Leipzig had been liberated from Nazi control by United States forces in April 1945, but by that time a different postwar division of Germany had been agreed between the victorious leaders. In July 1945 the Americans pulled back to be replaced by Soviet forces. The central third of what had been Germany was now administered as the Soviet occupation zone, to be relaunched, in October 1949, as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany). In Leipzig, Fritz Selbmann immediately took on the leadership of the "Provisional Central Committee of the Antifascist Bloc" ("Provisorischen Zentralausschusses des Antifaschistischen Blocks"). It is not entirely clear what this involved, but it was in any case only one of several leadership roles within the political structure that came his way, as he joined with like-minded comrades, in the upbeat language of those times, to overcome the destruction of war, develop a national economy and build a socialist future ("... beim Aufbau des Sozialismus bedeutende Verdienste erwarben"). Another office to which the military authorities appointed him in 1945 was as First Secretary of the Communist Party District Leadership ("Kreisleitung") for Leipzig. In August 1945 he was appointed president of the Regional Labour Office ("... des Landesarbeitsamtes") and in September 1945 he was made Regional Vice-president for State Administration in Saxony. In October 1946, as seemingly more long-term political institutions emerged, he of the , resigning (as his national political responsibilities increased) only on 30 June 1950. Additionally, in December 1946 he was appointed Economics and Planning Minister in the State of Saxony, a position he retained till 1948. (This was part of a tier of government that would cease to exist - formally - by the end of 1952, as an of political power took hold.)