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Over 5,000 planes came form all over the world every week with food for the West Berliners. The airlift was extremely successful. On the planes' return flight, refugees and immigrants were flown out of the country. On May 11, 1949 the Soviets gave up, they couldn't take Berlin, so they stopped the blockade and the tremendous airlift ceased.

However, the East Germans continued immigrating to West Berlin. Demonstrations broke out through East Germany. Workers stopped working and joined the demonstrations against longer hours without any increase in pay. So the Soviets moved in and took care of the uprising with their tanks.

Two different governments were set up between East and West Germany. The Soviet government was strictly communist; freedom of speech, expression and other rights were prohibited. The secret police or the stasi, spied on the citizens and made sure they were following the governmental guidelines. People all over East Germany secretly worked for the stasi. The stasi had files and reports on thousands of people. Living in East Germany at that time was risky. You couldn't be sure whether your friends or family were spying and reporting on you. During the late 1950's over 12,000 people in Berlin, lived off of spying on their neighbors. The Government also had immense control over elections. Although the people of East Germany could vote, the government would always rig or make the final decision, whereas the West German government held elections dictated by the people.

Life in West Germany was also better because citizens could have a job and get paid much more than they could in the East. Freedom of speech and expression were also permitted, people could watch T.V. and listen to the radio without things being censored out. Also there was no need to worry about others spying on you. Compared with the east, life was like heaven for the west. In the beginning of the 1950's the economy of West Berlin was thriving. The Americans had lent tons of money to the Berliners in order to get the economy going again, and the constant flow of East Germans fed the economy with ready workers.

Because of the many restrictions faced by the East Germans, immigration became enormous. East German workers were quickly leaking out of the country, providing the West with skilled workers. However the border between East and West Germany was rigorously guarded. So, immigrants would come to West Berlin and then take the next flight out of the Soviet controlled territories. Others

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