On 27 October 1956, shocked by the attitude of the party leadership to the popular uprisings in Hungary and Poland, Wetzel joined with fellow editors to publish an open letter of protest addressed to the politburo. They called for "information faithful to the truth" ("wahrheitsgetreue(n) Informationen") and adherence to "Leninist standards of party and national life" ("Leninschen Normen des Partei- u. Staatslebens"). The wheels of the East German power structure ground into action and in January or March 1957, under pressure from the authorities, Wochenpost dispensed with the services of their founding editor. He was also removed from the chairmanship of the VDR. At the same time he was sharply criticised at a meeting of the Central Committee press department. The irritation of the leader, Walter Ulbricht, had been exacerbated by the fact that the editors' open letter to the politburo had included a line on the subject of "press freedom" which had already been rejected by the Central Committee when proposed for a prominent feature in Neues Deutschland, East Germany's principal daily newspaper. The fact that Wetzel and his fellow letter writers had included the rejected line in their open letter was seen by Ulbricht as a practical failure of personal loyalty on Wetzels' part.