냉전체제 속의 베를린

Abstract

This study deals with the history of Berlin during the Cold War from 1945 to the late 1960s. After World War II, Germany was divided into four regions and governed by the Allied Powers. Shortly after, with the onset of the Cold War, Germany was divided into East and West. Berlin, the capital, was also destined for the same fate. The western part of the city was placed in a special situation as a Western area located in the middle of East Germany. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the United States and the Soviet Union, as well as West and East Germany, frequently clashed over West Berlin. The city was regarded as a bastion of Western liberalism and a representative location symbolizing the Cold War. Above all, the image of an “Island of Freedom” was imprinted.
 This study focuses on the spatial specificity created in West Berlin during the Cold War. Specifically, the influence that space had on the residents and result it produced is examined. To this end, the period was divided into four phases, focusing on the keywords “correction, exhibition, tension, and reorientation,” and the formation and change of the space and the people who lived in the city investigated. Right after the war, Berlin was considered the heart of Nazi Germany and became a place of correction where intensive de-Naziization and re-education of citizens took place. However, with the onset of the Cold War in 1947/1948, the situation changed. A favorable mood toward the West was rooted in West Berlin citizens who experienced the First Berlin Crisis (the Berlin Blockade). Afterwards, the city, which was heavily reliant on the support of the US and West Germany, took on the function of exhibiting the superiority of the liberal system by competing with the communist system.
 As the Second Berlin Crisis began in 1958; West Berlin citizens felt the fear of war and doubts about the city's survival. The heightened tension caused by the construction of the Berlin Wall brought about changes in citizens’ consciousness. It led to the public's expression of anxiety. On the one hand, there were those who relied more on the US. On the other, those seeking change appeared. In particular, the younger generation sought a new path through resistance and deviation, breaking away from the existing Cold War thinking. This was expressed as conflicts within the city in the late 1960s. Since then, the city has been transformed into a space that exhibits more international and open character and diversity.