 On 1 January 1949 he joined the "People's Police" (""Volkspolizei"") as a commissioner and department head with the Criminal Police in Berlin's Police Headquarters.In 1950/51 he undertook a period of study at the Party's Karl Marx Academy in Berlin before being promoted, in 1951 as a Police Inspector (colonel level) and deputy head, as well as being leader of the Police airborne department and aero-club.Directly after the war there had been shared opposition to the idea of a German army among the allied occupying powers.