A great number of people in the East German parts had been Nazis, so the change of mind was not altogether there.

I certainly hoped that in the Eastern part of Germany, what was just beginning to be called the German Democratic Republic, you would develop a system of socialism with freedom and democracy.

The idea of a socialism with a human face was something that I absolutely could support, because it was my idea from the very first.

And one of the worst effects was that by suppressing critical thought, it also suppressed critical thought in the field of economics and hampered the development of economics - and the country would fall back further and further in the economic competition with the West.

I not only saw the possibility of nuclear war, I feared it very much. If they started a military conflagration, it would automatically lead to nuclear warfare.

If you live in a system that is suppressive, you don't walk upright, you always go with your head down.

A great number of people in the East German parts had been Nazis, so the change of mind was not altogether there.