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{{Short description|Leader of East Germany from 1971 to 1989}}
{{Redirect|Honecker|others so named|Honecker (surname)}}
{{Distinguish|Eric Honegger}}
{{EngvarB|date=January 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox president
| name = Erich Honecker
| image = Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R1220-401, Erich Honecker (cropped).jpg
| caption = Official portrait, 1976
| office = [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany#General Secretaries of the Central Committee of the SED|General Secretary of the<br />Socialist Unity Party]]{{efn|Honecker held the same position under the title of ''First Secretary'' until 1976}}
| deputy = {{ubl|[[Paul Verner]]|[[Egon Krenz]]}}
| term_start = 3 May 1971
| term_end = 18 October 1989
| predecessor = [[Walter Ulbricht]]
| successor = [[Egon Krenz]]
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1912|8|25}}
| birth_place = [[Neunkirchen, Saarland|Neunkirchen]], [[Rhine Province]], [[Kingdom of Prussia]], [[German Empire]] {{small|(now [[Saarland]], Germany)}}
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1994|5|29|1912|8|25}}
| death_place = [[Santiago]], Chile
| spouse = {{unbulleted list|{{marriage|Charlotte Schanuel, née Drost|1946|1947|end=died}}|{{Marriage|[[Edith Baumann]]|1947|1953|reason=div}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=1484|title=Honecker, Erich * 25.8.1912, † 29.5.1994 Generalsekretär des ZK der SED, Staatsratsvorsitzender|work=Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur|access-date=28 February 2017|language=de|archive-date=1 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301005845/https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=1484|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hdg.de/lemo/biografie/erich-honecker.html|title=Erich Honecker 1912–1994|work=Lebendiges Museum Online|access-date=28 February 2017|language=de|archive-date=31 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190831060905/https://www.hdg.de/lemo/biografie/erich-honecker.html|url-status=live}}</ref>{{efn|Various sources give the years of marriage as 1949 to 1953, 1950 to 1953 or 1949 to 1955}}|{{Marriage|[[Margot Honecker|Margot Feist]]|1953}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=1485|title=Honecker, Margot geb. Feist * 17.4.1927, † 6.5.2016 Ministerin für Volksbildung|work=Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur|access-date=28 February 2017|language=de|archive-date=1 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301005554/https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=1485|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.chronikderwende.de/lexikon/biografien/biographie_jsp/key=honecker_margot.html|title=Margot Honecker|work=Chronik der Wende|access-date=28 February 2017|language=de|archive-date=1 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170201023856/http://www.chronikderwende.de/lexikon/biografien/biographie_jsp/key=honecker_margot.html|url-status=live}}</ref>{{efn|Some sources give the year of marriage as 1955}}}}
| occupation = {{hlist|Politician|Party Functionary|Roofer|Farmer}}
| party = {{ubl|[[Communist Party of Germany]] (1930–1946)|[[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] (1946–1989)|[[Communist Party of Germany (1990)]] (1990–1994)}}
| otherparty =
| office1 = [[Leadership of East Germany#Heads of state|Chairman]] of the [[State Council of East Germany|State Council]]
| term_start1 = 29 October 1976
| term_end1 = 24 October 1989
| predecessor1 = [[Willi Stoph]]
| successor1 = [[Egon Krenz]]
| office2 = [[Leadership of East Germany#Heads of the military|Chairman]] of the<br />[[National Defence Council (East Germany)|National Defense Council]]
