This paper elaborates the role of bureaucracy in the process of German unification since 1990, first by analyzing the interplay between politics and ministerial bureaucracy in negotiating the unification treaty including its civil service related part with the German Democratic Republic; second, by describing the implementation of administration policy (comprising personnel and organization policies), the elite import and transfer of administrative structures from the west are emphasized as essential elements in transforming the East German polity. Structural conservatism rather than innovation can be observed as a result. With respect to the broader topic of regime change, elites, and bureaucracy, it is argued that, owing to the dual nature of transition in East Germany (implosion plus unification), the availability of a counter-bureaucracy and an external elite reservoir (as well as western capital) accounts for the absence of political resistance of the old apparatuses that presently bother East European countries. However, programmatic and financial policies have to accompany administration policy to become fully effective.