After Stalin died, in March 1953, the East German party leadership became slightly less nervous, and in 1954 she was reinstated as deputy president of what had now become the State Planning Commission,[1] which gave her significant influence over national economic policy.[2] In April 1954 Wittkowski was also elected a member of the powerful Party Central Committee, which under the Leninist power structure employed in East Germany was the real focus of political power.[6] She also sat as a member of the national parliament ("Volkskammer") between 1952 and 1958, and again between 1963 and 1967.[3]