| 1blankname2 = {{nowrap|Secretary}}
| 1namedata2 = {{ubl|[[Fritz Streletz]]}}
| term_start2 = 3 May 1971
| term_end2 = 18 October 1989
| predecessor2 = [[Walter Ulbricht]]
| successor2 = [[Egon Krenz]]
| office4 = [[Free German Youth#List of chairmen of the Free German Youth|First Secretary]] of the<br />[[Free German Youth]]
| deputy4 = {{ubl|[[Edith Baumann]]|Gerhard Heidenreich|Helmut Hartwig|Heinz Lippmann|[[Werner Felfe]]}}
| term_start4 = 7 March 1946
| term_end4 = 27 May 1955
| predecessor4 = ''Position established''
| successor4 = [[Karl Namokel]]
{{Collapsed infobox section begin |last=yes |Volkskammer
|titlestyle=border:1px dashed lightgrey;}}{{Infobox officeholder |embed=yes
| office5 = Member of the [[Volkskammer]]
| term_start5 = [[1971 East German general election|26 November 1971]]
| term_end5 = 16 November 1989
| predecessor5 = [[Paul Verner]]
| successor5 = Monika Quinger
| constituency5 = [[Chemnitz#GDR|Karl-Marx-Stadt/Stadt]]
| term_start6 = [[1950 East German general election|8 November 1950]]
| term_end6 = [[1971 East German general election|26 November 1971]]
| predecessor6 = ''Constituency established''
| successor6 = [[Wolfgang Rauchfuß]]
| constituency6 = Neuhaus a. R., Bad Salzungen, Meiningen, Hildburghausen, Sonneberg{{Collapsed infobox section end}}}}
| title7 = [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany#Secretariat of the Central Committee|Central Committee Secretariat]] responsibilities<ref name="BürosHonecker">{{Cite web|title=Büro Erich Honecker im ZK der SED |url=http://www.argus.bstu.bundesarchiv.de/dy30bho/index.htm?kid=31491d83-bf5a-4f54-818a-4aa458db9f92 |year= |access-date=28 October 2023|language=de}}</ref>
| suboffice8 = [[Departments of the SED Central Committee#International Relations|International Relations]] (''de facto'')<ref>{{cite book |last=Uschner |first=Manfred |title=Die zweite Etage: Funktionsweise eines Machtapparates |date=1993 |publisher=Dietz |isbn=978-3-320-01792-7 |series=Zeitthemen |___location=Berlin |pages=60 |language=de}}</ref>
| subterm8 = 1988–1989
| suboffice9 = [[Departments of the SED Central Committee#Cadre Affairs|Cadre Affairs]]
| subterm9 = 1961–1989
| suboffice10 = [[Departments of the SED Central Committee#Trafficking|Trafficking]]
| subterm10 = 1971–1989
| suboffice11 = [[Departments of the SED Central Committee#Security Affairs|Security Affairs]]
| subterm11 = 1956–1983
| suboffice12 = [[Departments of the SED Central Committee#General Department (1946–1984)|General Department]]
| subterm12 = 1971–1977
| suboffice13 = [[Departments of the SED Central Committee#Party Organs|Party Organs]]
| subterm13 = 1958–1971
| suboffice14 = [[Departments of the SED Central Committee#Youth|Youth]]
| subterm14 = 1958–1971
| suboffice15 = [[Departments of the SED Central Committee#Women|Women]]
| subterm15 = 1958–1971
| suboffice16 = [[Departments of the SED Central Committee#Sports|Sports]]
| subterm16 = 1967–1971
| signature = Erich Honecker Signature.svg
| children = 2
| module2 = {{collapsible list
| title = Central institution membership
| bullets = on
| 1958–1989: Full member,<br />[[Socialist Unity Party of Germany#Politburo of the Central Committee|Politburo of the Central Committee]]
| 1950–1958: Candidate member,<br />[[Socialist Unity Party of Germany#Politburo of the Central Committee|Politburo of the Central Committee]]
| 1946–1989: Full member,<br />[[Socialist Unity Party of Germany#Central Committee|Central Committee]]{{refn|group=note|Party Executive Committee until 1950}}
}}
----
{{collapsible list
| title = Other offices held
| bullets = on
| 1960–1989: Member, [[State Council of East Germany|State Council]]
