West Berlin

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Image:Wberlin transport 78.jpg West Berlin was the name given to the western part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors established in 1945. It was closely aligned with, although legally not a part of, West Germany. The Soviet sector became East Berlin, which East Germany claimed as its capital; however, as the whole city was legally under four-power occupation, the Western Allies did not recognize this claim. The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 sealed the border to West Berlin, which since the end of the Second World War had been surrounded by communist East Berlin and East Germany.

Officially West Berlin was called "Berlin (West)" by West Germany while the East German government referred to West Berlin as "Westberlin", although they began to use "Berlin (West)" in the period just before reunification. East Berlin was officially called Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR ("Berlin, Capital of the GDR"), or simply "Berlin," by East Germany.

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Origins

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 sovereignty of the four major wartime allies -- the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union -- until a German government acceptable to them all could be reconstituted. Germany would be divided into four sectors, each administered by one of the allies. Berlin, though surrounded by the Soviet sector, 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 only end as a result of a four-power agreement. (This clause did not apply to Germany as a whole.) The western allies were guaranteed an air corridor to their sectors of Berlin, and the Soviets also informally allowed road and rail access between West Berlin and the western parts of Germany.

Image:Occupiedberlin.png Image:WestBerlinBoroughs.png

At first, this arrangement was officially a temporary administrative expedient, and all parties declared 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 entirely separate city administrations. In 1948, the Soviets tried to force the issue and expel the western allies from Berlin by imposing a land blockade on the western sectors. The west responded by using its guaranteed air corridors to resupply the city in what became known as the Berlin Airlift. In May 1949, the Soviets lifted their blockade, and the future of West Berlin as a separate jurisdiction was ensured. By the end of that year, 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 (East Germany) in the East - with West Berlin an enclave surrounded by, but not part of, the latter.

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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 and the German Democratic Republic. However, because the occupation of Berlin could only be ended by a four-party agreement, Berlin remained occupied territory under the formal sovereignty of the allies. (The Soviets unilaterally declared the occupation of East Berlin at an end along with the rest of East Germany, but this move was not recognized by the western allies.)

In many ways, West Berlin functioned as a de facto part of West Germany, and was portrayed on maps as being a part of that state. Inhabitants of West Berlin were West German citizens, and there was freedom of movement (to the extent allowed by geography) between West Berlin and West Germany.

But the western allies remained the ultimate political authorities there. West Berlin was run by an elected Mayor and city government at Rathaus Schöneberg, but this government formally derived its authority from the occupying forces, not its electoral mandate. West Berlin was not considered to be a Bundesland, nor part of one, and the Grundgesetz (constitution of the Federal Republic) had no application there.

This 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 citizens of the Federal Republic, West Berliners could still be elected from party lists to the proportional seats in the Bundestag; West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt became Chancellor through this method in 1969.

The ambiguous status of West Berlin also meant that men there were exempt from the Federal Republic's compulsory military service; this exemption made the city a popular home for West German youths, which resulted in a flourishing counterculture that became one of the defining features of the city.

Other anomalies included "provisional ID cards" without the German coat of arms, a ban on Lufthansa flights to the city, and a West Berlin postal administration, separate from West Germany's, which issued its own postage stamps until 1990.

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The years of division

While West Berlin was a formally separate jurisdiction from East Berlin after 1949, there was for more than a decade freedom of movement between the two, and in many ways Berlin still functioned as a single city. The U-Bahn and S-Bahn public transit networks, rebuilt after the war, spanned all occupation sectors. Many people lived in one half of the city and had family members, friends, and jobs in the other.

As the Cold War continued, many East Germans began leaving East Germany for the West. East Germany closed the borders between East and West Germany in 1952, but did not seal off West Berlin; because there was freedom of movement between West Berlin and West Germany, Easterners could use the city as a transit point to the West. It was in large part to stop this drain that the East German government built the Berlin Wall, thus physically closing off West Berlin from East Germany, on August 13, 1961. It was still possible to travel from West Berlin to West Germany by air and by specific rail and autobahn routes set aside for that purpose, but inhabitants of the two Berlins were now physically and legally separated from each other.

On June 26, 1963, U.S. President John F. Kennedy visited West Berlin and gave a public speech known for its famous phrase "Ich bin ein Berliner." At the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, President Ronald Reagan would provide an important 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 November 9, 1989 the wall was opened, and the two cities were once again physically - though still not legally - united. The so-called 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 October 3, 1990 West Berlin and East Berlin were united as the city of Berlin, which then acceded to the Federal Republic as a Bundesland, along with the rest of East Germany. West Berlin and East Berlin thus both formally ceased to exist.

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Districts of West Berlin

West Berlin comprised the following boroughs:

In the American Sector:

In the British Sector:

In the French Sector:

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See also

als:Westberlin bs:Zapadni Berlin ca:Berlín Oest cs:Západní Berlín da:Vestberlin de:West-Berlin et:Lääne-Berliin fr:Berlin-Ouest ko:서베를린 id:Berlin Barat it:Berlino Ovest jv:Berlin Kulon nl:West-Berlijn ja:西ベルリン pl:Berlin Zachodni ru:Западный Берлин sh:Zapadni Berlin sk:Západný Berlín sr:Западни Берлин fi:Länsi-Berliini sv:Västberlin th:เบอร์ลินตะวันตก

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