Between 1956 and 1958, Wittkowski found herself increasingly out of line with the leadership, both because of differences over aspects of economic policy and because she sought to open a spirit of wider debate. In a speech delivered on 22 March 1956 to the Central Committee plenum she criticised Ulbricht over his failure to brief Central Committee members on the momentous events at the Soviet 20th Party Congress in Moscow the previous month: she urged a little more openness within the East German Central Committee. Wittkowski advocated greater priority be given to profitability and the needs of the population. At the Central Committee plenum in November 1956 she called for greater decentralisation of economic decision making. Addressing the Central Committee plenum in November 1956, she criticised the "bureaucratic" actions of many functionaries, which she characterised as discrediting the "party and the government". She also appealed for a less confrontational policy with socialists in the German Federal Republic, where a court imposed ban on the Communist Party in August 1956 failed to trigger significant protests by West German workers. There were two German states but there was only one German working class. Wittkowski might have taken a lead within the Central Committee in criticising aspects of economic policy, but she was not a lone voice. Inside the Central Committee, Karl Schirdewan and Ernst Wollweber were voicing similar sentiments. Other prominent critics of the party line were , Fred Oelßner and Fritz Selbmann.