[1] Once Zanzibar entered into a union with Tanganyika (a former German colony), the issue of relations with East Germany became politically complex.

On 28 January 1964, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) approved diplomatic recognition of Zanzibar.

[2] On 29 January 1964, the foreign minister of the newly established Zanzibari government Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu sent a telegram to the East German leader Walter Ulbricht announcing Zanzibar's recognition of the GDR.

[11] In March 1964 the East German financial advisor was appointed as deputy chief of the Zanzibari Ministry of Finance, taking over the role previously played by the British Permanent Secretary Henry Hawker (according to historian Anthony Clayton, Hawker and Gentsch met for an amicable handover session and managed to agree on several points).

[12][13] East German and Soviet personnel also helped train and organize the 600-member revolutionary armed forces of the young island republic.

[14] The Zanzibari government had issued a regulation that every household of foreign technical experts was required to employ at least one local domestic worker, as a move to combat widespread unemployment.

[11] A specific party sub-organization was set-up for the trailing spouses, tasked with ensuring correct relations with the domestic workers.

[12] Gentsch expressed concern that parts of the Zanzibari government centered around Ahmed Rashid refused to cooperate with the East Germans, on instructions from the Chinese representatives.

[2] A "solidarity shipment" from East Germany arrived in Zanzibar for the May Day celebrations, including textiles, clothing, shoes, medicines, transistor radios, bicycles, watches and sugar.

[20] The East German Deputy Foreign Minister Wolfgang Kiesewetter [de] spent several weeks in Zanzibar in January–February 1965, trying to find a solution to the dispute.

[23] In the end the establishment of an East German consulate-general in Dar-es-Salaam, in exchange for the closure of the embassy on Zanzibar, was grudgingly accepted by West Germany.