Staaken ( German pronunciation: [ˈʃtaːkŋ̍] ) is a locality at the western rim of Berlin within the borough of Spandau .
101-813: First mentioned in a 1273 deed as Stakene (from Middle Low German : staken , "stakes") in the Mittelmark region of the Margraviate of Brandenburg , the linear settlement probably arose around 1200 in the course of the German eastward migration . The estates were then held by the Benedictine nunnery of Spandau; after the Protestant Reformation they fell to the Spandau municipal administration. The former village became part of Berlin by
202-462: A garden city around the historic village centre in the west to larger 1960s and 1970s housing estates in the east. The locality of Staaken includes six sites ( German : Ortslagen ) or neighbourhoods ( Siedlungen ): Staaken is served by RegionalExpress and RegionalBahn trains of the Deutsche Bahn at the stations Staaken and Albrechtshof . A S-Bahn connection to Albrechtshof
303-469: A transit visa for a fee of 5 Western Deutsche Mark . For journeys between West Berlin and Poland or Czechoslovakia through East Germany, each traveller was also required to present a valid visa for the destination country. The transit routes for road travel connecting West Berlin to other destinations usually consisted of autobahns and other highways, marked by Transit signs. Transit travellers (German: Transitreisende ) were prohibited to leave
404-753: A "third" German jurisdiction, called an "independent political unit" ( German : selbständige politische Einheit ). On maps of East Berlin, West Berlin often did not appear as an adjacent urban area but as a monochrome terra incognita, sometimes showing the letters WB, meaning "Westberlin" ( German : Westberlin ) or overlaid with a legend or pictures. It was often labelled "Westberlin special political area" ( German : Besonderes politisches Gebiet Westberlin ). The Federal Republic of Germany issued West German passports to West Berliners on request that showed West Berlin as their place of residence. However, West Berliners could not use their passports for crossing East German borders and were denied entrance by any country of
505-497: A lengthening e or i , by doubling the following consonants (after short vowels) or by adding h after the following consonants. Lasch distinguished the following large dialect groups, emphasising that she based it strictly on the orthography, which may often omit strongly dialectal phenomena in favour of more prestigious/"standard" forms. Nevertheless, the dialect groups broadly correspond with modern ones. Westphalian ( HG : Westfälisch , Dutch : Westfaals ): Broadly speaking,
606-672: A locality of the Spandau Borough. Albrechtshof station had been the site of a rail border crossing , it was closed in 1961 after an East German train driver , Harry Deterling, fled from the GDR by breaking through the barriers towards the Gartenstadt Staaken in West Berlin with a whole train. The event was dramatised in the 1963 West German film Durchbruch Lok 234 (The Breakthrough). The route to Albrechtshof
707-788: A long stretch of coastal regions from the Zuiderzee in the West to East Prussia in the East. Its orthographic habits come closest to what was traditionally perceived as a MLG standard (the Lübeck standard , nowadays disputed). Some features: Short /e/ and /i/ in open syllables are stretched into a [ɛː] -like vowel. The personal suffixes -er and -ald appear as -ar and -old . The pronouns mî (1.sg.), dî (2.sg.) and jû (2.pl.) are used for both dative and accusative. Three subgroups can be distinguished: (1) East Frisian and Oldenburgish , i.e.
808-685: A natural border. Main cities: Hanover , Hildesheim , Brunswick , Goslar , Göttingen , Magdeburg , Halle (early times). The area within the Elbe's drainage was established by colonisation and is in many ways special. The southern part of this Elbe Eastphalian ( HG : Elbostfälisch ) area switched to High German already in Late Medieval times. Some features : Umlaut is more productive, occurring before -ich and -isch (e.g. sessisch 'Saxon, Low German') and shifting also e to i (e.g. stidde for stêde 'place'). Diphthongised short /o/
909-591: A second in Berlin- Frohnau , finished on 16 May 1980 with a height of 358 m (1,175 ft). This tower was demolished on 8 February 2009. West Berliners could travel to West Germany and all Western and non-aligned states at all times, except during the Berlin Blockade by the Soviet Union (24 June 1948 to 12 May 1949) when there were restrictions on passenger flight capacity imposed by
1010-445: A sign of length, like oi = /oː/ ). The "breaking" of old short vowels in open syllables and before /r/ was often marked in writing (e.g. karn instead of korn ). Old geminated /jj/ and sometimes /ww/ was hardened into [ɡ] ; /ft/ frequently shifted to /xt/ (sometimes reversed in writing); /s/ instead of /ʃ/ ( sal vs schal ). The native present plural verbs was -et but the written norm often impressed -en . Similarly,
1111-425: A similar way the oblique form mik ('me') with "standard" mî . Unusually, there is also a dative pronoun (1.sg. mê ). Lexically, close connections with Nordalbingian. Unusual plural menne ('men'). (South) Brandenburgish ( HG : (Süd-)Brandenburgisch ) and East Anhaltish ( HG : Ostanhaltisch ): Roughly between the middle Elbe and the middle Oder, and along the middle Havel, bordering old Sorbian territory to
