West-Berlin
| West Berlin West-Berlin Berlin (West) |
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| Western Allies-occupied sectors of Berlin | ||||||
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| Historical era | Cold War | |||||
| • | End of the Berlin Blockade | 12 May 1949 | ||||
| • | Reunification | 3 October 1990 | ||||
| Today part of |
 Berlin
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West Berlin was a city that existed in the period between the end of the Berlin Blockade on 12 May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990 as a political enclave surrounded by East Berlin and East Germany. It was 100 miles (161 kilometres) east 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 and shared economic, political, legal, and sporting systems with West Germany, but was not de jure part of it. It had a special and unique legal status because its administration was formally conducted by the Western Allies. East Berlin, de jure occupied and administered by the Soviet Union, was the de facto capital of East Germany. 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 biggest population of any city in Cold War 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 could 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 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).
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