West Berlin was the name given to the western part of Berlin between 1949 and 1990. It consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors established in 1945. It was in many ways integrated with, although legally not a part of, West Germany. The Soviet sector became East Berlin, which East Germany claimed as its capital; however, the Western Allies did not recognize this claim, as they asserted that the whole city was legally under four-power occupation. The building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 sealed the border to West Berlin, which since the end of the Second World War had been surrounded by communist East Berlin and East Germany.