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#17327797423831212-752: Is Low German but whose inhabitants already spoke mostly/exclusively High German when the Reformation set in). Sub-periods of Middle Low German are: Middle Low German was the lingua franca of the Hanseatic League , spoken all around the North Sea and the Baltic Sea . It used to be thought that the language of Lübeck was dominant enough to become a normative standard (the so-called Lübecker Norm ) for an emergent spoken and written standard, but more recent work has established that there
1313-520: Is a modern term used with varying degrees of inclusivity. It is distinguished from Middle High German , spoken to the south, which was later replaced by Early New High German . Though Middle Dutch is today usually excluded from MLG (although very closely related), it is sometimes, especially in older literature, included in MLG, which then encompasses the dialect continuum of all high-medieval Continental Germanic dialects outside MHG , from Flanders in
1414-711: Is highly unlikely. The car traffic, travelling along F 5 between West Berlin and the East German Democratic Republic or the West German Federal Republic , e.g. to Hamburg , was subject to the Interzonal traffic regulations that between West Germany and West Berlin followed the special regulations of the Transit Agreement (1972) . On 1 January 1988 the transit traffic to West Berlin was redirected to
1515-661: Is no evidence for this and that Middle Low German was non-standardised. Middle Low German provided a large number of loanwords to languages spoken around the Baltic Sea as a result of the activities of Hanseatic traders. Its traces can be seen in the Scandinavian , Finnic , and Baltic languages , as well as Standard High German and English . It is considered the largest single source of loanwords in Danish , Estonian , Latvian , Norwegian and Swedish . Beginning in
1616-578: Is planned. The Bundesstraße 5 federal highway runs through the locality along Heerstraße. Middle Low German Middle Low German is a developmental stage of Low German . It developed from the Old Saxon language in the Middle Ages and has been documented in writing since about 1225/34 ( Sachsenspiegel ). During the Hanseatic period (from about 1300 to about 1600), Middle Low German
1717-465: Is rarely marked as such, contrary to other dialects. Before /r/ , e and a are frequently interchanged for each other. Unstressed o (as in the suffix -schop ) frequently changes into u ( -schup ). The modal verb for 'shall/should' features /ʃ/ , not /s/ (i.e. schal ). The past participle's prefix was commonly spoken e- but mostly written ge- under prescriptive influence. The local form ek ('I' (pron. 1.sg.)) competed with "standard" ik ; in
1818-790: The Wends along the lower Elbe until about 1700 or the Kashubians of Eastern Pomerania up to modern times. In the North, the Frisian -speaking areas along the North Sea diminished in favour of Saxon, esp. in East Frisia which largely switched to MLG since the mid-14th century. North of the Elbe , MLG advanced slowly into Sleswick , against Danish and North Frisian , although the whole region
1919-598: The Baltic Sea (the 'East Sea'), their territory being called Ôsterlant ('East-land'), their inhabitants Ôsterlinge ('Eastlings'). This appellation was later expanded to other German Hanseatic cities and it was a general name for Hanseatic merchants in the Netherlands, e.g. in Bruges where they had their komptôr (office; see Kontor ). In the 16th century, the term nedderlendisch (lit. 'Lowland-ish, Netherlandish ') gained ground, contrasting Saxon with
2020-759: The Berlin Airlift . In May 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade, and West Berlin as a separate city with its own jurisdiction was maintained. Following the Berlin Blockade, normal contacts between East and West Berlin resumed. This was temporary until talks were resumed. In 1952, the East German government began sealing its borders, further isolating West Berlin. As a direct result, electrical grids were separated and phone lines were cut. The Volkspolizei and Soviet military personnel also continued
2121-488: The Berlin Wall cut through the two parts of Staaken, with one East German border crossing on Heerstraße. Since 1 January 1971 western Staaken, officially simply named Staaken, formed a municipality of its own, with a population amounting to 4,146 at that time. On 3 October 1990, the day of unification of East Germany, East and West Berlin with the West German Federal Republic of Germany both Staakens reunited to form
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#17327797423832222-960: The Bundestag in Bonn by 22 non-voting delegates chosen by the House of Representatives. Similarly, the Senate (the city's executive) sent four non-voting delegates to the Bundesrat . In addition, when the first direct elections to the European Parliament were held in 1979, West Berlin's three members were instead indirectly elected by the House of Representatives. However, as West German citizens , West Berliners were able to stand for election in West Germany. For example, Social Democrat Willy Brandt , who eventually became Chancellor,
