In front of the austere stone façade of the Schiller Theatre in West Berlin, two Allied military personnel – a man in light US Army summer uniform and a woman in dark service uniform – pass a glazed notice board displaying playbills. The plain postwar architecture of the Schiller Theatre, which reopened in 1951, forms the background. The image exemplifies the cultural dimension of the Allied presence in West Berlin: the Schiller Theatre was not only an institution of German cultural life but also a symbol of cultural reconstruction in the western part of the divided city. The presence of US military personnel in leisure wear or service uniform points to the everyday interweaving of Allied occupation life and West Berlin urban life in 1955.