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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.
During the division of Germany (1945–1990), West Berlin was controlled by the Western Allies (United States, United Kingdom, France), but was completely surrounded by the territory of East Germany and East Berlin.
Oct 17, 2024 · West Berlin, the western part of the German city of Berlin, which, until the reunification of Germany in 1990, was treated as a city and Land (state) of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany), though it was not constitutionally part of that.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Oct 22, 2024 · Life in West Berlin behind the wall was a unique experience marked by the division and isolation caused by the Berlin Wall. From 1961 to 1989, this physical barrier served as a symbolic and physical separation between West Berlin, a democratic enclave surrounded by East Germany. In this blog post,
- Special Political Status: Life Under Division and Occupation
- The Wall in The Cityscape
- “Ich Bin Ein Berliner:” Life with The Allies
- The Islanders Don’T Want to Give Up Their Peaceful Existence
- Period of Unrest
- Artists and The Art of Living
- Berlin Originals
- Heroes: Berlin’s Music Scene
- Kreuzberg
- West Berlin Today
Even if West Berlin’s Senate took care of day-to-day business for the partial from 1950, West Berlin retained a special political status until German reunification in 1990 because technically, West Berlin was not a part of any state. Though the city as a whole was initially governed by a Four Power Allied Control Council with a leadership that rota...
The wall divided the city, cutting across streets and squares. In urban districts such as Kreuzberg, the Wall would run directly on the streets or along rows of houses. The Wall also stood directly behind the Reichstag and then went in an arc around the Brandenburg Gate, which was marooned in the middle of no-man’s land. Waterways such as the River...
After the currency reform of 1948, Soviet troops sealed off West Berlin in a bid to secure economic and thus political control over all of Berlin. The American and British occupiers then began an airlift of food and coal to secure the survival of West Berlin until the end of the blockade. The West Berliners nicknamed the Allied planes the “Rosinenb...
For many West Berliners after the blockade and then the construction of the Wall thirteen years later, there was an island mentality, as West Berlin was seen as an island in a red sea of communism and the last bastion of Western values. Typical proof of this special brand of local patriotism was found in the song “Der Insulaner verliert die Ruhe ni...
In the late 60s and 70s, West Berlin was one of the strongholds of the student movement against the rigid structures of post-war society. The Vietnam War led many students to adopt a critical attitude against America which stood in sharp contrast to older West Berliners who tended to see the Allies as friends and protectors. Besides politics, the y...
The artistic life flourished in West Berlin. The bourgeois district of Friedenau was well known as the home of authors such as Günter Grass and Uwe Johnson. Theatres such as the Schaubühne put on experimental pieces and created new approaches to stage productions. Many people moved to West Berlin from towns in the West that they found to be too stu...
It’s now gone, but for years even after reunification, well-known German comedian and actor Harald Juhnke could be seen smiling from a now legendary advertising image for a Chinese restaurant. Harald Juhnke was one of the typical West Berlin celebrities in German film and television that shaped the image of the city, although in a very different wa...
There’s hardly anything else for which West Berlin is still well known as its vibrant music scene and subculture because, unlike in West German cities, there was no curfew. People went out all night to Dschungel, Risiko, SO 36, Shizzo, Penny Lane, Anderes Ufer, Frontkino, Ex’n’Pop, Kumpelnest 3000. Youth from suburban Berlin also liked to visit Lin...
The most famous district of West Berlin was and still is Kreuzberg, which was often seen as typical of the whole of Berlin. Kreuzberg, directly affected by the course of the Wall and pushed to the edge of eastern edge of West Berlin, was formerly a working class district with many, often ramshackle old buildings. It became a magnet for artists and ...
With the fall of the Berlin Wall, not only did East Germany but also the old West Berlin disappear. In the 1990s and early 2000s, the night-life scene shifted to the east, where new clubs emerged with new styles of music. Meanwhile, the renaissance of the newly dubbed City West has begun. With the renovated BIKINI Berlin and Zoo Palast, the Cumberl...
West Berlin was the name of the western part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It was the American, British, and French occupied sectors that were created in 1945. In many ways it was integrated (joined) with West Germany, but it was not a part of West Germany or East Germany. The Soviet sector became East Berlin, which East Germany claimed as ...
Aug 6, 2018 · But for 28 years this idyllic settlement on the Potsdam border was an East German enclave separated from West Berlin by the Berlin Wall and only accessible with special permission. The quirks of Klein Glienicke’s geographical borders sealed the village’s fate as an enclave when the German Democratic Republic was established on 7 October 1949.