| 1960–1989: Member,<br />[[National Defence Council (East Germany)|National Defence Council]]
| 1956–1960: Member,<br />Security Commission at the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany#Politburo of the Central Committee|Politburo]]
}}
| module3 = '''[[Lists of political office-holders in East Germany#Overview|Leader of East Germany]]'''
{{flatlist|
* {{big|'''←'''}} [[Walter Ulbricht|Ulbricht]]
* [[Egon Krenz|Krenz]]{{big|'''→'''}}
}}
| title =
| title1 =
}}
'''Erich Ernst Paul Honecker''' ({{IPA|de|ˈeːʁɪç ˈhɔnɛkɐ|lang}}; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994)<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=rMKHCOW9aIYC&dq=Erich+Honecker+29+may+1994&pg=PT679 Profile of Erich Honecker]</ref> was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic ([[East Germany]]) from 1971 until shortly before the [[fall of the Berlin Wall]] in November 1989. He held the posts of General Secretary of the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] (SED) and [[National Defence Council of East Germany|Chairman of the National Defence Council]]; in 1976, he replaced [[Willi Stoph]] as [[State Council of East Germany|Chairman of the State Council]], the official [[head of state]]. As the leader of East Germany, Honecker was viewed as a dictator.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/apr/02/margot-honecker-east-germany-interview | title=Margot Honecker defends East German dictatorship | newspaper=The Guardian | date=2 April 2012 | last1=Connolly | first1=Kate }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title="Er hielt sich für den Größten" |url=https://www.spiegel.de/politik/er-hielt-sich-fuer-den-groessten-a-f7f002b2-0002-0001-0000-000009282914 |publisher=[[Der Spiegel|Spiegel Politik]]. More precisely, the term {{lang|de|Alleinherrscher}} (= man who rules alone) is used |date=2 August 1992 |access-date=28 December 2022 |archive-date=28 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221228093216/https://www.spiegel.de/politik/er-hielt-sich-fuer-den-groessten-a-f7f002b2-0002-0001-0000-000009282914 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Sabrow |first1=Martin |title=Der blasse Diktator. Erich Honecker als biographische Herausforderung |url=http://www.zzf-pdm.de/Portals/_Rainbow/images/mitarbeiter/2012_02_09_Vortrag_Martin_Sabrow_Biographie_eines_blassen_Diktators.pdf |publisher=[[Centre for Contemporary History]]. Here, it is argued Honecker was the biggest despot in recent German history, if you exclude [[Erich Ludendorff|Ludendorff]] and [[Hitler]].|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304075723/http://www.zzf-pdm.de/Portals/_Rainbow/images/mitarbeiter/2012_02_09_Vortrag_Martin_Sabrow_Biographie_eines_blassen_Diktators.pdf|date=9 February 2012|archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref> During his leadership, the country had close ties to the [[Soviet Union]], which maintained [[Group of Soviet Forces in Germany|a large army]] in the country.
Honecker's political career began in the 1930s when he became an official of the [[Communist Party of Germany]], a position for which he was imprisoned by the [[Nazi Germany|Nazis]]. Following [[World War II]], he was freed by the Soviet army and relaunched his political activities, founding the SED's youth organisation, the [[Free German Youth]], in 1946 and serving as the group's chairman until 1955. As the Security Secretary of the SED Central Committee, he was the prime organiser of the building of the [[Berlin Wall]] in 1961 and, in this function, bore administrative responsibility for the "[[Schießbefehl|order to fire]]" along the Wall and the larger [[inner German border]].