2323-545: The Eastern Bloc , since governments of these countries held the view that West Germany was not authorized to issue legal papers for West Berliners. Since West Berlin was not a sovereign state, it did not issue passports. Instead, West Berliners were issued with "auxiliary identity cards" by the West Berlin authorities. These differed visually from the regular West German identity cards, with green bindings instead of
2424-655: The Federal Republic of Germany . The West German Federal Government, as well as the governments of most western nations, considered East Berlin to be a "separate entity" from East Germany, and while the Western Allies later opened embassies in East Berlin, they recognised the city only as the seat of government of the GDR, not as its capital . Communist countries, however, did not recognise West Berlin as part of West Germany and usually described it as
2525-502: The German dialects in the uplands to the south. It became dominant in the High German dialects (as ENHG niderländisch , which could also refer to the modern Netherlands ), while sassisch remained the most widespread term within MLG. The equivalent of 'Low German' ( NHG niederdeutsch ) seems to have been introduced later on by High German speakers and at first applied especially to Netherlanders. Middle Low German
2626-605: The Greater Berlin Act of 1920. The development of the area started with the construction of the Staaken garden city by architect Paul Schmitthenner in 1914. At the beginning of World War I the Luftschiffbau Zeppelin company acquired large estates in Staaken, where from 1915 on it manufactured zeppelin airships and the series of one-off Riesenflugzeug "giant" multi-engined bombers, among
2727-515: The Lower Rhine , MLG bordered on closely related Low Franconian dialects whose written language was mainly Middle Dutch . In earlier times, these were sometimes included in the modern definition of MLG (cf. Terminology ). In the South, MLG bordered on High German dialects roughly along the northern borders of Hesse and Thuringia . The language border then ran eastwards across the plain of
2828-690: The Staaken Studios and used as the location for various film productions , e.g. parts of Fritz Lang 's Metropolis . In 1929 the estate was sold to the City of Berlin, while parts of the airport were still used by the Deutsche Luft Hansa for flight training and maintenance purposes. In Albrechtshof the Demag ( Deutsche Maschinenfabrik AG ) built Panther tanks during World War II using forced labour of over 2,500 prisoners held in
2929-589: 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 ." It was heavily subsidized by West Germany as a "showcase of the West." 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
3030-432: The de facto 11th state of West Germany and was depicted on maps published in the West as being a part of West Germany. There was freedom of movement (to the extent allowed by geography) between West Berlin and West Germany . There were no separate immigration regulations for West Berlin, all immigration rules for West Germany being followed in West Berlin. West German entry visas issued to visitors were stamped with "for
3131-493: The 15th century, Middle Low German fell out of favour compared to Early Modern High German, which was first used by elites as a written and, later, a spoken language. Reasons for this loss of prestige include the decline of the Hanseatic League, followed by political heteronomy of Northern Germany and the cultural predominance of Central and Southern Germany during the Protestant Reformation and Luther's translation of
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3232-488: The Basic Law as binding law superior to Berlin state law (Article 1, clauses 2 and 3). However, that became statutory law only on 1 September and only with the inclusion of the western Allied provision according to which Art. 1, clauses 2 and 3, were deferred for the time being; the clauses became valid law only on 3 October 1990 (the day of Germany's unification). It stated: Article 87 is interpreted as meaning that during
3333-488: The Bible . The description is based on Lasch (1914) which continues to be the authoritative comprehensive grammar of the language but is not necessarily up-to-date in every detail. It is not rare to find the same word in MLG affected by one of the following phonological processes in one text and unaffected by it in another text because the lack of a written standard, the dialectal variation and ongoing linguistic change during
3434-627: The British or American sectors after 1945, so that parts of West Berlin came to be surrounded by East Germany Furthermore, the Gatow/Staaken exchange in August 1945 resulted in the geographically western half of Berlin-Staaken, which was located in the western outskirts of the city, becoming de jure Soviet occupied. However, the de facto administration remained with the Borough of Spandau in
