Steinstücken: Difference between revisions

Following a helicopter visit by [[Lucius D. Clay]] on September 21, September 1961, a US military post was installed in the exclave. Soldiers were regularly flown in by helicopter from then on.<ref>{{ISBN|9780399157295}}</ref> Today, a "helicopter memorial" commemorates these circumstances.

To alleviate the enormous inconvenience of daily border crossings, a road connecting Steinstücken to [[Kohlhasenbrück]], the most adjacent neighborhood of Wannsee, was built in 1972. This required an exchange of territory between East Germany and West Berlin, which in turn required the approval of the four occupation powers: the [[Soviet Union]], [[United States]], [[United Kingdom]], and [[France]]. Following meetings of the [[Allied Commission]], the four powers signed the [[Four Power Agreement on Berlin]]<ref>[http://usa.usembassy.de/etexts/ga5-710903.htm "Ostpolitik: The Quadripartite Agreement of September 3, September 1971"] (U.S. Diplomatic Mission to Germany)</ref> on September 3, September 1971. This resolved a number of irregularities in the border between East Germany and West Berlin, and made a tiny sliver of land connecting the rest of West Berlin to Steinstücken a part of West Berlin territory. In return, West Berlin ceded six uninhabited exclaves to East Germany and paid four million West German [[Deutsche Mark]]s. A connecting road, Bernhard-Beyer-Straße, was then built on this sliver, allowing Steinstücken residents to cross unimpeded to the rest of West Berlin. As the new border enclosed the road, extensions of the Berlin Wall were built on either side. The land transfer and building of the road ended Steinstücken's status as an exclave for all practical purposes.{{fact|date=December 2017}}