Nicolas Jasson has put together a page showing an excerpt from an East German map of Berlin, dating from the late 1970s/early 1980s, which showed virtually no detail on the other side of the Berlin Wall — for all intents and purposes, West Berlin did not exist.

Because of the Berlin Wall (here shown in purple) and the impossibility for the East Germans to travel freely, including to the Western sectors of Berlin (West Berlin), it was deemed preferable by the East German authorities not to show at all any detail of West Berlin! What is shown as a desert are of course densely built-up areas, with an equivalent density of streets, totally obliterated here, save for one or two major streets linking with the border crossings.