West Berlin

West Berlin was a city that existed between 1949 and 1990 as a political enclave surrounded by East Berlin and East Germany. 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 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.