3535-519: The British sector. Therefore, all inhabitants of Staaken could vote in West Berlin's city state elections in 1948 and 1950. On 1 February 1951, East German Volkspolizei surprised the people of western Staaken by occupying the area and ended its administration by the Spandau Borough; instead, western Staaken became an exclave of the Soviet occupied borough Berlin-Mitte in the city centre. However, on 1 June 1952, western Staaken's de facto administration
3636-472: The British sector: In the French sector: West Berlin's border was identical to the municipal boundary of Berlin as defined in the Greater Berlin Act of 1920 and amended in 1938, and the border between the Soviet sector and the French, British, and American sectors respectively, which followed the boundaries of Berlin administrative boroughs as defined in the same years. Another amendment was added in 1945 at
3737-439: The East German government, border guards would calculate the travel duration from the time of entry and exit of the transit route. Excessive time spent for transit travel could arouse their suspicion and prompt questioning or additional checking by the border guards. Western coaches could stop only at dedicated service areas since the East German government was concerned that East Germans might potentially use coaches to escape into
3838-628: The Federal Republic of Germany, including the State of Berlin", in German " für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland einschl. [einschließlich] des Landes Berlin ", prompting complaints from the Soviet Union. However, this wording remained on the visas throughout the rest of the entire period of West Berlin's existence. West Berlin remained under military occupation until 3 October 1990, the day of unification of East Germany, East and West Berlin with
3939-544: The GDR), replacing the formerly used term Demokratisches Berlin , or simply "Berlin", by East Germany, and "Berlin (Ost)" by the West German Federal government. Other names used by West German media included "Ost-Berlin", "Ostberlin", or "Ostsektor." These different naming conventions for the divided parts of Berlin, when followed by individuals, governments, or media, commonly indicated their political leanings, with
4040-500: The Middle Low German (MLG) era. General notes Specific notes on nasals (Indented notes refer to orthography.) Specific notes on stops and fricatives Specific notes on approximants Modern renderings of MLG (like this article) often use circumflex or macron to mark vowel length (e.g. â or ā ) to help the modern reader, but original MLG texts marked vowel length not by accents but by doubling vowels, by adding
4141-483: The Southeast. Main cities: Berlin , Frankfurt/Oder , Zerbst . A colonial dialect strongly influenced by settlers speaking Low Franconian. Also strongly influenced by High German early on. Some features : Old long ê and ô were diphthongised into [iə] and [uə] , written i and u . Old Germanic coda /n/ is restored, contrary to Ingvaeonic sound changes , e.g. gans 'goose'. Present plural of verbs features
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4242-493: The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall! On 9 November 1989, the Wall was opened, and the two parts of the city were once again physically—though at this point not legally—united. The Two Plus Four Treaty , signed by the two German states and the four wartime allies, paved the way for German reunification and an end to
4343-402: The Soviets also informally allowed road and rail access between West Berlin and the western parts of Germany (see section on traffic). At first, this arrangement was intended to be of a temporary administrative nature, with all parties declaring that Germany and Berlin would soon be reunited. However, as the relations between the Western Allies and the Soviet Union soured and the Cold War began,
4444-549: The Soviets would accept the offer because East Germany would lose important industry, but hoped that making the proposal would reduce tensions between the western and eastern blocs, and perhaps hurt relations between the USSR and East Germany if they disagreed on accepting the offer. While the Kennedy administration seriously considered the idea, it did not make the proposal to the Soviet Union. NATO also took an increased interest in
4545-432: The Wall was built, East Germany wanted to control Western Allied patrols upon entering or leaving East Berlin, a practice that the Western Allies regarded as unacceptable. After protests to the Soviets, the patrols continued uncontrolled on both sides, with the tacit agreement that the western Allies would not use their patrolling privileges for helping Easterners to flee to the West. In many ways, West Berlin functioned as
4646-725: The West to the eastern Baltic. Middle Low German covered a wider area than the Old Saxon language of the preceding period, due to expansion to the East and, to a lesser degree, to the North. In the East, the MLG-speaking area expanded greatly as part of the Ostsiedlung (settlement of the East) in the 12th to 14th century and came to include Mecklenburg , Brandenburg , Pomerania and (Old) Prussia , which were hitherto dominated by Slavic and Baltic tribes. Some pockets of these native peoples persisted for quite some time, e.g.
