The family participated the political life of the one-party dictatorship only when they felt they had to. They did not vote in the country's sham elections because §22 of the constitution did not oblige them to vote (although the 1986 General election resulted, typically, in a reported turnout of 99.74%). Regine Hildebrand did join the national Trade Union Federation (FDGB/"Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund") because not to have done so would have deprived her research colleagues of vital funding. When fraternal tanks appeared on the streets of Prague to crush political reform, the Hildebrandts joined in a protest demonstration outside the Czechoslovak embassy in Berlin.