage treatment within its own territory, so that the amount of its sewage treated in the East had considerably reduced by the time the Wall came down.
Similar was the situation with refuse. The removal, burning or disposal of the ever-growing amount of West Berlin's rubbish became a costly problem, but here too an agreement was found, since West Berlin would pay in Western Deutsche Marks. On 11 December 1974 East Germany and West Berlin's garbage utility company BSR signed a contract to dispose of refuse on a dump right beside the Wall in East German Groß-Ziethen (today a part of Schönefeld). An extra checkpoint, solely open for Western bin lorries was opened there. Later a second dump, further away, was opened in Vorketzin, a part of Ketzin
Ketzin
Ketzin is a town in the Havelland district, in Brandenburg, Germany. It is situated on the river Havel, 17 km northwest of Potsdam, and 40 km west of Berlin.-Geography:...
.
As for the S-Bahn, operated in all of Berlin by the East German Reichsbahn, the construction of the Wall meant a deep cut into its integrated network of lines, especially for Berlin's circular S-Bahn line around all of the Western and Eastern inner city. The lines were separated and those mostly located in West Berlin were continued, but only accessible from West Berlin with all access in East Berlin closed. However, even before the Wall had been built, West Berliners increasingly refrained from using the S-Bahn, since boycotts against it were issued, the argument being that every S-Bahn ticket bought provided the GDR government with valuable Western Deutsche Marks.
Usage dropped further as the Western public transport operator BVG (West) offered parallel bus lines and expanded its network of underground lines. After the construction of the Wall usage dropped so much that running the S-Bahn lines in West Berlin turned into a loss-making exercise: wages and maintenance costs – however badly it was carried out outdid the proceeds from ticket sales. So the Reichsbahn finally agreed to surrender operation of the S-Bahn in West Berlin, as had been determined by all Allies in 1945, and on 29 December 1983 the Allies, the Senate of Berlin (West; i.e. the city state government) and the Reichsbahn signed an agreement to change the operator from Reichsbahn to BVG (West) which took effect on 9 January 1984.
On 9 November 1989 East Germany opened the borders for East Germans and East Berliners, who could then freely enter West Berlin. West Berlin itself had never restricted their entry. For West Berliners and West Germans the opening of the border for free entry lasted longer. The regulation concerning one-day-visas on entering the East and the compulsory minimum exchange of 25 Western Deutsche Marks by 1989, continued. However, more checkpoints were opened. Finally on 22 December 1989 East Germany granted West Berliners and West Germans free entry without charge at the existing checkpoints, demanding only valid papers. Eastern controls were slowly eased into spot checks and finally abolished on 30 June 1990, the day East and West introduced the union concerning currency, economy and social security .
Traffic between different parts of West Berlin crossing the East
When the Wall was built in 1961 three metro lines starting in northern parts of West Berlin, passed through tunnels under the Eastern city centre and ended again in southern parts of West Berlin. The lines concerned were today's underground lines U 6U6 (Berlin U-Bahn)
U6 is a 19.9 km-long line on the Berlin U-Bahn with 29 stations. It belongs to the Großprofilnetz, that is larger profile rail vehicles run through its larger tunnels...
and U 8
U8 (Berlin U-Bahn)
U8 is a line on the Berlin U-Bahn. It has 24 stations and is 18.1 km long. The U8 is one of two north–south Berlin U-Bahn lines, and runs from Wittenau to Neukölln via Gesundbrunnen...
and the S-Bahn line S 2
S2 (Berlin)
S2 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Bernau to Blankenfelde over:*the Berlin-Szczecin railway, opened on 1 August 1842 and electrified on 8 August 1924,...
(today partly also used by other lines). On the sealing off of West Berlin from East Berlin by the Berlin Wall the entrances of the stations on these lines located in East Berlin were shut, however western trains were allowed to continue to pass through without stopping. Passengers in these trains experienced the empty and barely lit ghost stations where time had stood still since 13 August 1961. West Berlin's public transport operator BVG (West) paid the east an annual charge in Western Deutsche Marks for its underground lines to use the tunnels under East Berlin. U 6
U6 (Berlin U-Bahn)
U6 is a 19.9 km-long line on the Berlin U-Bahn with 29 stations. It belongs to the Großprofilnetz, that is larger profile rail vehicles run through its larger tunnels...
and S 2
S2 (Berlin)
S2 is a line on the Berlin S-Bahn. It operates from Bernau to Blankenfelde over:*the Berlin-Szczecin railway, opened on 1 August 1842 and electrified on 8 August 1924,...
also had one subterranean stop at the Eastern Berlin Friedrichstraße railway station
Berlin Friedrichstraße railway station
Berlin Friedrichstraße is a railway station in the German capital Berlin. It is located on the Friedrichstraße, a major north-south street in the Mitte district of Berlin, adjacent to the point where the street crosses the Spree river...
