when he returned to germany in 1946 it was to his home region which was part of a large chunk of what had been central germany that by now was being administered as the soviet occupation zone. the region was being subjected to a carefully planned soviet sponsored nation building exercise headed up by an elite team of german communists who, in contrast to the treatment afforded to others who had fled to the soviet union, had been flown in from moscow at the end of april 1945. most of the communists who had fled nazi germany and survived the experience had spent the war years in moscow. smaller groups had lived in western capitals including london, but many of these did not return to germany after the war, or at least not to the soviet occupation zone. those, such as heinz schmidt, that did were branded as "westemigranten" (""western emigrants"") and viewed with a certain amount of suspicion by the men who after 1949 would form the backbone of the east german political establishment: there was a concern, shared by stalin himself, that living in the west might have corrupted or diminished their credentials as loyal pro-soviet comrades. however, schmidt lost no time in signing his party membership over to the newly formed socialist unity party (""sozialistische einheitspartei deutschlands"" / sed) and took a job with the party, serving briefly in a senior capacity in the party's information department (""leiter der hauptabteilung tagesfragen sowie als chefredakteur""). that lasted till 31 july 1947 when he took over from max seydewitz as intendant ("loosely: "director general"") of the berliner rundfunk (radio channel).