In 1970, Honecker initiated a political power struggle that led, with support of Soviet leader [[Leonid Brezhnev]], to him replacing [[Walter Ulbricht]] as General Secretary of the SED and chairman of the National Defence Council. Under his command, the country adopted a programme of "consumer socialism" and moved towards the international community by [[Ostpolitik|normalising relations with West Germany]] and also becoming a full member of the UN, in what is considered one of his greatest political successes. As [[Cold War]] tensions eased in the late 1980s with the advent of [[perestroika]] and [[glasnost]]—the liberal reforms introduced by Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]]—Honecker refused all but cosmetic changes to the [[Politics of East Germany|East German political system]]. He cited the consistent hardliner attitudes of [[Kim Il Sung]], [[Fidel Castro]] and [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]] whose respective governments of [[North Korea]], [[Cuba]] and [[Socialist Republic of Romania|Romania]] had been critical of reforms. Honecker was forced to resign by the SED Politburo in October 1989 in a bid to improve the government's image in the eyes of the public; the effort was unsuccessful, and the regime would collapse entirely the following month.
Following [[German reunification]] in 1990, Honecker sought asylum in the Chilean embassy in Moscow, but was extradited back to Germany in 1992, after the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union|fall of the Soviet Union]], to stand trial for his role in the [[human rights abuses]] committed by the East German government. However, the proceedings were abandoned, as Honecker was suffering from terminal [[liver cancer]]. He was freed from custody to join his family in exile in Chile, where he died in May 1994.
==Childhood and youth==
Honecker was born into a deeply [[Protestant]] family in [[Neunkirchen, Saarland|Neunkirchen]],<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yLfSEAAAQBAJ&q=Erich+Honecker+biography | isbn=978-1-3990-8885-5 | title=The Man Who Built the Berlin Wall: The Rise and Fall of Erich Honecker | date=30 September 2023 | publisher=Pen and Sword History }}</ref> in what is now [[Saarland]], to Wilhelm Honecker (1881–1969), a coal miner and political activist,<ref name= "Wilsford">{{cite book|last=Wilsford|first=David|title=Political Leaders of Contemporary Western Europe|url=https://archive.org/details/politicalleaders00wils|url-access= registration| page=[https://archive.org/details/politicalleaders00wils/page/n220 195]| year= 1995| publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group| isbn =9780313286230}}</ref> and his wife Caroline Catharine Weidenhof (1883–1963). The couple, married in 1905, had six children. Erich, their fourth child, was born on 25 August 1912 during the period in which the family resided on Max-Braun-Straße, before later moving to Kuchenbergstraße 88 in the present-day Neunkirchen city district of [[Wiebelskirchen]].
[[File:Wiebelskirchen Honecker Haus.JPG|thumb|left|Honecker's childhood home in Wiebelskirchen]]
After [[World War I]], the [[Saar (League of Nations)|Territory of the Saar Basin]] was occupied by France. This change from the strict rule of [[Ferdinand Eduard von Stumm]] to French military occupation provided the backdrop for what Wilhelm Honecker understood as proletarian exploitation, and introduced young Erich to communism.<ref name= "Wilsford"/> After his tenth birthday in 1922, Erich Honecker became a member of the [[Spartacus League]]'s children's group in Wiebelskirchen.<ref name="Wilsford"/> Aged 14 he entered the KJVD, the [[Young Communist League of Germany]], for whom he later served the organisation's leader of Saarland from 1931.<ref>{{cite book| last=Epstein|first=Catherine|title=The Last Revolutionaries: German Communists and their century |url=https://archive.org/details/lastrevolutionar00epst| url-access=limited|page=[https://archive.org/details/lastrevolutionar00epst/page/n54 40]| year= 2003| publisher=Harvard University Press| isbn=9780674010451}}</ref>
