In October 1949 the Soviet occupation zone was relaunched as the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), a separate German state with its political and social institutions consciously modelled on those developed in the Soviet Union during the previous three decades. Between 1949 and 1953 Baumann belonged to the secretariat of the Central Committee, also serving, between 1953 and 1955, as party secretary of the regional party leadership team for Berlin itself. Between 1955 and 1961 she headed up working groups and the central committee Women's Section. The zenith of her career was the period between 1958 and 1963 when she was listed as a candidate member of the Politburo, though she never made the final leap to full Politburo membership. From 1961 till 1963 she was simultaneously also Central Committee secretary with responsibilities over trade and supply, light goods and food products. After this, till 1973, the focus of her political career switched to Berlin where she served as a city councillor and secretary to the .