, the only station beneath East Berlin where western U Bahn trains were still allowed to stop. Passengers could change there between U 6, S 2 and the elevated S 3 (then starting and ending in Friedrichstraße) or for the transit trains to West Germany, buy duty free tobacco and liquor for west marks in GDR run kiosks, or enter East Berlin through an inbuilt checkpoint.
Post and telecommunications
West Berlin had its own postal administration first called Deutsche Post Berlin (1947–1955) and then Deutsche Bundespost BerlinDeutsche Bundespost Berlin
The Deutsche Bundespost Berlin was the governmental agency to provide mail and telecommunication services for West Berlin. This civil service agency was in operation from 1949 until 1990.-Historical background:...
, separate from West Germany's Deutsche Bundespost
Deutsche Bundespost
The Deutsche Bundespost was created in 1947 as a successor to the Reichspost . Between 1947 and 1950 the enterprise was called Deutsche Post...
, and issuing its own postage stamps until 1990. However the separation was merely symbolic; in reality West Berlin's postal service was completely integrated with West Germany's, using the same postal code system. East and West engaged each other in postal battles in 1948/1949 (during the Blockade) and 1959/1960 (World Year of the Refugees) refusing to transport messages with stamps showing values in the new East or West German currency or with special stamps showing subjects related to the Blockade or the fate of the World War II refugees
Expulsion of Germans after World War II
The later stages of World War II, and the period after the end of that war, saw the forced migration of millions of German nationals and ethnic Germans from various European states and territories, mostly into the areas which would become post-war Germany and post-war Austria...
.
The Post Office also ran the telephone network in Berlin. It was in a sorry state in all four sectors, because by July 1945, before the Western Allies took control of their sectors, the Soviets had dismantled and deported almost all automatic telephone switches, allowing direct dialling instead of operator connected calling. So Berlin's telephone network dropped from hundreds of thousands of connected telephones to a mere 750 in use by end of 1945, all of which were assigned to Allied staff or utility services. Rebuilding the system became a lengthy enterprise because of the post-war economic crisis and the following Berlin Blockade. On 25 February 1946 calls between Berlin and any of the four Allied zones of occupation were again made possible. In April 1949 the Eastern branch of the Deutsche Post disconnected all 89 existing telephone lines from West Berlin into the Soviet Zone of occupation in Germany.
Meanwhile West Berlin was integrated into the West German telephone network, using the same international dialling code as West Germany, +49, with the area code 030. On 27 May 1952 the Eastern Deutsche Post cut all 4,000 lines connecting East and West Berlin. In order to reduce Eastern tapping of telecommunications between West Berlin and West Germany microwave radio relay connections were built, which wirelessly transmitted telephone calls between antenna towers in West Germany and West Berlin, where two of which were built, one antenna in Berlin-Wannsee
Wannsee
Wannsee is a locality in the southwestern Berlin borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf, Germany. It is the westernmost locality of Berlin. In the quarter there are two lakes, the larger Großer Wannsee and the Kleiner Wannsee , are located on the river Havel and are separated only by the Wannsee bridge...
and later a second in Berlin-Frohnau
Frohnau
Frohnau is a locality in the Reinickendorf borough of Berlin, Germany. It lies in the extreme northern part of the city.- History :Founded in 1910, Frohnau was created whole as a planned community, corresponding to the early twentieth century idea of a Garden City...
, finished on 16 May 1980 with a height of 358 m (1,175 ft) (this tower was demolished on 8 February 2009).
Following the détente, on 31 January 1971 East Germany allowed the opening of 10 telephone lines between East and West Berlin. The Western area code for East Berlin was then 00372 (international access prefix 00, East German country code 37, area code 2). Calls from East Berlin were only possible with operator assistance. On 24 June 1972 East Germany opened 32 local exchanges (including Potsdam) in the East German suburbia of West Berlin for calls from West Berlin. From 14 April 1975 East Berliners could once again dial directly to West Berlin, without operator assistance. East Germany conceded to an increase in lines between East and West Berlin to 120 on 15 December 1981. However, private phones were very rare in the East. In 1989, the 17 million East Germans (including East Berliners) were served by only 4 million telephones, only half of which were installed in private homes, the rest being in offices, companies, public telephone kiosks, and the like.
Boroughs of West Berlin
West Berlin comprised the following boroughs:In the American Sector:
- NeuköllnNeuköllnNeukölln is the eighth borough of Berlin, located in the southeastern part of the city and was part of the former American sector under the Four-Power occupation of the city...
- KreuzbergKreuzbergKreuzberg, a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte since 2001, is one of the best-known areas of Berlin...
