All four allies retained shared responsibility for Berlin. However, the
growing political differences between the Western Allies and the
Soviet Union led the latter, which controlled the territory surrounding
Berlin, to impose the Berlin Blockade, an economic blockade of West Berlin.
The allies successfully overcame the Blockade by airlifting food and
other supplies into the city from 24 June 1948 to 11 May 1949.[23] In 1949,
the Federal Republic of Germany was founded in West Germany and
consisted of the American, British and French zones, but excluded those
three countries' zones of Berlin, while the Marxist-Leninist German
Democratic Republic was proclaimed in East Germany. West Berlin
remained a free city that was separate from the Federal Republic of
Germany, and issued its own postage stamps.
Airline service to West Berlin was granted only to American, British
and French airlines.
The founding of the two German states increased Cold War tensions.
West Berlin was surrounded by East German territory.
East Germany, however, proclaimed East Berlin
(which it described only as "Berlin") as its capital, a move that was not
recognized by the Western powers. Although half the size and
population of West Berlin, it included most of the historic center of the city.
The tensions between east and west culminated in the
construction of the Berlin Wall between East and West Berlin
and other barriers around West Berlin by East Germany on 13 August 1961
and were exacerbated by a tank standoff at Checkpoint Charlie on 27 October 1961.
West Berlin was now de facto a part of West Germany with a
unique legal status, while East Berlin was de facto a part of East Germany.
Berlin was completely separated. It was possible for Westerners
to pass from one to the other only through strictly controlled checkpoints.
For most Easterners, travel to West Berlin or West Germany was no longer possible.
In 1971, a Four-Power agreement guaranteed access across East Germany
to West Berlin and ended the potential for harassment or closure of the routes.
In 1989, pressure from the East German population brought a transition
to a market-based economy in East Germany, and its citizens gained free
access across the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989, which was subsequently
mostly demolished. Not much is left of it today; the East Side Gallery in
Friedrichshain near the Oberbaumbrücke over the Spree preserves a
portion of the Wall.
On 3 October 1990 the two parts of Germany were reunified
as the Federal Republic of Germany, and Berlin became the
German capital according to the unification treaty. In June 1991
the German Parliament, the Bundestag, voted to move the (West) German
capital back from Bonn to Berlin. In 1999, the German parliament and
government began their work in Berlin.