to build up the role of women in framing party policy. The results of the Berlin city region elections on 29 January 1989 were inconclusive. Following lengthy coaliation negotiations Walter Momper of the SPD emerged as Governing Mayor of what at that stage was still West Berlin. Anne Klein accepted an invitation to join his ministerial team in the Senate of Berlin. Although she was not actually a senator, she was co-opted as a "non-party candidate for the Berlin Green Party". Her portfolio covered "Women, young people and the family" ("Frauen, Jugend und Familie"). Anne Klein, who was already known for her feminist views and whose own same-sex partnership was no secret, attracted mixed headlines when she set up in her department an office for same-sex lifestyles. She was able to provide a hitherto unprecedented degree of financial security for the "Wildwasser project" which supports women who have suffered sexual abuse as children. On her initiative sanctuaries were created for women and girls who found themselves in crisis and fell into prostitution. She also took steps to ensure that women seeking refuge in the city's women's shelters should not be required to pay for their accommodation there. One of the unforeseen consequences of the changes of 1989/90 and the reunification of Berlin was that the redevelopment of an area of what had been East Berlin, which had been cleared for rebuilding, was postponed. The area in question quickly became home to a very large number of squatters. In order to move matters on, in November 1990 the Berlin senate ordered one of Berlin's largest police operations of the postwar era in order to remove the squatters and seal the area off to prevent their return. The so-called Clearing of the Mainzer Street involved ten water canon trucks, helicopters, tear gas, guns and around 3,000 policemen. This belt and braces approach was widely seen as heavy handed. There was serious street fighting: there were complaints. It turned out that Erich Pätzold, the SPD senator whose portfolio covered the issue of squatter clearance, had neither alerted his three Green Party ministerial colleagues to his plans nor involved them in discussions about it once the exercise was under way. The already uneasy coalition between SPD senators and their Green-facing colleagues broke apart. The three Green senators were persuaded not to pursue their motion of no-confidence, but after 23 months in office Anne Klein,