4747-510: The West. On 1 September 1951, East Germany, because of a shortage in foreign currencies , started to levy road tolls on cars using the transit routes. At first, the toll amounted to 10 Ostmark per passenger car and 10 to 50 for trucks, depending on size. Ostmarks had to be exchanged into Deutsche Mark at a rate of 1:1. On 30 March 1955, East Germany raised the toll for passenger cars to 30 Deutsche Marks, but after West German protests, in June of
4848-405: The Western Allies' occupation of West Berlin. On 3 October 1990—the day Germany was officially reunified—East and West Berlin formally reunited as the city of Berlin, which then joined the enlarged Federal Republic as a city-state along the lines of the existing West German city-states of Bremen and Hamburg . Walter Momper , the mayor of West Berlin, became the first mayor of the reunified city in
4949-610: The administration of four Allies (the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union , and France) 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
5050-433: The airfield and adjacent Neu-Jerusalem located there, and ended the administration by the Spandau Borough; instead West Staaken became an exclave of East Berlin's then Borough of Mitte . This gave rise to the confusing fact, that the geographically western Staaken was part of the politically Eastern East Berlin at the geographically western outskirts of West Berlin , while the geographically eastern Staaken remained with
5151-431: The airlift. Travelling to and from West Berlin by road or train always required passing through East German border checks, since West Berlin was an enclave surrounded by East Germany and East Berlin. On 2 October 1967, six years after the Wall was constructed, tram tracks in West Berlin were removed because the authorities wanted to promote car usage, meaning that the tram system remaining today runs almost entirely within
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#17327797423835252-483: The approval of the city's legislature. The ambiguous legal status of the city, then still legally styled as Greater Berlin (although technically only comprising the western sectors), meant that West Berliners were not eligible to vote in federal elections. In their notification of permission of 12 May 1949 the three western military governors for Germany explained their proviso in No. 4, as follows: A third reservation concerns
5353-423: The area between the middle Weser and lower Rhine . Main cities: Münster , Paderborn , Dortmund , Bielefeld , Osnabrück . Some Saxon dialects in the modern Netherlands (esp. modern Gelderland and Overijssel ) belonged to this group. Dutch influence on them strongly increased since the 15th century. Some features : In the West, strong influence from Low Franconian orthographic patterns (e.g. e or i as
5454-481: The areas further east, like Mecklenburg , Pomerania , northern Brandenburg (Prignitz, Uckermark, Altmark), Old Prussia , Livonia . Very close to Nordalbingian . While the Eastern dialects are today clearly distinguished from the West by their uniform present plural verb ending in -en (against Western uniform -(e)t ), in MLG times, both endings competed against each other in West and East. Main towns: Lübeck, Wismar , Rostock , Stralsund . High German influence
5555-472: The areas west of the lower Weser , in the North including dialects on Frisian substrate. As can be expected, there is much Westphalian, Dutch and Frisian influence ( hem next to em 'him'; plurals in -s ; vrent next to vrünt 'friend'). (2) Nordalbingian , between the lower Weser and the lower Elbe , and also Holstein on the right bank of the lower Elbe . main towns: Hamburg , Bremen , Lunenburg , Kiel . (3) East Elbian , including Lübeck and
5656-522: The border between the British sector of Berlin (ceding West-Staaken ) and the Soviet zone (ceding the Seeburg Salient ) so that the Wehrmacht airfield at Berlin-Gatow became part of the British sector and the airfield at Berlin-Staaken became part of the Soviet sector. The resulting borderline was further complicated with a lot of geographical oddities, including a number of exclaves and enclaves that Greater Berlin had inside some neighbouring municipalities since 1920, all of which happened to become part of
5757-477: The centre-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung using "Ost-Berlin" and the centre-left Süddeutsche Zeitung using "Ostberlin." After the Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer suggested to U.S. President John F. Kennedy that the United States propose a swap of West Berlin with Thuringia and parts of Saxony and Mecklenburg ; the city's population would have been relocated to West Germany. Adenauer did not believe that
5858-463: The commanders-in-chief rejected a bill, it did not become law in West Berlin; this, for example, was the case with West German laws on military duty. West Berlin was run by the elected Governing Mayor and Senate seated at Rathaus Schöneberg . The Governing Mayor and Senators (ministers) had to be approved by the Western Allies and thus derived their authority from the occupying forces, not from their electoral mandate. The Soviets unilaterally declared
5959-463: The day East and West introduced the union concerning currency, economy and social security ( German : Währungs-, Wirtschafts- und Sozialunion ). Staaken borders on the localities of Spandau proper, Falkenhagener Feld and Wilhelmstadt . In the west it shares border with the Brandenburg municipalities of Falkensee and Dallgow-Döberitz with the village of Seeburg , part of Havelland district. Buildings range from small detached houses and
6060-399: 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. The London Protocol of 1944 and the Potsdam Agreement established the legal framework for the occupation of Germany in the wake of World War II. According to these agreements, Germany would be formally under
