In October 1949 the part of Germany administered since May 1945 as the Soviet occupation zone was relaunched as the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic, a separated German state with its political institutions consciously modelled on those of the Soviet Union itself. Under the Leninist system, the state's power was focused not on any parliament or government ministers, but on the ruling party, and within the party (except when a party congress was in session) on the party central committee. Right from the birth of the state in 1949 Herta Geffke was active as an energetic official inside the party central committee. In March 1949 she became a department head in the Central Secretariat if the Party Executive and a member of the newly instituted Central Party Control Commission ("Zentrale Parteikontrollkommission" / ZPKK), retaining this membership till October 1958. This meant that, working alongside Hermann Matern, she was responsible for keeping the party cleansed "of enemy and degenerate elements" ("von feindlichen und entarteten Elementen") during the 1950s.