 The DFD was an officially mandated "mass organisation" which, under the Leninist constitutional structure being applied, would receive a predetermined fixed quota of seats in the National parliament (""Volkskammer"").It was not as a representative of the SED (party) but as the Berlin representative of the DFD that between 1950 and 1981 Roberta Gropper sat as a member of the Volkskammer.In addition, for many years she held a senior political position within the Berlin region Trades Union Federation.