 Complete the following phrase:  At the beginning of October 1950 Maria Weiterer started work in Berga southeast of Gera as a book keeper and statistician at Plant 3 of the wool and silk plant. She was not as badly treated as Paul Merker, but her new life nevertheless counted as banishment. She made several applications for readmission to party membership but these, initially, were not successful. Nevertheless, in 1952 she was promoted, becoming a head of department at the Novotex works in Berga. Back in Berlin there was by now a slow retreat from paranoia on the part of the authorities following the death of Stalin, which accelerated after what was termed in the early days without irony Nikita Khrushchevs secret speech to the 