By 1949 it had become clear that whatever the future might hold for Germany, the portion of it under Soviet administration was developing very differently from the zones occupied by the other three victorious wartime powers. As the Soviet blockade of West Berlin was lifted, in May 1949 the US, British and American zones were combined and re-founded as the German Federal Republic. Bittel's prompt reaction was to relocate the same month from what was now designated West Germany, to the Soviet occupation zone, which itself would be re-founded a few months later, in October, as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic. Between 1949 and 1957 Bittel served as deputy head, and then from 1951 as head of the .