War ended, formally, in May 1945, leaving the western two thirds of Germany divided into four military occupation zones. Bavaria was under American occupation. Grube returned to Munich (the Bavarian capital) in June 1945 and, like his father, worked as a commercial artist. His schooling had been interrupted during the National Socialist years, but now he was able to complete the school curricula and pass his Abitur (school final exams) which opened the way to university-level education. He went on to train as a school teacher, then profession by which he subsequently supported himself. In May 1949 the US occupation zone was merged with the British zone and the French zone (but "not" with the increasingly cut off Soviet occupation zone) and relaunched as the US sponsored German Federal Republic (West Germany). For Grube it would take several decades before he could speak openly about life under the National Socialists.