Democratic Women's League ("Demokratischer Frauenbund Deutschlands" / DFD) which under the Leninist constitutional structure being rolled out for East Germany quickly became one of officially sanctioned Mass movements controlled, in many respects by the ruling party and given an allocation of seats in the national legislature in order to broaden the political base and legitimacy of the government. She became secretary to the DFD in July 1947, retaining the post for two years. Between 1947 and 1953 she was a member of the Berlin regional executive ("Bezirksvorstand") of the DFD. However, she retired from her full-time offices on health grounds in July 1949. A certain rivalry between Walter Ulbricht and Franz Dahlem had arisen in the 1930s, and after the war there were more general tensions within the national leadership between those - including Walter Ulbricht and President Pieck - who had spent the war years in Moscow and those (such as Dahlem) who had spent the war years in France. As general nervousness within the leadership increased in the context of the Noel Field revelations, in May 1953 Franz Dahlem found himself stripped of his party offices and subjected to a more general official "degradation" strategy. Käthe Dahlem resurfaced and robustly defended her husband before the National Party Control Commission ("Zentrale Parteikontrollkommission") on 12 June 1953, accusing the commission leader, Hermann Matern, of lying. It is impossible to measure the overall impact of her intervention, but Franz Dahlem was spared a show trial (unlike Paul Merker who was caught up in a similar set of circumstances around the same time) and indeed officially rehabilitated a few years later, though he never regained his position in the upper echelons of the ruling party. Käthe Dahlem died in East Berlin on 25 December 1974. Awards and honours 1957 Clara Zetkin Medal 1958 Medal for Fighters Against Fascism 1933 - 1945. 1969 Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold. 1974 Karl-Marx-Orden. 1971 Franz and Käthe Dahlem were jointly awarded honorary citizenship of Ivry-sur-Seine in France. In Berlin an academy has been named after Käthe Dahlem. References 1899 births 1974 deaths People from East Berlin Independent Social Democratic Party politicians Communist Party of Germany politicians Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Communists in the German Resistance Exiles from Nazi Germany International Brigades personnel Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold