the soviets built the berlin wall to separate east and west berlin.
the soviets built the berlin wall to separate east and west berlin.
what did the soviets build to separate east and west berlin?
the berlin wall
in 1951, the reichsbahn began construction work on the berlin outer-circle railway line. this circular line connected all train routes heading for west berlin and accommodated all domestic gdr traffic, thus directing railway traffic into east berlin while by-passing west berlin. commuters in the east german suburbs around west berlin now boarded "sputnik" express trains, which took them into east berlin without crossing any western sectors. with the completion of the outer-circle railway, there was no further need for express s-bahn trains crossing the west berlin border and thus their service ended on 4 may 1958, while stopping s-bahn trains continued service. however, while east germans could get off in west berlin, west berliners needed the hard-to get permits to enter east germany by s-bahn. with the construction of the berlin wall on 13 august 1961, any remaining railway traffic between west berlin and its east german suburbs ended. rail traffic between east and west berlin was sharply reduced and restricted to a small number of checkpoints under gdr control. east berliners and east germans were then unable to freely enter and leave west berlin. however, international visitors could obtain visas for east berlin upon crossing one of the checkpoints at the wall.
west berlin
on 12 may 1949 the blockade ended and all roadblocks and checkpoints between east and west berlin were removed. the berlin airlift, however, continued until 30 september 1949 in order to build up supplies in west berlin (the so-called senate reserve), in readiness for another possible blockade, thus ensuring that an airlift could then be restarted with ease. on 2 may 1949 power stations in east berlin started again to supply west berlin with sufficient electricity. before then, electricity supplies had to be reduced to just a few hours a day after the normal supplies had been interrupted at the start of the blockade. however, the western allies and the west berlin city council decided to be self-sufficient in terms of electricity generation capacity, to be independent of eastern supplies and not to be held to ransom by the eastern authorities. on 1 december 1949 the new "powerhouse west" (, in 1953 renamed after the former governing mayor of west berlin into "kraftwerk reuter west") went online and west berlin's electricity board declared independence from eastern supplies. however, for a time eastern electricity continued to be supplied albeit intermittently. supply was interrupted from 1 july until the end of 1950 and then started again until 4 march 1952, when the east finally switched it off. from then on west berlin turned into an 'electricity island' within a pan-european electricity grid that had developed from the 1920s, because electricity transfers between east and west germany never fully ceased. the 'electricity island' situation was noticed most in situations of particularly high demand; in other areas of europe peaks in demand could be met by tapping into electricity supplies from neighbouring areas, but in west berlin this was not an option and for certain users the lights would go out.
west berlin