"Berlin History" a Berlin Travel Page by EdinburghRoc

Hitler's invasion of Poland on 1st September 1939 signalled the start of World War II. For the citizens of Berlin, food shortages were followed in August 1940 by British air raids. By 1941 the government policy of the mass deportation of Jews to concentration camps had begun. Other groups targeted included homosexuals, priests and Romany gypsies. In January 1942, at a conference held in a villa in Wannsee it was decided to embark on a systematic extermination of all European Jews. The unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Hitler in 1944 ended up with Nazis murdering many members of the German resistance.
After nearly four years of bitter warfare, the tide began to turn against the Germans. In April 1945 more than 1.5 million Soviet soldiers invaded Berlin. On 30th April Hitler committed suicide, and Germany conceded defeat.

Soviet Blockade
The Allies responded with the Berlin Airlift, which thwarted the Soviet plans. On 12th May 1949 the blockade was lifted.
The same year saw the birth of the Federal Republic of Germany, with its capital in Bonn, and the German Democratic Republic {GDR}, the capital in East Berlin.
West Berlin remained as a separate enclave.

The world watched on TV.

The government moved back in 1991.