6161-409: The defining features of the city. The Western Allies remained the ultimate political authorities in West Berlin. All legislation of the House of Representatives, whether of the West Berlin legislature or adopted federal law, only applied under the proviso of confirmation by the three Western Allied commanders-in-chief. If they approved a bill, it was enacted as part of West Berlin's statutory law. If
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#17327797423836262-501: The establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) on 23 May and of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) on 7 October. Under Article 127 of the Basic Law (or constitution) of the Federal Republic, provision was made for federal laws to be extended to Greater Berlin (as Berlin was called during the 1920 expansion of its municipal boundaries ) as well as Baden , Rhineland-Palatinate and Württemberg-Hohenzollern within one year of its promulgation. However, because
6363-578: The former East Berlin. As there were no dedicated walled-off-road corridors between West Germany and West Berlin under West German jurisdiction, travellers needed to pass through East Germany. A valid passport was required for citizens of West Germany and other western nationals to be produced at East German border checks. West Berliners could get admission only through their identity cards (see above). For travel from West Berlin to Denmark, Sweden and West Germany via dedicated East German transit routes (German: Transitstrecke ), East German border guards issued
6464-453: The four 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 could end only as a result of a quadripartite agreement. The Western Allies were guaranteed three air corridors to their sectors of Berlin, and
6565-642: The grey standard, they did not show the "Federal Eagle" or coat of arms , and contained no indications as to the issuing State. However, they did have a statement that the holder of the document was a German citizen. From 11 June 1968, East Germany made it mandatory that West Berlin and West German "transit passengers" obtain a transit visa , issued upon entering East Germany, because under its second constitution East Germany considered West Germans and West Berliners foreigners. Since identity cards had no pages to stamp visas, issuers of East German visas stamped their visas onto separate leaflets which were loosely stuck into
6666-422: The identity cards, which, until the mid-1980s, were little booklets. Although the West German government subsidized visa fees, they were still payable by individual travellers. In order to enter visa-requiring Western countries, such as the US, West Berliners commonly used West German passports. However, for countries which did not require stamped visas for entry, including Switzerland, Austria, and many members of
6767-421: The interim. City-wide elections in December 1990 resulted in the first "all Berlin" mayor being elected to take office in January 1991, with the separate offices of mayors in East and West Berlin expiring by that time, and Eberhard Diepgen (a former mayor of West Berlin) became the first elected mayor of a reunited Berlin. West Berlin comprised the following boroughs ( Bezirke ): In the American sector: In
6868-413: The joint administration of Germany and Berlin broke down. Soon, Soviet-occupied Berlin and western-occupied Berlin had separate city administrations. In 1948, the Soviets tried to force the Western Allies out of Berlin by imposing a land blockade on the western sectors—the Berlin Blockade . The West responded by using its air corridors for supplying their part of the city with food and other goods through
6969-490: The largest of their day anywhere, culminating in the small series of R.VI biplane strategic bombers built by the firm. In 1919 the regulations of the Treaty of Versailles finished the production and the area was transformed into an airfield . There had been regular Zeppelin flights to Friedrichshafen and even to London from 1919 on, though in the following years most of the aviation moved to Tempelhof Airport . The former zeppelin manufacturing halls were turned into
7070-497: The largest population of any city in Germany during the Cold War era. 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. On 3 October 1990,
7171-506: The middle Elbe until it met the (then more extensive) Sorb -speaking area along the upper Spree that separated it from High German. The border was never a sharp one, rather a continuum . The modern convention is to use the pronunciation of northern maken vs. southern machen ('to make') for determining an exact border. Along the middle Elbe and lower Saale rivers, Low German began to retreat in favour of High German dialects already during Late Medieval times (cf. Wittenberg whose name
7272-590: The nearby Falkenhagen labour camp , a subcamp of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp . After World War II Staaken was divided by a territorial exchange contract between the Allies United Kingdom and Soviet Union of 30 August 1945. The borders of the British occupational sector of Berlin were reshaped so that, that by incorporating the so-called Seeburger Zipfel it would include the entire former Luftwaffe airfield at Berlin-Gatow in
7373-602: The new East German Stolpe checkpoint (a part of today's Hohen Neuendorf )/West Berlin- Heiligensee . From 1988 to 9 November 1989 the Heerstraße border crossing was open for the highly restricted traffic between West Berlin and East Germany. Highly restricted in this case means citizens of West Berlin had to apply for a visiting permit to visit relatives; while only GDR citizens above the age of 65 could apply to visit relatives in West Berlin. Eastern controls were slowly eased into spot checks and finally abolished on 30 June 1990,
7474-450: The occupation of Berlin could be ended only by a quadripartite agreement, Berlin remained an occupied territory under the formal sovereignty of the allies. Hence, the Basic Law was not fully applicable to West Berlin. On 4 August 1950, the House of Representatives , the city's legislature, passed a new constitution, declaring Berlin to be a state of the Federal Republic and the provisions of
