LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Berlin: East Berlin
built 652 days ago
Berlin is located in eastern Germany, about 70 kilometers (44 mi) west of the border with Poland in an area with marshy terrain. Berlin's landscape was shaped by ice sheets during the last Ice Age. The city center lies along the river Spree in the Berlin-Warsaw Urstromtal (ancient river valley), formed by water flowing from melting ice sheets at the end of the last Ice Age. The Urstromtal lies between the low Barnim plateau to the north, and the Teltow plateau to the south. In Spandau, Berlin's westernmost borough, the Spree meets the river Havel, which flows from north to south through western Berlin. The course of the Havel is more like a chain of lakes, the largest being the Tegeler See and Großer Wannsee.
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The economy of East Berlin was totally integrated with that of East Germany and ... benefited from a steady stream of visitors from West Berlin and West Germany. East Berlin was the hub of East Germany's commercial, financial, and transport systems, and, although it comprised less than one-half of the old unified city, it was also a huge manufacturing centre. Among its main products were steel and rubber goods, electrical and transport equipment, chemicals, and processed food. The Spree River, which is connected by waterways with the Baltic Sea, widened in East Berlin to form a major inland harbour. An airport at Schönefeld, just south of the city, served both East and West Berlin.
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- While Berlin was a divided city (See Network map 1961), on the eastern side only U5 was extended, mainly on the surface, towards the east to new residential areas (1973 Tierpark, 1989 Hönow). In the west a new line was added, a north-south link avoiding the historic centre: U9 (opened between 1961 and 1976). U7 turned out to be an important link between the southeast and the west. It reached its southern terminus at Rudow in 1972 and Rathaus Spandau in the west in 1984.
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From 1945 until 1990 Berlin was a divided city. Following the defeat of the Nazi regime (see National Socialism) in World War II (1939-1945), the victorious Allied Powers—the United States, Britain, France, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)—divided Germany into four zones, each occupied by one of the Allied Powers. They ... divided Berlin, which was in the Soviet sector, into similar zones. The Soviet-controlled sector of the city became known as East Berlin, and the Western-occupied sector became known as West Berlin. In 1949 East Berlin became the capital of the German Democratic Republic (known as East Germany), one of two successor states established in Germany after the war. That same year the capital of West Germany, the other successor state, was established in the city of Bonn.
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After 1961-08-23, citizens of West Berlin were no longer allowed to enter East Berlin. On 1961-09-20, the forced evacuation of houses situated immediately at the border to West Berlin began. On 1962-08-17, Peter Fechter, an eighteen years old citizen of East Berlin, bled to death after he was shot down by East Berlin border patrol in an attempt to escape over the wall.
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Note: Formerly the capital of Prussia and then of Germany, Berlin was occupied by American, British, French, and Soviet troops after World War II. Disagreements among the Allies led to the partition of the city, with the Soviet zone becoming East Berlin, and the other zones West Berlin. East Berlin became the capital of the communist German Democratic Republic (East Germany), but West Berlin lost its capital status to Bonn in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany).
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East Berlin