2.1.1. Legal text

The legal text under analysis was the Quadripartite Agreement (or: Viermächte-Abkommen) which was entered into by the Governments of the USSR, the United Kingdom, the French Republic and the United States of America in order to facilitate communication between the Western Sectors of Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany. This agreement exists in four copies in three different languages (English, French, Russian) and three German versions, namely one prepared by the Federal Republic of Germany, one by the (at that time still existing) German Democratic Republic of Germany, and an official version negotiated by the two German states as a text binding for both states. The latter two texts are available; unfortunately all efforts have failed to get hold of the inofficial version prepared by Western Germany.