Spies and musicians, squatters and guest workers, drug addicts and politicians - this mix defined West Berlin. Here, fierce anti-communists felt just as at home as passionate Stalinists and autonomous leftists. What was special about West Berlin? Why is the city still a place of longing for many? Elke Kimmel describes how different people experienced the city at different times, how they found their way or failed, and how they encountered one another. This creates a fascinating everyday and cultural history of the vanished half-city: from the airlift to the construction of the wall, urban redevelopment, and finally to the opening of the border in November 1989.