Since the end of the Second World War the city of Berlin has been one of the major crisis points in international affairs as well as a crucial testing ground for the successes and failures of Soviet and Western foreign policies. This study attempts to increase our comprehension of the total context of the Berlin problem by studying the origins of the Berlin dilemma in the processes of alliance diplomacy during the Second World War. The focal point of the inquiry is the European Advisory Commission, the inter-Allied body in London which in 1944 and 1945 negoitated and signed the protocols establishing the postwar status of Berlin and the zones of occupation in Germany. The study is interdisciplinary, overlapping the disciplines of history and political science. On the one hand, it is a construction of a segment of history, a recreation of the series of decisions made about the postwar status of Berlin by the Allies during the war. On the other hand it is an inquiry into the problems of diplomacy between the members of a military coalition during wartime.