"I'm tired of others starving", that was the motto of the Third World groups in the GDR. Her focus was on improving the living conditions of people in the economically weak countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The author traces the development of these development policy initiatives, most of which arose since the early 1980s, across the turning point: in the last decade of the GDR, during the period of upheaval in 1989/90 and in the 1990s in the Federal Republic. Against the background of the completely different political framework conditions in these times, the concepts, the practical work and the inventory development of the East German Third World groups are analyzed. The focus is on the relationships between East German Third World initiatives and the political and social environment: the church, the population, other politically alternative initiatives, the West German Third World movement and, above all, the respective state actors.