During the Peaceful Revolution he was a Deputy Chairman of the East German Council of Ministers from November 1989 to March 1990, overseeing local government.
[2] During the transition towards German reunification he was briefly the first president of the Treuhand, the organisation entrusted with the privatisation of East Germany's nationally-owned enterprises.
In 1968 he became a full-time employee of the regional party organisation of the LDPD in the district of Karl-Marx-Stadt (as Chemnitz was called at that time).
Shortly before the election, on 1 March 1990, prime minister Hans Modrow appointed him as the first president of the Treuhand agency that was tasked with privatisation of the Volkseigene Betriebe (publicly owned enterprises).
[2] After proposing voucher privatisation by handing out shares to the citizens of East Germany, he fell out of favour with the new democratic government of Lothar de Maizière that planned to sell the enterprises to investors.