May 1945 marked the end of the war and the end of the Nazi regime. Drenkmann was among relatively few lawyers who had stayed independent of the Nazi Party. By temperament he was a liberal Social Democrat, and in 1945 (if not earlier) he became a member of the &lt;a href="Social%20Democratic%20Party%20of%20Germany"&gt;Social Democratic Party ("Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands" / SPD)&lt;/a&gt;.