- SchönebergSchönebergSchöneberg is a locality of Berlin, Germany. Until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform it was a separate borough including the locality of Friedenau. Together with the former borough of Tempelhof it is now part of the new borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg....
- SteglitzSteglitzSteglitz is a locality of the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough in the south-west of Berlin, the capital of Germany. The locality also includes the neighbourhood of Südende.-History:...
- TempelhofTempelhofTempelhof is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg. It is the location of the former Tempelhof Airport, one of the earliest commercial airports in the world. It is now deserted and shows as a blank spot on maps of Berlin. Attempts are being made to save the still-existing...
- ZehlendorfZehlendorf (Berlin)Zehlendorf is a locality within the borough of Steglitz-Zehlendorf in Berlin. Before Berlin's 2001 administrative reform Zehlendorf was a borough in its own right, consisting of the locality of Zehlendorf as well as Wannsee, Nikolassee and Dahlem...
In the British Sector:
- CharlottenburgCharlottenburgCharlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen consort Sophia Charlotte...
- TiergartenTiergartenTiergarten is a locality within the borough of Mitte, in central Berlin . Notable for the great and homonymous urban park, before German reunification, it was a part of West Berlin...
- WilmersdorfWilmersdorfWilmersdorf is an inner city locality of Berlin, formerly a borough by itself but since Berlin's 2001 administrative reform a part of the new borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf.-History:...
- SpandauSpandauSpandau is the fifth of the twelve boroughs of Berlin. It is the fourth largest and westernmost borough, situated at the confluence of the Havel and Spree rivers and along the western bank of the Havel, but the least populated.-Overview:...
In the French Sector:
- ReinickendorfReinickendorfReinickendorf is the twelfth borough of Berlin. It encompasses the northwest of the city area, including the Berlin-Tegel Airport, Lake Tegel, spacious settlements of detached houses as well as housing estates like Märkisches Viertel.-Subdivision:...
- WeddingWedding (Berlin)Wedding is a locality in the borough of Mitte, Berlin, Germany and was a separate borough in the north-western inner city until it was fused with Tiergarten and Mitte in Berlin's 2001 administrative reform...
See also
- 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing1986 Berlin discotheque bombingThe 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing was a terrorist attack on the La Belle discothèque in West Berlin, Germany, an entertainment venue that was commonly frequented by United States soldiers...
- Berlin BrigadeBerlin BrigadeAfter the end of World War II, under the conditions of the Yalta and Potsdam agreements, Allied forces occupied West Berlin. This occupation lasted throughout the Cold War...
- Berlin Crisis of 1961Berlin Crisis of 1961The Berlin Crisis of 1961 was the last major politico-military European incident of the Cold War about the occupational status of the German capital city, Berlin, and of post–World War II Germany. The U.S.S.R...
- BonnBonnBonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
- Ghost stationGhost stationGhost stations is the usual English translation for the German word Geisterbahnhöfe. This term was used to describe certain stations on Berlin's U-Bahn and S-Bahn metro networks that were closed during the period of Berlin's division during the Cold War...
- History of Germany (1945–1990)
- Judgment in BerlinJudgment in BerlinJudgment in Berlin is a 1984 book by federal judge Herbert Jay Stern about a hijacking trial in the United States Court for Berlin in 1979, over which he presided....
- List of Commandants of Berlin Sectors
- Nonviolent revolutionNonviolent revolutionA nonviolent revolution is a revolution using mostly campaigns of civil resistance, including various forms of nonviolent protest, to bring about the departure of governments seen as entrenched and authoritarian...
- RAF GatowRAF GatowKnown for most of its operational life as Royal Air Force Station Gatow, or more commonly RAF Gatow, this former British Royal Air Force military airbase is in the district of Gatow in south-western Berlin, west of the Havel river, in the borough of Spandau...
- Spandau PrisonSpandau PrisonSpandau Prison was a prison situated in the borough of Spandau in western Berlin, constructed in 1876 and demolished in 1987 after the death of its last prisoner, Rudolf Hess, to prevent it from becoming a neo-Nazi shrine. The prison was near, though not part of, the Renaissance-era Spandau Citadel...
- Stunde NullStunde NullStunde Null is the German language equivalent of "zero hour", a military planning term indicating the beginning of some operation or event. Historically, Stunde Null specifically refers to the capitulation of the Nazi government on May 8, 1945, at midnight, marking the end of World War II in Germany...
- United States Army BerlinUnited States Army BerlinU.S. Army Berlin was a command of the United States Army created in December 1961 at the height of the Berlin Wall crisis. USAB was a combined command with the Headquarters, U.S. Command Berlin . This combined organization was sometimes called the "Berlin Command". USCOB/USAB was a separate...