Berlin Wall Gallery

Brandenburg Snowman

25th December 1961: Two West Berlin policemen with their new American rapid fire rifles on duty with a snowman on Christmas Day in front of the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)

3321746, Black White Format Portrait Male Back View Architectural Featu

Actual entrance to the American sector in Berlin

This is the entry point to the american sector, today is a mayor tourist atraction and is on the border to the american sector of Berlin.
West Berlin was a free city and political enclave surrounded by East Berlin and East Germany that existed between 1949 and 1990. It was located some 100 miles east of the East/West German border and was accessible by land from West Germany only by a narrow rail and highway corridor. It comprised the western regions of Berlin, which were bordered by East Berlin and parts of East Germany. West Berlin consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors, which had been established in 1945. It was politically closely affiliated with, though not part of, West Germany. It had a special and unique legal status because its administration was formally conducted by the Western Allies. East Berlin consisted of the region occupied and administered by the Soviet Union, and was claimed as its capital by East Germany. The Western Allies did not recognise this claim, as they asserted that the entire city of Berlin was legally under four-power administration. 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 highest number of residents of any city in Cold War-era Germany

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