ABSTRACT
The advanced railway infrastructure and progressive concept of public transport in Berlin became symbols of modern railway operations in Europe. The chapter says that the accounts for Cold War and the Berlin Wall are not yet settled with respect to railway transportation, and may not be settled for some time to come. One of the most important railway hubs in Europe, Berlin's railway network was deeply affected by tumultuous events in the twentieth century. Railway transport to Western sectors of Berlin, administered by the Deutsche Reichsbahn (DR), did not become a contentious issue until the first Berlin crisis in 1948 and 1949. The first Berlin crisis fully revealed how inappropriate the organisation and the structure of rail transportation in the city were. First, the de facto Soviet-controlled Deutsche Reichsbahn operated all transportation for the Western sectors as well. Second, tensions rose among DR employees, some of whom lived in the Western sectors and worked in the East and vice versa.
