first deputy chairmen, and nine deputy chairmen, all of whom constituted an inner circle called the Presidium of the Council of Ministers. The chairman of the Council of Ministers, Willi Stoph, was head of the government (prime minister). Stoph, a representative of the old guard and a Politbüro member since 1953, was again appointed council chairman in 1986. Unlike the nine deputy chairmen, the two first deputy chairmen, Politbüro members Werner Krolikowski and Alfred Neumann, generally had not been responsible for specific ministerial portfolios. In 1987 four of the nine deputy chairmen represented the four non-SED political parties allowed to operate in East Germany. The four non-SED deputy chairmen were the minister of posts and telecommunications - Rudolf Schulze of the CDU; the minister of environmental protection and water management - Hans Reichelt of the DBD; the minister of justice - Hans-Joachim Heusinger of the LDPD; and the chairman of the State Contract Court - Manfred Flegel of the NDPD. The other five positions held by deputy chairman on the Presidium of the Council of Ministers were occupied by members of the Central Committee of the SED. Two of the appointees, Günther Kleiber and Gerhard Schürer, a candidate member, were also Politbüro members. Of the thirty-three regular members on the council, including both ministers and nonministers, nineteen were concurrently members of the Central Committee of the SED, and two were also Politbüro members. The latter were Erich Mielke, minister of state security, and Hans Joachim Böhme, minister of university and technical affairs. According to the Constitution, all members of the Council of Ministers were formally elected to their posts by the People's Chamber for a five-year term. In fact, these decisions probably emanated from the Politbüro and the Central Committee of the SED. The Council of Ministers was required to work closely with the People's Chamber, and according to its administrative guidelines, the council was required to have all its legal drafts and decisions approved by the People's Chamber before they became law. In practice, the converse was true; the People's Chamber was obliged to approve those actions that were undertaken by the council and then routinely submitted to the legislature. Similarly, the People's Chamber was given the formal responsibility of selecting the membership of the council; in practice such personnel decisions were made by the Politbüro. The legislature was then expected to approve the selections. The Council of Ministers