[2] He was unable to progress to the next stage academically by studying for a doctorate in law because he did not wish to become a member of the country's ruling NSDAP (Nazi party).

This was redesignated in October 1949 as the Provisional People's Chamber (national legislature)[1] at the same time as the occupation zone itself was redesignated as the German Democratic Republic, a separate Soviet-sponsored German state to the west of the Oder-Neisse line and divided politically (and, increasingly, physically) from what had been the post-war occupation zones controlled by the Americans, British and French armies.

Opposition parties naturally resisted control by the SED, and it was the resulting tensions that provide the context for the rest of Stempel's political career.

[4] Turn-out was unfailingly high, and in subsequent East German elections prior to 1990 the ruling party's candidate list was never supported by fewer than 99% of those voting.

[5] The Liberal Democratic Party leadership had become increasingly split between those prepared, if grudgingly, to go along with East Germany's constitutional arrangements, and those uncompromising and vociferous in their opposition.

[7] On 7 January 1952 Stempel faced a Soviet military tribunal which sentenced him to 25 years of forced labour, citing his "agent and espionage activities" ("Agenten- u.

In May 1954 Stempel was required to testify at a show trial against Hamann: it may or may not have been a comment on the quality of his testimony that in August 1954 he was sent back to the Vorkuta labour camp.

[2] Sources comment on the contrast between the "war criminal" official status accorded him by the Soviet authorities in 1955, and the career damage Stempel sustained from his refusal to join the Nazi Party between 1933 and 1945.