She started her career as a primary school teacher, and rose to become a member of the powerful Party Central Committee between 1981 and 1989, undertaking various leadership roles in respect of the country's highly politicised culture sector.

This provided a foundation for a new political order, creating the Socialist Unity Party which, like thousands of her fellow citizens, she lost no time in joining.

Finally, in March 1976, she took over as head of the Culture Department from Peter Heidt who moved on to an academic function as a Professor for Economic History at the party's Karl Marx Academy.

[7][8] The party's monopoly of various forms of patronage and sponsorship gave her the power to affect the material well-being of East German authors, such as, for instance, Stephan Hermlin.

[9] On top of that she was also given charge, by Central Committee Secretary Kurt Hager, of determining approval processes for foreign travel and performances by artists[10] and she was given co-responsibility for the conditions under which the hugely popular books of Karl May (1842-1912) might be both published and produced as films.