The party was a central feature in Jutta Czichotzke's adult life. Her relationship with the Socialist Unity Party was a complicated one that changed over time. Her parents both became party members, and political indifference was not an option in the family home. She was a member of the Young Pioneers and then of the Free German Youth (effectively the youth wing of the ruling SED) and, after she was permitted to join the party itself on reaching the age of 18, proud to back the party ideals and keen to keep a finger on the party pulse. But she was also the young comrade who always had questions. For several years her questions were always dealt with in a friendly way, even though over time some of her questions became closer to criticisms. Combining her study at the Academy for Foreign Trade with a day job administering foreign trade imposed an awareness of political contradictions between political ideals and reality, and she became involved in disputes about ethical-moral questions. In August 1968 the invasion of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact forces shocked her deeply: she became increasingly concerned with the way in which the identity of the officially identified "class enemy" changed over time. Around this time the East German government "normalised" diplomatic relations with Spain, a country ruled by a "Fascist" dictator against whom many comrades now living out their final decades in East Germany had fought during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s. The attitude of the East German press to Spain suddenly reversed, while questionable invoicing practices hat she encountered in her work, involving trade with Spain, seemed unchanged. In the political seminars which were a feature of office life in East Germany she found herself in confrontations with seminar leaders. The tolerance and honesty that had characterised earlier political discussions were no longer apparent and her job was downgraded.