The Tübingen historian Gerhard Schulz, who belongs to the founding generation of contemporary history research in the Federal Republic, kept a diary throughout his life. The description of the years from 1945 to 1950, which he spent in the Soviet Zone/GDR, is particularly dense. As a new teacher and student, he was confronted with the Bolshevization process by the SED. He increasingly distanced himself from the system until he switched to West Berlin in 1950. The Central German Diary not only documents the SED dictatorship in its formative phase through an individual fate; it also contributes to the shaping of the worldview of the young Gerhard Schulz.