political party. During the next twelve months, as the apparatus of dictatorship continued to crumble, and the East German SDP progressively merged into the (hitherto "West German") Social Democratic Party (SPD), she undertook a succession of party functions at district and state level. The East German general election of 18 March 1990 is widely seen as the first (and last) free and fair general election in the forty year history of the German Democratic Republic. For those who view history backwards it was also a step down the inevitable path to German reunification. Certainly over in Bonn Chancellor Kohl (who by this time enjoyed far more cordial relationship with Soviet party General Secretary Gorbachev than any member of the East German government leadership) already saw a clear road ahead whereby the forty years of German division might be ended. But in March 1990 there were still very few people in East or West Germany who foresaw realistic prospect of reunification. The realisation of what might become possible dawned on people only during the few months, however. There was nothing theoretical about the return of democracy to East Germany, and on 6 May 1990 Schöttler was elected to membership the East Berlin city assembly ("(Ost-)Berliner Stadtverordnetenversammlung"). By 11 July 1990, when this city parliament voted into force a constitution for East Berlin (to come into force on 23 July 1990) reunification was very much more clearly on the horizon, so that the East Berlin constitution was to be valid only for a six month transitional phase till January 1991, by which time it was anticipated that a longer term way ahead might be apparent. It was. Schöttler remained a member of the East Berlin city parliament till its replacement in December 1990. Berlin reunited The formal date of the reunification treaty was 3 October 1990. A couple of months later, on 2 December 1990, elections were held for a newly enlarged Berlin city parliament ("Abgeordnetenhaus"). The date was chosen because it was also the date selected for the first all-German national election since the Nazi show election of April 1938. In Berlin, once again a united city, Gabriele Schöttler was elected to the Berlin parliament as the SPD member for a city centre electoral district ("Wahlkreis Mitte 1" ). She remained a member for slightly more than ten years, representing central Berlin and serving between 1991 and 1995, and then again