After the end of the Second World War, Berlin was a divided city controlled by the four major allied powers.

Despite the different zones of control, people could still move freely between them.

However, on August 13, 1961, the East German government decided to end free travel of Berliners

by building a wall around West Berlin.

For 28 years, the wall defined the city and served as the metaphor for the entire Cold War.

Learn more about the Berlin Wall on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. After the Second World War, the Allies divided Germany into four separate zones which were administered by the various allied countries.

The British, French, Americans, and Soviets all had a part of Germany that they controlled.

However, the German capital of Berlin was treated as a separate issue from the rest of the country. Berlin was completely within the Soviet

sector of Germany. However, the city was divided into four administrative zones

just like the rest of the country was. These zones controlled by the Americans, British and French

collectively became known as West Berlin and the Soviet zone became known as

East Berlin. This caused a huge problem for the Soviets.

Right smack in the middle of their sector was an island of capitalism in a sea of communism.

In 1948, the Soviets instituted a blockade of West Berlin.

They completely blocked all incoming rail, road, and canal traffic to the city as well as electricity.

The Soviets figured that the Allies would eventually just give up and abandon West Berlin to the Soviets.

Instead, the Allies overcame the blockade by flying supplies into West Berlin almost non-stop

for a year.

I previously covered this in my episode on the Berlin Airlift.

In 1949, the three sectors of Germany controlled by the Western Allies

formerly became West Germany, and the Soviet sector followed suit by declaring itself the independent country of East Germany.

However, there was still a hole in the middle of East Germany, West Berlin.

...