After this he worked till 1960 in Halle, as part of the Culture and Economics editorial team with Die Freiheit, at the time a newspaper of the country's governing SED (party).

In 1963 he became a member of the SED regional leadership team, and in 1970/71 he spent a year as a volunteer Political commissar with the National People's Army.

His writings dealt with societal problems in the real-life socialist East Germany, while remaining faithful to the party line.

Its central theme is developments in the life of an initially rebellious construction worker who, by the end of the book, has become a well attuned conformist member of the socialist society.

The author had planned a sixth volume entitled "Years of the Quiet Sun" ("Jahre der ruhigen Sonne"), but after the political changes of 1990 he was no longer able to write it.