Investigating the place of West Berlin in the history of divided Germany
The Division of Germany
Following World War II, Germany was divided into two separate entities: The East Germany which was officially refer to as the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and West Germany commonly referred to as the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). It’s necessity stemmed from poltical and ideological differences between the Soviet Union and other western allies.
The Status of West Berlin
Within such division, a special case that came up was the city of Berlin which is the capital of Germany. The city was split into both Eastern and West Berlin as well. Nevertheless, unlike the rest of the West Germany, West Berlin was not recognized as the FRG territory.
After the World War II was over the allies zone divided the city Berlin into four sections with the Russian controlling East Berlin and the American, British and French controlling west Berlin. Thus in 1949 in answer to the appearance of West Germany, the USSR created the GDR and declared East Berlin as the capital of this new formation.
On the other hand West Berlin was still governed by United States, United kingdom and France making it a capitalist surrounded territory of east Germany. It was not considered as a state in the Federal Republic of Germany, but it had most of the political, economic and social systems of the West Germany.
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The split of Berlin was beneficial for both sides and, at the same time, disadvantageous; the same can be said about West Berlin. While situated well inside the Eastern German territory, West Berlin represented the cold war and suffered it’s physical remoteness.
seriously affected was the invention of the wall in 1961 by East Germany that was aimed at preventing people from moving to West Berlin. The wall split residents’ households and their Dear ones, and its construction reiterated the barrier between East and West.
But, what is overlooked that West Berlin too had a certain edge. Despite its geographic isolation status it had strong bilateral relations with West Germany and it benefited from financial and economic assistance. This support helped West Berlin to grow and stabilise and despite its rather highly unusual position as a piece of a western state within a Soviet bloc country it became a very vibrant cultural and economic hub.
Reunification of Germany
The division of Germany and Berlin was also for several decades. Nonetheless, this world political situation started changing suddenly in 1989 when the Berlin Wall fell. This event triggered the reunification process thus disintegration of East and West Germany.
East Germany joined FRG in 1990 thus forming one Germany. Such meant that West Berlin which hitherto was an island finally became officially integrated into the rest of the Federal Republic of Germany.
Conclusion
In conclusion, one has to state that during the period of divided Germany, West Berlin was not a part of West Germany. The country was also an independent country within East Germany but had strong relationship with West Germany. In this case, peculiar conditions of West Berlin formed problems, yet at the same time, opened up possibilities for economical and cultural growth. West Berlin had been akin to being its own country since the construction of the Wall but with reunification the region became Germany once more and what had been a national tragedy was over.