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West Berlin West-Berlin Berlin-Ouest Berlin (West) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1948–1990 | |||||||||||
.svg) West Berlin (red) | |||||||||||
| Status | Western Allies–occupied sectors of Berlin Free city (De facto territory of the Federal Republic of Germany) | ||||||||||
| Official languages | German | ||||||||||
| Governing Mayor | |||||||||||
• 1948–1953 (first) | Ernst Reuter (SPD) | ||||||||||
• 1989–1990 (last) | Walter Momper (SPD) | ||||||||||
| Historical era | Cold War | ||||||||||
• Soviet-backed coup against the elected government of Berlin | November 1948 | ||||||||||
| 3 October 1990 | |||||||||||
| Area | |||||||||||
| 1989 | 479.9 km2 (185.3 sq mi) | ||||||||||
| Population | |||||||||||
• 1989 | 2,130,525 | ||||||||||
| Currency | Deutsche Mark (official) United States dollar (also widely used) | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| Today part of | Germany | ||||||||||
| History of Berlin |
|---|
 |
| Margraviate of Brandenburg (1157–1806) |
| Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918) |
| German Empire (1871–1918) |
| Free State of Prussia (1918–1947) |
| Weimar Republic (1919–1933) |
| Nazi Germany (1933–1945) |
| West Germany and East Germany (1945–1990) |
|
| Federal Republic of Germany (1990–present) |
| See also |
West Berlin (German: Berlin (West) or West-Berlin, German pronunciation: [ˈvɛstbɛʁˌliːn] ) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin from 1948 until 1990, during the Cold War. Although West Berlin lacked any sovereignty and was under military occupation until German reunification in 1990, the territory was claimed by the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG or West Germany), despite being entirely surrounded by the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany). The legality of this claim was contested by the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries. However, West Berlin de facto aligned itself politically with the FRG from May 1949 and was thereafter treated as a de facto city-state of that country. After 1949, it was directly or indirectly represented in the institutions of the FRG, and most of its residents were citizens of the FRG.
West Berlin was formally controlled by the Western Allies and entirely surrounded by East Berlin and East Germany. West Berlin had great symbolic significance during the Cold War, as it was widely considered by westerners an "island of freedom."[1] It was heavily subsidized by West Germany as a "showcase of the West."[2] A wealthy city, West Berlin was noted for its distinctly cosmopolitan character, and as a centre of education, research and culture. With about two million inhabitants, West Berlin had the largest population of any city in Germany during the Cold War era.[3]
West Berlin was 160 km (100 mi) east and north of the inner German border and only accessible by land from West Germany by narrow rail and highway corridors. It consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors established in 1945. The Berlin Wall, built in 1961, physically separated West Berlin from its East Berlin and East German surroundings until it fell in 1989.[4] On 3 October 1990, the day Germany was officially reunified, East and West Berlin united, joined the Federal Republic as a Stadtstaat (city-state) and eventually became the capital of Germany again.
- ^ Daum, Andreas W. (2000). "America's Berlin, 1945‒2000: Between Myths and Visions". In Trommler, Frank (ed.). Berlin: The New Capital in the East (PDF). Johns Hopkins University. pp. 49–73. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 June 2021. Retrieved 2 March 2021.
- ^ Tobias Hochscherf, Christoph Laucht, Andrew Plowman, Divided, But Not Disconnected: German Experiences of the Cold War, p. 109, Berghahn Books, 2013, ISBN 9781782381006
- ^ "Berlin: Where Rivalry of East, West Soars" Archived 31 March 2019 at the Wayback Machine, U.S. News & World Report, 18 July 1983
- ^ "1961: Berliners wake to divided city" Archived 25 January 2021 at the Wayback Machine, BBC News