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The Four Power Agreement on Berlin^[1] was signed on 3 September 1971 by the foreign ministers of the four powers, United Kingdom (Douglas Home), the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (Andrei Gromyko), France (Maurice Schumann), and the United States (William P. Rogers). It came into effect in June 1972.

The Agreement regularised trade and travel relations between West Berlin and West Germany and aimed at improving communications between East Berlin and West Berlin. The Soviet Union stipulated, however, that West Berlin would not be incorporated into West Germany.

In 1969 Berlin Brigade troops of the U.S. Army roar through morning rush hour traffic in a Zehlendorf residential district, a routine reminder that Berlin was still legally occupied by the World War II victors.

Along with the Allied agreement, the Basic Treaty (Grundlagenvertrag) (effective June 1973) recognized two German states, and the two countries pledged to respect one another's sovereignty. Under the terms of the treaty, diplomatic missions were to be exchanged and commercial, tourist, cultural, and communications relations established. Under the Agreement and the Treaty, in September 1973, both Germanies joined the United Nations.

These treaties were part of a breakthrough series of international agreements which were seen by some as formalizing the Cold War division of Europe, while others saw this as the start of the process that led to the end of the Cold War. M. E. Sarotte wrote in 2001 that "...despite all the fears, both sides managed to make many bargains as a result of the detente dialogue."^[2]

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• Four Power (disambiguation)
• Potsdam Conference Potsdam Agreement
• Council of Foreign Ministers
• Allied Control Council
• Treaty on the Final Settlement With Respect to Germany
• Steinstücken

E-text of the Agreement

• (German) Text des Viermächte-Abkommens

Other links

• Ostpolitik: The Quadripartite Agreement of September 3, 1971 U.S Embassy Germany
• Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations Note 4 gives details of the impact of this Agreement on the assession of East and West Germany to this Convention and other international treaties which effected the international status of West Berlin.
• Site of the Four Power Talks on the Status of Berlin. Photo series on the 1970 treaty sessions.

1. ^ The Four Power Agreement on Berlin is also known as the Berlin Agreement and the Quadripartite Agreement on Berlin
2. ^ * M.E. Sarotte; "Dealing with the Devil: East Germany, Detente & Ostpolitik, 1969-73"; The University of North Carolina Press; Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Page 164 in paperback edition.