East German statesman and head of state (197689), born in Neunkirchen, W Germany. Active in the Communist youth movement from an early age, he was involved in underground resistance to Hitler, and was imprisoned for 10 years. Released by Soviet forces, he became the first chairman of the Free German Youth in the German Democratic Republic (194655). He first entered the Politburo in 1958 and supervised the creation of the Berlin Wall in 1961. He was elected Party chief in 1971, and became head of state from 1976 to 1989, when he was dismissed as a consequence of the anti-Communist revolution. Charges were brought against him in the new united Germany that he had ordered the killings along the Berlin Wall and GDR Border, but he was allowed to leave for Chile in 1993 on grounds of illness.
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| General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany | |
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In office 1971 – 1989 |
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| Preceded by | Walter Ulbricht |
| Succeeded by | Egon Krenz |
| Chairman of the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic | |
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In office 1976 – 1989 |
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| Preceded by | Willi Stoph |
| Succeeded by | Egon Krenz |
| Born |
August 25, 1912 Neunkirchen (Saar), Germany |
| Died |
May 29, 1994 Santiago, Chile |
| Political party | Socialist Unity Party of Germany |
| Spouse | Edith Baumann (1950-1953), Margot Feist (from 1953 on) |
| Profession | Politician |
Erich Honecker (25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German Communist politician who led German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until 1989.
After German re-unification, he first fled to the Soviet Union but was extradited by the new Russian government to Germany, where he was imprisoned and tried for high treason and crimes committed during the Cold War (specifically the deaths of 192 Germans who tried to escape the Honecker regime).
Early political career
Honecker was born in Neunkirchen, now in Saarland, as the son of a politically militant coal miner. At the end of the war, Honecker resumed activity in the party under leader Walter Ulbricht, and, in 1946, became one of the first members of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED), made up of the old KPD and the Social Democrats of eastern Germany.
Leadership of East Germany
In 1961, Honecker was in charge of the building of the Berlin Wall.
Under Honecker's rule, the GDR adopted a program of "consumer socialism," which resulted in a marked improvement in living standards—already the highest among the Eastern bloc countries.
In foreign relations, Honecker renounced the objective of a unified Germany and adopted the "defensive" position of ideological Abgrenzung (demarcation).
Despite Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts to liberalize communism in the late 1980s, Honecker refused to implement any substantial political or economic reforms in the GDR, reportedly telling Gorbachev: "We have done our perestroika, we have nothing to restructure."
Depictions of Erich Honecker
As in many communist countries, the image of the leader was ever-present (the main photo in this article is an example) in public offices, in newspapers, and on television news. The record for most photographs of Erich Honecker in the official SED newspaper, Neues Deutschland, was 41, in the edition of 16 March 1987, on the occasion of Honecker's opening of the Leipzig Trade Fair, as he was shown with different politicians and exhibitors.
Post-1989
After the GDR was dissolved in October 1990, Honecker remained in a Soviet military hospital near Berlin before later fleeing with Margot Honecker to Moscow, trying to avoid prosecution over Cold War crimes he was accused of by the unified German government, specifically involving the deaths of 192 East Germans who tried to escape from East Germany.
Personal
Honecker married Edith Baumann (1909-1973) in 1950 and divorced her in 1953.
Hobbies
Honecker was a keen hunter.
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