West Berlin, Why and what if it never happened

In OTL Stalin agreed to let Western allies occuply part of Berlin. He kept his word in 1945 and in fact limited how much he was prepared to do to get rid of it.

Why did Stalin agree to West Berlin. Why was getting West Berlin important to the West.

Would the Cold war have been different, even avoided without West Berlin
 
In OTL Stalin agreed to let Western allies occuply part of Berlin. He kept his word in 1945 and in fact limited how much he was prepared to do to get rid of it.

Why did Stalin agree to West Berlin. Why was getting West Berlin important to the West.

Would the Cold war have been different, even avoided without West Berlin
Great parts of the planned Soviet Occupation Zone, which later became the GDR, were 1945 still occupied by the Americans. Practically it was an exchange Thuringia and parts of Saxonia against West-Berlin. I think Stalin beliefed it was a win-win-situation. He would get valuble territiorys in exchange against a destroyed half-city, which he expected to get back in the moment he would put some pressure on the Western allies. Hey, a western Enclave surviving for years in soviete controlled territory? Impossible:D!
The Western Allies propably beliefed, that you can gover Germany just from Berlin (which was wrong).
The Cold war still would happen, but he would turn different. Simply by existing West-Berlin delegitimized the communist System. But on the other side West-Berlin was also a weak spot for the West. Without West-Berlin the USA would propably reacted more aggressive in Korea, Kuba, Vietnam.
 
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