In April 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany aboard a special Soviet aircraft that also carried fellow German Communists Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Zaisser, Ernst Wollweber, and many of the future leaders of the East Germany.

That same month, Mielke's future handler, NKGB General Ivan Serov, travelled to Germany from Warsaw and, from his headquarters in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, divided the Soviet Zone into "Operative Sectors."

On 10 July 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed SMA Order No.
2, which legalized the re-establishment of "anti-fascist" political parties like the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).

On 15 July 1945, Mielke walked into the KPD's headquarters and volunteered his services.
In an autobiography written for the KPD, Mielke confessed his involvement in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck, but lied when he wrote that he had been tried for the murders, found guilty, and sentenced to death in absentia.
The reality was that Mielke's, "name was mentioned in the 1934 trials but he was never tried."

In the same memoir, Mielke concealed his past and present involvement with the NKVD and NKGB.
He wrote that he had fought on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, but claimed to have been released from the French internment camps and to have worked in Belgium for an underground Communist newspaper under the code name "Gaston."
He also claimed to have infiltrated Organization Todt.

According to Koehler, "As might be expected, Mielke's account of his past was approved by the Soviets.
Had Serov not been part of the conspiracy, Mielke would have been instantly arrested or at least subjected to an intense internal investigation because of his membership in the Nazi Organisation Todt, which used thousands of slave laborers.
But he was cleared in record time and by the end of June the Soviets had installed him as a station commander of the newly formed Volkspolizei (Vopo), the People's Police."

On 16 August 1947, Serov ordered the creation of Kommissariat 5, the first German political police since the defeat of Nazi Germany.

According to Anne Applebaum, however, not everyone approved of the plan.
In Moscow, Soviet Interior Minister Viktor Abakumov argued that a new secret police force would be demonized by Western governments and the media, which would paint the K-5 as a, "new Gestapo."
Furthermore, Abakumov, like, Stalin, intensely distrusted German Communists and alleged that there, "were not enough German cadres who have been thoroughly checked."
Even so, recruitment into the K-5 began almost immediately.
It is possible that, as Norman Naimark suspects, that the NKGB had realized that their officers poor knowledge of the German language was causing massive resentment.

Wilhelm Zaisser, who had been Mielke's commanding officer in Republican Spain, was appointed the K-5's head.
Mielke was installed as his deputy.

According to John Koehler, "The K-5 was essentially an arm of the Soviet secret police.
Its agents were carefully selected veteran German communists who had survived the Nazi-era in Soviet exile or in concentration camps and prisons.
Their task was to track down Nazis and anti-communists, including hundreds of members of the Social Democratic Party.
Mielke and his fellow bloodhounds performed this task with ruthless precision.
The number of arrests became so great that the regular prisons could not hold them.
Thus, Serov ordered the establishment or re-opening of eleven concentration camps, including the former Nazi death camps of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen."

According to Anne Applebaum, "One of the few documents from that era to survive (most were removed by the KGB or perhaps destroyed, in 1989 or before) mentions a departmental training meeting and included a list of attendees.
Topping the list is a group of Soviet advisers.
In this sense, K-5 did resemble the political police in the rest of Eastern Europe: as in Hungary, Poland, and the USSR itself, this new political police force was initially extra-governmental, operating outside the ordinary
In April 1945, Mielke returned to the Soviet Zone of Occupied Germany aboard a special Soviet aircraft that also carried fellow German Communists Walter Ulbricht, Wilhelm Zaisser, Ernst Wollweber, and many of the future leaders of the East Germany.
That same month, Mielke's future handler, NKGB General Ivan Serov, travelled to Germany from Warsaw and, from his headquarters in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, divided the Soviet Zone into "Operative Sectors."
On 10 July 1945, Marshal Georgy Zhukov signed SMA Order No. 2, which legalized the re-establishment of "anti-fascist" political parties like the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).
On 15 July 1945, Mielke walked into the KPD's headquarters and volunteered his services. In an autobiography written for the KPD, Mielke confessed his involvement in the 1931 murders of Berlin Police Captains Anlauf and Lenck, but lied when he wrote that he had been tried for the murders, found guilty, and sentenced to death in absentia. The reality was that Mielke's, "name was mentioned in the 1934 trials but he was never tried."
In the same memoir, Mielke concealed his past and present involvement with the NKVD and NKGB. He wrote that he had fought on the Republican side during the Spanish Civil War, but claimed to have been released from the French internment camps and to have worked in Belgium for an underground Communist newspaper under the code name "Gaston." He also claimed to have infiltrated Organization Todt.
According to Koehler, "As might be expected, Mielke's account of his past was approved by the Soviets. Had Serov not been part of the conspiracy, Mielke would have been instantly arrested or at least subjected to an intense internal investigation because of his membership in the Nazi Organisation Todt, which used thousands of slave laborers. But he was cleared in record time and by the end of June the Soviets had installed him as a station commander of the newly formed Volkspolizei (Vopo), the People's Police."
On 16 August 1947, Serov ordered the creation of Kommissariat 5, the first German political police since the defeat of Nazi Germany. 
According to Anne Applebaum, however, not everyone approved of the plan. In Moscow, Soviet Interior Minister Viktor Abakumov argued that a new secret police force would be demonized by Western governments and the media, which would paint the K-5 as a, "new Gestapo." Furthermore, Abakumov, like, Stalin, intensely distrusted German Communists and alleged that there, "were not enough German cadres who have been thoroughly checked." Even so, recruitment into the K-5 began almost immediately. It is possible that, as Norman Naimark suspects, that the NKGB had realized that their officers poor knowledge of the German language was causing massive resentment.
Wilhelm Zaisser, who had been Mielke's commanding officer in Republican Spain, was appointed the K-5's head. Mielke was installed as his deputy.
According to John Koehler, "The K-5 was essentially an arm of the Soviet secret police. Its agents were carefully selected veteran German communists who had survived the Nazi-era in Soviet exile or in concentration camps and prisons. Their task was to track down Nazis and anti-communists, including hundreds of members of the Social Democratic Party. Mielke and his fellow bloodhounds performed this task with ruthless precision. The number of arrests became so great that the regular prisons could not hold them. Thus, Serov ordered the establishment or re-opening of eleven concentration camps, including the former Nazi death camps of Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen."
According to Anne Applebaum, "One of the few documents from that era to survive (most were removed by the KGB or perhaps destroyed, in 1989 or before) mentions a departmental training meeting and included a list of attendees. Topping the list is a group of Soviet advisers. In this sense, K-5 did resemble the political police in the rest of Eastern Europe: as in Hungary, Poland, and the USSR itself, this new political police force was initially extra-governmental, operating outside the ordinary 
Erich Mielke