I just listened to Dan Carlin's latest hardcore history podcast and he talks a lot about the soviet blockade of Berlin and how Berlin was divided between all the allied powers. My question, and I've always wondered this, why was Berlin such a powerful chess piece between the soviets and allies? I know it's the German capital but is there some bigger significance? Is it symbolic or was there real strategy in having an allied occupied zone in Berlin even though it had been concurred by the soviets and was deep in their territory?
Berlin are capital of united Germany since Germany unification. If someone control whole Berlin, then he get legitimization rule over whole country and strong propaganda tool. So, trying weaken the influence of the USSR, USA, UK and France on politics within Germany all came to the conclusion that the capital of the country should be divided between all so that no one had political advantage in reconstruction of the country.