7575-496: The occupation of East Berlin at an end along with the rest of East Germany. This move was, however, not recognised by the Western Allies, who continued to view all of Berlin as a jointly occupied territory belonging to neither of the two German states. This view was supported by the continued practice of patrols of all four sectors by soldiers of all four occupying powers. Thus, occasionally Western Allied soldiers were on patrol in East Berlin as were Soviet soldiers in West Berlin. After
7676-583: The participation of Greater Berlin in the Federation. We interpret the effect of Articles 23 and 144 (2) of the Basic Law as constituting acceptance of our previous request that while Berlin may not be accorded voting membership in the Bundestag or Bundesrat nor be governed by the Federation she may, nevertheless, designate a small number of representatives to the meetings of those legislative bodies. Consequently, West Berliners were indirectly represented in
7777-497: The participle prefix ge- was usually written, though probably only spoken in the Southwest. Lexically, strong connections with adjacent dialects further north (East Frisian and Oldenburgish), e.g. godensdach ('Wednesday') instead of middeweke . Westphalian was and is often thought to be altogether the most conservative dialect group. North Low Saxon ( HG : Nordniedersächsisch , Dutch : Noord-Nedersaksisch ): Spoken in
7878-403: The people"; 'popular, vernacular') which could also be used for Low German if the context was clear. Compare also the modern colloquial term Platt(dütsch) (from platt 'plain, simple') denoting Low (or West Central ) German dialects in contrast to the written standard . Another medieval term is ôstersch (lit. 'East-ish') which was at first applied to the Hanseatic cities of
7979-413: The political Western British sector, thus West Berlin. East Germany then moved up its border checkpoint towards West Berlin from Dallgow more eastwards to West Staaken. On 1 June 1952 West Staaken's de facto administration was conveyed to neighbouring East German Falkensee , which incorporated West Staaken on 1 January 1961. From 13 August the same year until its opening and removal after 9 November 1989
8080-503: The primary written language, speakers also referred to discourse in Saxon as speaking/writing to dǖde , i.e. 'clearly, intelligibly'. This contains the same root as dǖdisch 'German' (cf. High German : deutsch , Dutch duits ( archaically N(i)ederduytsche to mean the contemporary version of the Dutch language ) both from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz lit. "of
8181-551: The process of blocking all the roads leading away from the city, resulting in several armed standoffs and at least one skirmish with the French Gendarmerie and the Bundesgrenzschutz that June. However, the culmination of the schism did not occur until 1961 with the construction of the Berlin Wall . From the legal theory followed by the Western Allies, the occupation of most of Germany ended in 1949 with
8282-492: The short code 0372. Conversely, those made to West Berlin from East Berlin only required the short code 849. In order to reduce eastern wiretapping of telecommunications between West Berlin and West Germany, microwave radio relay connections were built, which transmitted telephone calls between antenna towers in West Germany and West Berlin by radio. Two such towers were built, one antenna in Berlin- Wannsee and later
8383-709: The southwestern corner of this sector. In return the so-called Dorf Staaken (Staaken Village) and Albrechtshof , nowadays called West Staaken (at the most western end of the British Sector) was de jure assigned to the Soviets. The geographically eastern Staaken remained with the political West. However, the de facto administration remained with the Borough of Spandau in the British sector. So all inhabitants of Staaken could vote for West-Berlin's city state elections in 1948 and 1950. On 1 February 1951 East German Volkspolizei took over control of West Staaken, including
8484-409: The specific issue related to West Berlin, and drafted plans to ensure to defend the city against an eventual attack from the East. A tripartite planning group known as LIVE OAK , working together with NATO, was entrusted with potential military responses to any crisis. On 26 June 1963, President Kennedy visited West Berlin. On his triumphant tour, cheered by hundred of thousands of West Berliners in
8585-491: The status of West Berlin. While many restrictions remained in place, it also made it easier for West Berliners to travel to East Germany and it simplified the regulations for Germans travelling along the autobahn transit routes. At the Brandenburg Gate in 1987, U.S. President Ronald Reagan provided a challenge to the then Soviet leader: General Secretary Gorbachev , if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for
8686-596: The streets, he stopped at the Congress Hall, near the Brandenburg Gate , and at Checkpoint Charlie , before delivering at West Berlin's city hall a speech, which became famous for its phrase " Ich bin ein Berliner " and a hallmark of America's solidarity with the city. The Four Power Agreement on Berlin (September 1971) and the Transit Agreement (May 1972) helped to significantly ease tensions over
8787-612: The suffix -en . Lack of negative determiner nên ('no' (attr.)), instead: keyn , similar to High German. The past participle retains the prefix ge- . Lack of gaderen ('to gather') and tőgen ('to show'); instead of them, forms close to High German, i.e. samenen and teigen . In East Anhaltish, distinction of dative and accusative pronouns (e.g. mi vs mik , cf. HG mir and mich ). West Berlin West Berlin ( German : Berlin (West) or West-Berlin , German pronunciation: [ˈvɛstbɛʁˌliːn] )
