On 08/01/2012 14:50, Lüko Willms wrote:
Am 07.01.2012 22:35, schrieb :
West Berlin was technically not a part of the Bundesrepublik,
on the contrary. It was _legally_ not part of the FRG, but in technical
terms it was integrated into the FRG. They used the same currency,
Westberlin was integrated into the FRG telephone network (using the same
international prefix 49), just to name two examples. But they had their
own postal stamps.
Yes, you are correct. I just read about it this evening.
I also read that there was a separate branch of Deutsche Bundespost for
West Berlin, called Deutsche Bundespost Berlin, though it was completely
integrated with the parent company. Their postal code system was the
same as that in the Bundesrepublik as was their telephone network, which
used the country code +49. East Germany used +37.
although its citizens did have West German passports.
No, they had Westberlin ID cards. As said above: Westberlin was
technically integrated in the FRG, but legally a separate political
entity.
Yes, they had ID cards that were particular to West Berlin, and I even
understand that some European countries accepted them as entry documents.
The last word in all matters lay with the occupation powers (to
come back closer to our subject in discussion, it was an officer of the
British occupation troops who ordered the S-Bahn workers strike of 1980
to be ended).
But using a trick, they could also get an FRG passport -- for example, I
signed a sublet form for a Westberlin social-democratic student leader,
so that he could get a secondary address in the West German city I
happened to live back then, and thus an FRG passport. This passport
enabled him to cross the border (the Wall) to the GDR side of Berlin,
which was not allowed for Westberlin citizens (this was in the late
1960ies).
But they would use West German passports to travel further afield, would
they not?
I didn't think that crossing policies into East Berlin for West Berlin
residents would have been so difficult by the late 1960s.