<P> On 5 June 1953, the S.E.D. announced a' new course' in which farmers, craftsmen, and factory owners would benefit from a relaxation of controls . The new production quotas remained; the East German workers protested and up to sixty strikes occurred the following day . One of the window - dressing projects in the ruins of East Berlin was the construction of Stalin Allee, on which the most' class - conscious' workers (in S.E.D. propaganda terms) were involved . At a meeting, strikers declared "You give the capitalists (the factory owners) presents, and we are exploited!" A delegation of building workers marched to the headquarters of the S.E.D. demanding that the production quotas be rescinded . The crowd grew, demands were made for the removal of Ulbricht from office and a general strike called for the following day . </P> <P> On 17 June 1953 strikes and demonstrations occurred in 250 towns and cities in the GDR . Between 300,000 and 400,000 workers took part in the strikes, which were specifically directed towards the rescinding of the production quotas and were not an attempt to overthrow the government . The strikers were for the most part convinced that the transformation of the GDR into a socialist state was the proper course to take but that the S.E.D. had taken a wrong turn . The S.E.D. responded with all of the force at its command and also with the help of the Soviet Occupation force . Thousands were arrested, sentenced to jail and many hundreds were forced to leave for West Germany . The S.E.D. later moderated its course but the damage had been done . The real face of the East German regime was revealed . The S.E.D. claimed that the strikes had been instigated by West German agents, but there is no evidence for this . Over 250 strikers were killed, around 100 policemen and some 18 Soviet soldiers died in the uprising; 17 June was declared a national day of remembrance in West Germany . </P> <P> Shortly after World War II, Berlin became the seat of the Allied Control Council, which was to have governed Germany as a whole until the conclusion of a peace settlement . In 1948, however, the Soviet Union refused to participate any longer in the quadripartite administration of Germany . They also refused to continue the joint administration of Berlin and drove the government elected by the people of Berlin out of its seat in the Soviet sector and installed a communist regime in East Berlin . From then until unification, the Western Allies continued to exercise supreme authority--effective only in their sectors--through the Allied Kommandatura . To the degree compatible with the city's special status, however, they turned over control and management of city affairs to the West Berlin Senate and the House of Representatives, governing bodies established by constitutional process and chosen by free elections . The Allies and German authorities in West Germany and West Berlin never recognized the communist city regime in East Berlin or East German authority there . </P> <P> During the years of West Berlin's isolation--176 kilometers (110 mi .) inside East Germany--the Western Allies encouraged a close relationship between the Government of West Berlin and that of West Germany . Representatives of the city participated as non-voting members in the West German Parliament; appropriate West German agencies, such as the supreme administrative court, had their permanent seats in the city; and the governing mayor of West Berlin took his turn as President of the Bundesrat . In addition, the Allies carefully consulted with the West German and West Berlin Governments on foreign policy questions involving unification and the status of Berlin . </P>

When was germany divided up into two nations