Talk:West Berlin

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Subjects to add: how many inhabitants were living there? Was Westberlin member of EEC (in a sense, that EEC laws applied at Westberlin teritory and people enjoyed pillar freedoms of EEC).

Maybe we should put a map on this page Frogprincess1312 22:11, 25 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Agreed - and for East Berlin as well. However someone would need to make or find a public domain one. Secretlondon 22:30, Jan 25, 2004 (UTC)

What sort of stuff do you want on the map?  ;) Morwen 22:47, Jan 25, 2004 (UTC)

 :) I think we'd like the border obviously, districts? border crossing points? Secretlondon 22:51, Jan 25, 2004 (UTC)

I could do one of the boroughs with the wall highlighted trivially. Border crossing points would be more tricky. Morwen 22:52, Jan 25, 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Legal status

You dont need to be a member of the Bundestag to become Chancellor of (West-)Germany, the sentence may be a bit misleading. Maybe someone with more insight to the situation could change this?

Perhaps so, but Brandt was a member of the Bundestag. --Jfruh (talk) 12:49, 3 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 1990 disestablished?

Why and how is this article put into Category:1990 disestablishments? West Berlin basically still exists, only the Cold war limitations have vanished, and the area of East Berlin was added. -- Matthead ^discuß!     O       02:02, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

West Berlin does not still exist as a political entity. The West Berlin that existed before 1990 was not a German Land, for one thing; it was territory occupied by the Western Allies and had a special legal status and its own postal system. The current Land of Berlin is an entirely separate legal animal. --Jfruh (talk) 02:40, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

Agreee West Berlin ceased to exist. It was an informal name for the territory of the 3 sectors under control of the Western Allies during the division of the city, which does not exist now. Disagree somewhat with Jfruh's reasoning; West Berlin was a Land, there was debate if it was part of the Federal Republic or not. There's continuity from the West Berlin German administration and legislation to the united Berlin. The difference is that the Allied occupation ended and that the administration now encorporates all of Berlin. Anorak2 03:58, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

If you read the article, it's really not up for debate: West Berlin was not part of the Federal Republic. The Basic Law did not apply in W. Berlin, W. Berliners were not represented by voting members in the Bundestag or Bundesrat, the Federal Republic's postal system did not function in W. Berlin, men in W. Berlin were not subject to military service, W. Berliners' ID cards did not carry the Federal Republic's coat of arms, the Western Allies could override the decisions of the W. Berlin government, Lufthansa was not permited to fly into W. Berlin, etc., etc., etc. --Jfruh (talk) 07:17, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

I agree in principle, but it's not as clearcut as you present it.I think a more proper wording is that West Berlin's status was ambivalent and a matter of debate, especially between the two sides of the cold war. Some of your claims are a bit exaggerated. The Basic Law did not apply in W. Berlin: In practice West Berlin was treated as a part of the Federal Republic in most legal respects. the Federal Republic's postal system did not function in W. Berlin: In practice West Germany's and West Berlin's postal systems were fully integrated, the separation was merely nominal. W. Berliners' ID cards did not carry the Federal Republic's coat of arms: Then again passports did, and all sorts of of Federal administrative institutions functioned in West Berlin and used the BRD's coat of arms for official purposes. Lufthansa was not permited to fly into W. Berlin This was due to the air corridors agreement with the Soviet Union and not so much because of restricted sovereignty. Anorak2 19:56, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Today's Berlin as Continuation of West Berlin?

Ann and John Tusa's Berlin Airlift recorded that West Berlin came into being by default because during the blockade, the Soviet Union installed their own city administration in November 1948 with Friedrich Ebert junior as the mayor and overrode the all-city administration before and prevented that government to exercise power in the Soviet sectors. Then that administration became a rump government and thus West Berlin is formed. (Ernst Reuter was elected mayor of all Berlin before the blockade started, but the Soviet Union did not recognize him when the four power structures were still functioning. He took his seat after the blockade and the Soviet Union installed Ebert and thus Reuter became the first mayor of West Berlin.)

If I'm correct, the government of reunified Berlin post-reunification is not officially a new entity born in 1990 out of merging two different city governments, but rather, a continuation of West Berlin as it recognizes more of West Berlin administrative history while East Berlin's administration traditions are treated as afterthoughts (eg Berlin constitution follows West Berlin's with modifications, and mayors are listed with continuation from West Berlin days with those of East Berlin recognized as "parallel governance"). So is it in a sense administratively today's Berlin is more a continuation of Cold War-era West Berlin administrative wise? --JNZ (talk) 07:34, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

yes Anorak2 (talk) 08:21, 12 February 2008 (UTC)