Sponsored German Federal Republic (West Germany) and the Soviet sponsored German Democratic Republic (East Germany), Peter Blechstein was based in "capitalist" West Germany. In the western occupation zones a return to a multi-party political structure was being implemented, and Blachstein joined the Social Democratic Party ("Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands" / SPD), while supporting himself successfully as a free-lance journalist. He soon obtained a post with the Hamburger Echo as Feuilleton editor. Shortly after this he was elected to chair the local Hamburg-Eimsbüttel SPD. He continued to serve as a member of the regional party executive between 1948 and 1976. He also had an ambition to become involved in national politics, and in 1949 stood successfully for election to the Bundestag. He remained a member for nearly two decades, until October 1968. Between 1954 and 1968 he was a member of the party leadership team in the assembly, and increasingly focused on foreign policy issues, serving as the Home Affairs and Foreign Policy committees. He was a member of the Inter-Parliamentary Union and of the advisory council to the Western European Union. In terms of political philosophy he remained on the left-wing of the party and was accordingly critical of the Godesberg Program, although his criticism was more rigorously analytical than politically beguiling, and his approach failed to generate widespread support. Between 1955 and 1968, he was a member of the administrative council of the broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk. He also took a particular concern in refugees, founding the German Committee for Spanish Refugees in 1958. After parliament In May 1968 Blachstein resigned from the Bundestag in order to take up an appointment as West Germany's ambassador to Yugoslavia. In June 1969 poor health forced him to retire from the position, however. After a period of recuperation his health improved, and between 1970 and 1972 he found himself working directly for Willy Brandt, employed as an officer of the Government Press Service. After this, until his death of 4 October 1977, he again worked as a free-lance journalist. Personal Peter Blachstein seldom mentioned his family in public, or even privately with friends. He had a brother and a younger sister. Blachstein himself was a committed atheist who could never understand how a national government could simply decide who was Jewish and who was not: he robustly rejected the conflation of race and religion. He came from a humanist background. However, the German government