8888-470: The then European Economic Community , including the United Kingdom , West Berlin identity cards were also acceptable for entry. Active immigration and asylum politics in West Berlin triggered waves of immigration in the 1960s and 1970s. As of 2017, Berlin was home to at least 178,000 Turkish and Turkish German residents, making it the largest Turkish community outside of Turkey. West Berlin
8989-1351: The transit routes, and occasional traffic checkpoints would check for violators. There were four transit routes between West Berlin and West Germany: The latter three routes used autobahns built during the Nazi era. They left West Berlin at Checkpoint Dreilinden , also called Checkpoint Bravo (W)/ Potsdam -Drewitz (E). Transit routes to Poland were via today's A 11 to Nadrensee -Pomellen (East Germany, GDR)/ Kołbaskowo (Kolbitzow) (PL), eastwards via today's A 12 to Frankfurt upon Oder (GDR)/ Słubice (PL), or southeastwards via today's A 13 and A 15 to Forst in Lusatia/Baršć (GDR)/ Zasieki (Berge) (PL). Additional routes led to Denmark and Sweden by ferry between Warnemünde (GDR) and Gedser (DK) and by ferry between Sassnitz (GDR) and Rønne (DK) or Trelleborg (S). Routes to Czechoslovakia were via Schmilka (GDR)/ Hřensko (Herrnskretschen) (ČSSR) and via Fürstenau (a part of today's Geising ) (GDR)/ Cínovec (Cinvald/Böhmisch Zinnwald) (ČSSR). The transit routes were also used for East German domestic traffic. This meant that transit passengers could potentially meet with East Germans and East Berliners at restaurants at motorway rest stops. Since such meetings were deemed illegal by
9090-562: The transitional period Berlin shall possess none of the attributes of a twelfth Land. The provision of this Article concerning the Basic Law will only apply to the extent necessary to prevent a conflict between this Law and the Berlin Constitution.... Thus, civic liberties and personal rights (except for the privacy of telecommunications) guaranteed by the Basic Law were also valid in West Berlin. In addition, West German federal statutes could only take effect in West Berlin with
9191-502: The western occupying powers. Most Westerners called the Western sectors "Berlin" unless further distinction was necessary. The West German Federal government officially called West Berlin "Berlin (West)", although it also used the hyphenated "West-Berlin", whereas the East German government commonly referred to it as "Westberlin." Starting from 31 May 1961, East Berlin was officially called Berlin, Hauptstadt der DDR (Berlin, Capital of
9292-573: 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
9393-614: Was also a destination for many people fleeing East Germany both before and after the construction of the Berlin Wall. As many immigrants from East Germany did not intend to stay in Berlin , flights – the only option for those people to reach West Germany without coming into contact with East German authorities – were subsidized by the West German government despite being operated only by companies registered in and owned by nationals of
9494-476: Was completely integrated with West Germany's, using the same postal code system. West Berlin was also integrated into the West German telephone network, using the same international dialling code as West Germany, +49 , with the area code 0311, later changed to 030 . Unlike West Germany, from where calls to East Berlin were made using the prefix 00372 (international access code 00, East German country code 37, area code 2), calls from West Berlin required only
9595-456: 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
9696-429: Was elected via his party's list of candidates. The West German government considered all West Berliners as well as all citizens of the GDR to be citizens of West Germany. Male residents of West Berlin were exempt from the Federal Republic's compulsory military service. This exemption made the city a popular destination for West German young people, which resulted in a flourishing counterculture , which in turn became one of
9797-668: Was only reconnected in 1995 after German reunification . In 1976 the GDR opened a separate rail border crossing station Staaken for rail transit to western Germany farther away from the border to West Berlin. Up to 1980 the eastern part of Staaken inside West Berlin was served by S-Bahn . This service was abandoned by the East German Reichsbahn Headquarters after the big strike of the West Berlin Reichsbahn workers. A reconnection today
9898-410: Was placed with neighbouring East German Falkensee in the East German district Nauen . West Berlin had its own postal administration first called Deutsche Post Berlin (1947–1955) and then Deutsche Bundespost Berlin , separate from West Germany's Deutsche Bundespost , and issuing its own postage stamps until 1990. However, the separation was merely symbolic; in reality, West Berlin's postal service
9999-455: Was ruled by Denmark . MLG exerted a huge influence upon Scandinavia (cf. History ), even if native speakers of Low German were mostly confined to the cities where they formed colonies of merchants and craftsmen. It was an official language of Old Livonia , whose population consisted mostly of Baltic and Finnic tribes. In the West, at the Zuiderzee , the forests of the Veluwe and close to
10100-586: Was strong in the Teutonic Order , due to the diverse regional origins of its chivalric elite, therefore MLG written culture was neglected early on. Eastphalian ( HG : Ostfälisch ): Roughly the area east of the middle Weser , north and partly west of the Harz mountains, reaching the middle Elbe , but leaving out the Altmark region. In the north, the sparsely populated Lunenburg Heath forms something of
10201-453: Was the leading written language in the north of Central Europe and served as a lingua franca in the northern half of Europe. It was used parallel to medieval Latin also for purposes of diplomacy and for deeds . While Middle Low German (MLG) is a scholarly term developed in hindsight, speakers in their time referred to the language mainly as sassisch (Saxon) or de sassische sprâke (the Saxon language). In contrast to Latin as
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