Honecker did not find an apprenticeship immediately after leaving school, but instead worked for a farmer in [[Pomerania]] for almost two years.<ref name="Rheinische">{{Cite web|title=Erich Honecker (1912–1994), DDR-Staatsratsvorsitzender|publisher=|website=rheinische-geschichte.de|url=http://www.rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de/persoenlichkeiten/H/Seiten/ErichHonecker.aspx|language=de|access-date=27 August 2013|archive-date=19 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131219210609/http://www.rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de/persoenlichkeiten/H/Seiten/ErichHonecker.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1928 he returned to Wiebelskirchen and began a traineeship as a roofer with his uncle, but quit to attend the [[International Lenin School]] in Moscow and [[Magnitogorsk]] after the KJVD handpicked him for a course of study there.<ref>{{cite book| last= Epstein|first=Catherine|title=The Last Revolutionaries: German Communists and their century|url=https://archive.org/details/lastrevolutionar00epst|url-access=limited|page=[https://archive.org/details/lastrevolutionar00epst/page/n253 239]| year= 2003| publisher=Harvard University Press| isbn=9780674010451}}</ref> There, sharing a room with [[Anton Ackermann]],<ref>{{cite book |last = Morina| first= Christina| title= Legacies of Stalingrad: Remembering the Eastern Front in Germany since 1945| page= 178| year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> he studied under the cover name "Fritz Malter".<ref>{{cite news| title=Honecker's Geheimakte lagerte in Mielke's Tresor| newspaper=Die Welt|url=https://www.welt.de/kultur/history/article108772921/Honeckers-Geheimakte-lagerte-in-Mielkes-Tresor.html|date=25 August 2012| language= de}}</ref>
==Opposition to the Nazis and imprisonment==
In 1930, aged 18, Honecker entered the KPD, the [[Communist Party of Germany]].<ref name="Spiegel 1966">{{Cite news| title=Immer bereit| newspaper=Der Spiegel| page=32| date=3 October 1966| url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-38223928.html| language=de| archive-date=11 February 2022| access-date=27 August 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220211180748/https://www.spiegel.de/politik/immer-bereit-a-0f9f6ec9-0002-0001-0000-000038223928?context=issue| url-status=live}}</ref> His political mentor was [[Otto Niebergall]], who later represented the KPD in the Reichstag. After returning from Moscow in 1931 following his studies at the [[International Lenin School]], he became the leader of the KJVD in the Saar region. After the [[Machtergreifung|Nazi seizure of power in 1933]], Communist activities within Germany were only possible undercover; the [[Saarland|Saar region]] however still remained outside the [[German Reich]] under a League of Nations mandate. Honecker was arrested in [[Essen]], Germany, but soon released. Following this, he fled to the [[Netherlands]] and from there oversaw KJVD's activities in Pfalz, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg.<ref name="Rheinische"/>
Honecker returned to the Saar in 1934 and worked alongside Johannes Hoffmann on the campaign against the region's re-incorporation into Germany. [[1935 Saar status referendum|A referendum on the area's future in January 1935]] however saw 90.73% vote in favour of reunifying with Germany. Like 4,000 to 8,000 others, Honecker then fled the region, initially relocating to Paris.<ref name="Rheinische"/>
On 28 August 1935 he illegally travelled to Berlin under the alias "Marten Tjaden", with a printing press in his luggage. From there he worked closely together with KPD official [[Herbert Wehner]] in opposition/resistance to the Nazi state. On 4 December 1935 Honecker was detained by the Gestapo and until 1937 remanded in Berlin's [[Moabit]] detention centre. On 3 July 1937 he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for the "preparation of high treason alongside the severe falsification of documents".<ref name="Spiegel 1966"/><ref name="Unsere Zeit">{{Cite web|title=Zum 100. Geburtstag Erich Honeckers|publisher=Unsere Zeit: Zeitung der DKP|date=24 August 2012|url=http://www.dkp-online.de/uz/4434/s1001.htm|language=de|access-date=27 August 2013|archive-date=8 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208100659/http://www.dkp-online.de/uz/4434/s1001.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Honecker spent the majority of his incarceration in the [[Brandenburg-Görden Prison]], where he also carried out tasks as a handyman.<ref name="Rheinische"/> In early 1945, he was moved to the [[Barnimstrasse women's prison]] in Berlin due to good behaviour and to be put to work repairing the bomb-damaged building, as he was a skilled roofer.<ref name="Secret marriage">{{cite web|title=Honeckers geheime Ehen|publisher=Netzeitung.de|url=http://www.netzeitung.de/wirtschaft/223454.html|language=de|date=20 January 2003|access-date=29 August 2013|archive-date=4 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120704093915/http://www.netzeitung.de/wirtschaft/223454.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> During an Allied bombing raid on 6 March 1945, he managed to escape and hid himself at the apartment of Lotte Grund, a female prison guard. After several days she persuaded him to turn himself in, and his escape was then covered up by the guard.
