Between 1957 and 1964 he was the president of the Association of Visual Artists (DDRA / Verband Bildender Künstler) in East Germany.

[2] Returning home to Leipzig, in November 1946 he joined what was shortly to become ruling SED (party)[1] of what was in the process of becoming the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).

[3] He then returned to the Academy in Leipzig where he was designated an emeritus professor in 1974, but continued to give master classes.

In 1958 he succeeded Otto Nagel as the president of the country's Association of Visual Artists (DDRA / Verband Bildender Künstler).

Walter Arnold died in 1979 in Dresden, where he is buried, now with his wife Maria, in the Loschwitz Cemetery, under an image created by himself.