War ended in May 1945. A large central portion of Germany, including her home region, was now administered as the Soviet occupation zone. Membership of the Communist Party was no longer illegal, and despite not yet being 21, Gisela Trautzsch joined it. In April 1946 a contentious political merger resulted (if only, for most purposes, within the Soviet occupation zone) in the formation of a new political party, the &lt;a href="Socialist%20Unity%20Party%20of%20Germany"&gt;Socialist Unity Party ("Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands" / SED)&lt;/a&gt;, and she was one of thousands of Communist Party members happy to sign their party membership across to a new united party of the left which many believed would ensure avoidance of a return to one-party dictatorship.