There was a strong, if ill-defined, expectation on both sides of what would become known as the "inner German border" that the four military occupation zones of Germany would at some stage be rehabilitated and unified into a single post-fascist state, but visions of how such a state would be governed differed starkly, especially after . During the twelve month Berlin blockade thoughts of any future German reunification disappeared over the horizon, and in October 1949 the Soviet zone was relaunched as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany). It was also during 1949 that returned from the Netherlands and moved in with Marie. The two sisters, still unmarried, childless, and still - in their different ways - deeply engaged in the politics of education, made their home together in Weimar, which till 1952 was the seat of the for Thuringia. In 1950 Marie Torhorst lost her position as Thuringian Minister for People's Education. Significantly , her successor, appointed only in 1951, was another woman. Isolde Oschmann was a former Kindergarten teacher who turned out to be very much less of a hands-on education minister that Torhorst had been: her footprint on East German history remained slight despite her having held ministerial office for more than a year. It remains unclear why Marie Torhorst was replaced in the role. There is no very obvious indication from her subsequent public career that she was among those who fell out of favour with the party leadership at this time.