"It was a transruption, not a transformation – nothing remained, absolutely nothing, which former GDR citizens could take as orientation, or remember from the past, be familiar with."
Uwe Nübel, a Doctor of Engineering, was actively involved in the church and politics in East Berlin. In 1984 he joined the East German Christian Democratic Party, hoping to influence politics on the ground. In 1989, he was voted on to the Friedrichshain local council. In December 1989 he became head of the renamed district council, in which capacity he was also chairperson of the Friedrichshain round table. Following the first free elections in the GDR, in March 1990, he became both a member of the freely elected Berlin-Friedrichshain district council and head of department for the Office of the GDR Prime Minister, Lothar de Maizière (CDU-Ost), the first freely elected East German premier. After German unification he was laid off – like many other members of staff of the former GDR government apparatus. He then worked in the local housing industry until his retirement.