Whose words are these 'Berlin is the testicle of the West. When I want the West to scream, I squeeze Berlin?
Treaty on Relations between the USSR and the GDR further destabilizing the East German economy. Nikita Khrushchev, the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, was said to have famously remarked, " Berlin is the testicles of the West. When I want to make the West scream, I squeeze Berlin!" Towards the end of the 1980s, the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact States began to splinter. A series of protests in East Germany known as the Peaceful Revolution occurred and as a result, on 18 March 1990, East Germany's first free election occurred. The newly formed government began a series of negotiations
West Berlin Berlin Nordbahnhof, on 18 May 1952. On 28 August 1951, the Reichsbahn opened a new connection – from Spandau via Berlin Jungfernheide station – for the S-Bahn lines connecting East German suburbs to the west of West Berlin (namely Falkensee, Staaken) with East Berlin, thus circumventing the centre of West Berlin. In June 1953, the Reichsbahn further cut off West Berlin from its East German suburbs by the introduction of additional "express S-Bahn trains" (). These routes originated from several East German suburbs bordering West Berlin (such as Falkensee, Potsdam, Oranienburg, Staaken, and Velten), crossing West Berlin non-stop until reaching