While John XXIII. received daughter and son-in-law of Soviet Prime Minister Khrushchev in a private audience on March 7, 1963, Agostino Casaroli, the architect of the Vatican's Ostpolitik, met with members of delegations from Eastern Bloc countries during a UN conference. Both can be seen as the beginning of a new Vatican Ostpolitik. The special situation of the GDR in the network of the Vatican Ostpolitik reveals the nature of this policy: The fact that the Vatican treated the GDR as an equal partner after its recognition under international law and communicated this to the Federal Government shows its striving for impartiality. He tried to be perceived as an independent partner in moral and ethical issues. Participation in the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe made this particularly clear. The Vatican Ostpolitik was integrated into this conception - the relations between the Vatican and the GDR clearly illustrate this.