Embassy of the United States, Berlin not be considered a capital until Berlin was unified. Relations with the East German state were hampered because of this policy, and by the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961. The wall made the site of the former U.S. Embassy, still owned by the U.S. government, an inaccessible vacant lot that was part of the security zone separating east and west Berliners. The site became accessible after the Berlin Wall came down in November 1989, but remained a vacant lot until the 2004 groundbreaking for construction of a brand new U.S. Embassy. In the early 1970s the U.S., along
Berlin University of the Arts and the "Berlin State School of Fine Arts" founded in 1875. In 1975, both art schools merged under the name "Hochschule der Künste Berlin, HdK". The organization received the title of a university on 1 November 2001. The exchange program with UDK is a direct enrollment program offered during the fall, spring and academic year to students interested in the arts and with four semesters of German language study. Each academic year the school receives 100 exchange students on the basis of institutional agreements. Students participating in the exchange are required to subsidize their own accommodations with little help from