After the Volkskammer elections, on April 12, 1990, the last and only democratically elected government in the GDR was sworn in under Prime Minister Lothar de Maizière. Their aim was to negotiate and develop the domestic and foreign policy framework for the accession of the GDR to the Federal Republic. To this end, 22 ministries were formed or restructured. Each ministry had at least one, but mostly several state secretaries or parliamentary state secretaries, although the public is hardly aware of them as political actors in the political transformation process of the GDR. In addition to a detailed introduction, the volume contains eyewitness interviews with five state secretaries of the last GDR government: 1) Hans Misselwitz, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs 2) Dr. Helmut Domke, State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 3) Dr. Petra Erler, State Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office 4) Almuth Berger, State Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office 5) Helga Kreft, State Secretary in the Ministry for Family Affairs and Women's Affairs
