About West Berlin

West Berlin (German: Berlin (West) or West-Berlin, German pronunciation: [ˈvɛstbɛʁˌliːn] (listen)) was a political enclave which comprised the western part of Berlin during the years of the Cold War; although the actual legal status of West Berlin was ambiguous, and the territorial claim by the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) was heavily disputed by the Soviet Union and other Eastern bloc countries, West Berlin aligned itself politically with the FRG in 1949. West Berlin was directly or indirectly represented in its federal institutions. West Berlin was formally controlled by the Western Allies and entirely surrounded by the Soviet-controlled East Berlin and East Germany. West Berlin had great symbolic significance during the Cold War, as it was widely considered by westerners an "island of freedom" and America's most loyal counterpart in Europe. It was heavily subsidised by West Germany as a "showcase of the West".