In 1948, the Soviets tried to force the western allies out of Berlin by a blockade of the western sectors. The Soviets blocked roads, railways and waterways, but the Potsdam Agreement guaranteed air corridors to Berlin. Because the western allies flew in all the supplies that normally came by land, the Berlin Blockade is also known as the Berlin Airlift. The Blockade ended in May 1949. By the end of 1949, two new states had been created out of occupied Germany - the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) in the West and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) in the East - with West Berlin an enclave that was not part of either.
According to the western allies, the occupation of most of Germany ended in 1949 when the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic were set up. But the occupation of Berlin could only be ended by a quadripartite (four power) agreement, so Berlin remained an occupied territory under the formal control of all the allies. This is why the "Grundgesetz" (constitution of the Federal Republic) never applied in West Berlin.
The Soviets declared the occupation of East Berlin ended when East Germany was set up. This move was not recognised by the western allies who continued to view all of Berlin as a jointly occupied territory belonging to neither of the two states.
However, in many ways, West Berlin functioned as the "de facto" 11th state of West Germany.
But the western allies remained the ultimate political authorities there. The allies could appoint the Mayor and city government at Rathaus Schöneberg, but they never chose anyone except the elected mayor.
There were differences between West Germany and West Berlin.
While West Berlin was separate from East Berlin after 1949, people could easily move between the two parts until 1961. In many ways Berlin worked as a single city. The U-Bahn and S-Bahn public transit networks, rebuilt after the war, spanned all occupation sectors. Many people lived in one half of the city and had family members, friends, and jobs in the other.
As the Cold War continued, many East Germans began leaving East Germany for the West. East Germany closed the borders between East and West Germany in 1952, but did not seal off West Berlin; because there was freedom of movement between West Berlin and West Germany, Easterners could use the city as a crossing point to the West. To stop this drain, the East German government built the Berlin Wall, thus physically closing off West Berlin from East Germany, on 13 August 1961. It was still possible to travel from West Berlin to West Germany by air and by specific rail and autobahn transit routes set aside for that purpose, but inhabitants of the two Berlins were now physically and legally separated from each other.
The Four Power Agreement on Berlin (September 1971) and the Transit Agreement (May 1972), helped to ease the tensions over West Berlin and made it a little easier for West Berliners to travel to East Germany and for Germans travelling along the road routes into the city instead of flying.
On 9 November 1989 the wall was opened, and the two cities were once again physically - but not legally - united. German reunification soon ended the western occupation of West Berlin. On 3 October 1990 West Berlin and East Berlin were united as the city of Berlin, which then joined the Federal Republic as a "state," along with the rest of East Germany. West Berlin and East Berlin thus both formally ceased to exist.
West Berlin comprised the following boroughs:
In the American Sector:
In the British Sector:
In the French Sector:
Thyone (moon)
Thyone or ', is a non-spherical moon of Jupiter. It was found by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii led by Scott S. Sheppard, et al. in 2001, and given the designation '.
Thyone is about 4 kilometres in diameter, and orbits Jupiter at an average distance of 21,406,000 km in 639.803 days, at an inclination of 147° to the ecliptic (147° to Jupiter's equator) with an orbital eccentricity of 0.2526.
It was named in August 2003 after Thyone, better known as Semele, one of Zeus' conquests in Greek mythology.
Thyone belongs to the Ananke group, retrograde non-spherical moons which orbit Jupiter between 19,300,000 and 22,700,000 km, at inclinations of about 150°.
Sukhoi Su-27
The Su-27 Flanker is a Soviet/Russian single-seat fighter aircraft made by Sukhoi. It first flew in 20 May 1977, and was introduced in 23 August 1990. It was first made by the Soviet Union as a fighter, but now it is in the Russian Air Force. It can hold up to 10 guided Air-to-Air medium-range R-27E or short-range R-73 or unguided Air-to-Ground missiles, unguided bombs and a GSh-301 30mm cannon with 150 bullets. It has two AL-31F turbofan engines, a multi-purpose onboard search and track radar, an optical infrared search and track station with a laser rangefinder linked to pilot's helmet-mounted target designator and with a wide-angle HUD.
The Su-27 was made to pair with the MiG-29 Fulcrum, but in the Eritrean-Ethiopian War, Ethiopian Su-27s shot down 5 Eritrean MiG-29s. It was also supposed to fight American fighters like the F-15 Eagle and F-16 Fighting Falcon. There are the prototype versions T10 Flanker-A and T10S, the version S Flanker-B for the Russian Air Force, the interceptor version P Flanker-B without Air-to-Ground weapons for the Russian Air Force, the two-seat trainer version UB Flanker-C for the Russian Air Force, the export versions SK and UBK, the upgraded export versions SKM and UBM. There are fighters similar to the Su-27, like the Su-33 Flanker-D and the Su-30 Flanker-C .
The Su-27 is still in service with the Russian Air Force and others. Russian Air Force has hundreds of aircraft.
Half the fleet -about 100 fighters- has been modernized in the SM version from 2004 to 2012. The SM version has improved avionics, guided Air-to-Ground missiles and guided bombs and a “glass” cockpit. Russian Air Force received 12 newly built modernized SM3 aircraft in 2011.
F. W. Murnau
Friedrich Wilhelm "F. W." Murnau (28 December 1888 – 11 March 1931) was a German movie director. He was one of the most influential directors of the silent movie era. He was born in Bielefeld and attended the University of Heidelberg. He studied art history. He was openly gay. He was 6'4 (193 cm), He was said to have an icy disposition and an obsession with film. He was a combat pilot during World War I. He directed his first movie "Der Knabe in Blau" () in 1919.
Murnau's most famous movie is "Nosferatu" (1922). It was based on the book "Dracula". "Faust" was Murnau's last German movie. "Nosferatu" and "Faust" were two of the first films to have original music. Some of his German movies were considered to be Expressionist movies.
Murnau went to Hollywood in 1926. He joined the Fox Studio. He made "Sunrise" in 1927. It did not make a lot of money. It did receive an Academy Award in 1929. Murnau's next two movies were sound movies. They were not well received. Murnau was disappointed. He quit Fox. He went to the South Pacific. In Bora Bora he made "Tabu". The movie was censored in the United States for images of bare-breasted Polynesian women. Murnau died in an automobile accident in Santa Barbara, California. He is buried in Stahnsdorf near Berlin.
Harpalyke (moon)
Harpalyke or ', is a non-spherical moon of Jupiter. It was found by a team of astronomers from the University of Hawaii led by Scott S. Sheppard in 2000, and given the designation '. In August 2003,the moon was named after Harpalyke, the incestuous daughter of Klymenos, who was in some accounts a lover of Zeus (Jupiter).