A HANDBOOK ON THE BERLIN PROBLEM

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06700752
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 28, 2022
• Document Release Date: November 6, 2017
• Case Number: F-2017-00554
• Publication Date: April 1, 1963

Approved for Release: 2017/11/01 C06700752
F
OCI NO. 1127/63
COPY NO.
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OFFICE OF
CURRENT
INTELLIGENCE
CENTRAL
INTELLIGENCE
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A HANDBOOK ON THE BERLIN PROBLEM
TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. The Soviet Bloc and Allied Positions 1-7
A. Soviet 1
B. East German 3
C. British 4
D. French 5
E. West German 7
II. The United Nations and Berlin 8-9
III. Legal Basis for the Western Presence in Berlin 10-11
IV. The Borders of West Berlin 12-17
A.
B.
Sector Border
Zonal Border
Access Routes and Controls
12
15
18-28
New A. Air 18
B. Roads 19
C. Rail 21
D. Waterways 24
B. Berlin Bypasses 25
F. Travel Documents 26
G. Currency Controls 28
NEI
VI. West Berlin 29.46
A. Morale 29
B. Legal Ties with Bonn 30
C. Federal Agencies in Berlin 31
D. Berlin Role in Bonn Government 34
E. West Berlin Government and Politics 34
F. Industry 36
G. Trade 37
H. Dependence on West Germany 38
I. West Berlin - West Germany Transport 38
J. City Transportation 40'
K. Stockpiles 41
L. West Berlin SED 42
M. Exclaves 43
N. Development Projects 44
0. Police and Security Forces 45
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most recentlyin the February 1963 election in which it
attracted onit 20,887 votes or 1.3 percent of the total.
It is estimated that the party has lost approximately 10
percent of itk formal members since August 1961 and that
a new campaign to "cleanse" the membership scheduled for
early in 1963 is likely to mean the loss of another two
or three percent. Hard core membership is currently about
5000.
In addition to the SED, the Communists have various
auxiliary organizations, such as the Society for German-
Soviet Friendship, in West Berlin. All these organizations
lack financial support because of the economies imposed by
the East Berlin SED organization. Nevertheless, they
retain some potential for sabotage and harassment, although
the basic threat of such actions comes from East Berlin and
East Germany--rather than from inside West Berlin.
M, Exclaves:
About one-half mile south of the Zehlendorf district
of the US sector, but belonging to it, is the 30-acre ex-
clave of Steinstiecken, which is entirely surrounded by the
East German district of Potsdam. The exclave has been sub-
jected to intermittent Communist harassment; in 1951 East
German police invaded the area and sought to annex it. After
13 August 1961, the East Germans fenced off the exclave, ex-
cept for the one access road to West Berlin, and, in the pro-
cess, blocked normal entrance to houses facing the Zone. Oc-
casionally, refugees from the Zone have found safety in the
exclave, later to be flown out in US helicopters.
There are seven other tiny exclaves of the British (5)
and US sectors (2), being for the most part farm or forest
land, or week-end garden plots. The East German police have
occasionally insisted on changes in the documentation of land
owners, add no longer permit gardeners of one British sector
exclave to remain overnight in their cottages. For all
practical purposes, these exclaves have been absorbed into
neighboring areas of East Germany or East Berlin.
In addition to the exclaves, a large area adjacent to
the British sector belongs to "Greater Berlin"--i.e. to East
Berlin. In September 1945 the British traded part of Staaken
to the Soviets in exchange for Gatow airfield. Although this
area technically forms part of the "Mitts" District of East
Berlin, it is administered from Potsdam District and its
border with West Berlin is treated as a zonal, not sector,
border.
-43-
s e
Approved for Release: 2017/11/01 C06700752