Soviet sector of the divided city of Berlin

East Berlin Ost-Berlin Berlin (Ost)
Soviet-occupied sector of Berlin. (de jure), capital of East Germany. (de facto)
← 1949–1990 →   →
Flag Coat of arms
The four occupation zones of Berlin. East Berlin is shown in red.
Historical era		Cold War
•	Established	1949
•	Reunification	3 October 1990
Area
•	1989	409 km2(158 sq mi)
Population
•	1989	1,279,212
	Density	3,127.7 /km2  (8,100.6 /sq mi)

East Berlin existed between 1949 and 1990 and consisted of the Soviet sector of Berlin established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors became West Berlin, strongly associated with West Germany, while East Berlin was the de facto capital of East Germany. From 13 August 1961 until 9 November 1989, East Berlin was separated from West Berlin by the Berlin Wall.

In East German official usage, it became widespread in the 1970s to refer to the Western part of the city as "Westberlin", whilst calling the Eastern part simply "Berlin". (See also Naming conventions)

With the of 1944, the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union decided to divide Germany into three occupation zones and to establish a special area of Berlin, which was occupied by the three Allied Forces together. In May 1945, the Soviet Union installed a city government for the whole city that was called "Magistrate of Greater Berlin", which existed until 1947. After the war, the Allied Forces initially administrated the city together within the Allied Kommandatura, which served as the governing body of the city. However, in 1948 the Soviet representative left the Kommandatura and the common administration broke apart during the following months. In the Soviet sector, a separate city government was established, which continued to call itself "Magistrate of Greater Berlin".

When the German Democratic Republic was formed in 1949, it immediately claimed East Berlin as its capital - a claim that was recognized by all Communist countries. Nevertheless, its representatives to the People's Chamber were not directly elected and did not have full voting rights until 1981.

In June 1948, all railways and roads leading to West Berlin were blocked, and East Berliners were not allowed to legally emigrate. However, more than one-thousand East Germans were escaping to West Berlin each day by 1960. This was because the great amount of war reparations owed to the Soviet Union after World War II, combined with the massive destruction of industry and lack of assistance from the Marshall Plan put great strains on the East German economy. In August 1961, the East German Government tried to stop that from happening by building the Berlin Wall. It was very dangerous for illegal migrants to cross because of the presence of armed guards that were trained to shoot people in such cases.

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