After the liberation of the prisons by [[Battle of Berlin|advancing Soviet troops]] on 27 April 1945, Honecker remained in Berlin.<ref name="Spiegel 1977">{{Cite news| title=Farblos, scheu, wenig kameradschaftlich| newspaper=Der Spiegel| ___location=Hamburg| page=87|date=31 October 1977|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-40749009.html|language=de}}</ref> His "escape" from prison and his relationships during his captivity later led to his experiencing difficulties within the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|Socialist Unity Party]], as well as straining his relations with his former inmates. In later interviews and in his personal memoirs, Honecker falsified many of the details of his life during this period.<ref>{{cite book|last=Przybylski|first=Peter|title=Tatort Politbüro: Die Akte Honecker|language=de|pages=55–65|year=1991|publisher=Rowohlt}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Völklein|first=Ulrich|title=Honecker: Eine Biografie|language=de|pages=154–178|year=2003}}</ref> Material from the [[Ministerium für Staatssicherheit|East German State Security Service]] has been used to allege that, to be released from prison, Honecker offered the [[Gestapo]] evidence incriminating fellow imprisoned Communists, claimed he had renounced communism "for good", and was willing to serve in the German army.<ref>{{cite news|last=Paterson|first=Tony|title=Honecker was forced to resign by secret police|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/honecker-was-forced-to-resign-by-secret-police-2293508.html|newspaper=The Independent|date=6 June 2011|archive-date=26 September 2023|access-date=27 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926075129/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/honecker-was-forced-to-resign-by-secret-police-2293508.html|url-status=live}} Martin Sabrow (2016). Erich Honecker. Das Leben davor, C. H. Beck: Munich 2016, p. 376</ref>
==Post-war return to politics==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-23724-0001, Berlin, FDJ-Aktivtagung, Erich Honecker spricht.jpg|upright|thumb|right|Honecker, founder of [[Free German Youth|FDJ]], 1946]]
In May 1945 Honecker was "picked up" by chance in Berlin by [[Hans Mahle]] and taken to the [[Ulbricht Group]], a collective of exiled German communists that had returned from the Soviet Union to Germany after the end of the Nazi regime.<ref name="Epstein p112">{{cite book|last=Epstein|first=Catherine|title=The Last Revolutionaries: German Communists and their century|url=https://archive.org/details/lastrevolutionar00epst|url-access=limited|page=[https://archive.org/details/lastrevolutionar00epst/page/n126 112]|year=2003|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674010451}}</ref> Through [[Waldemar Schmidt]], Honecker befriended [[Walter Ulbricht]], who had not been aware of him at that point. Honecker's future role in the group was still undecided until well into the summer months, as he had yet to face a party process. This ended in a reprimand due to his "undisciplined conduct" in fleeing from prison at the start of the year, an action which was debated upon, potentially jeopardising the other (communist) inmates.<ref name="Spiegel 1977"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Epstein|first=Catherine|title=The Last Revolutionaries: German communists and their century|url=https://archive.org/details/lastrevolutionar00epst|url-access=limited|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lastrevolutionar00epst/page/n150 136]–137|year=2003|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674010451}}</ref>
In 1946, Honecker became the co-founder of the [[Free German Youth]] (FDJ), whose chairmanship he also undertook. After the formation of the SED, the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|Socialist Unity Party]], in April 1946 through a merger of the [[Communist Party of Germany|KPD]] and [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SPD]], Honecker swiftly became a leading party member and took his place in the party's [[Central Committee]].
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-57000-0512, V. Parteitag der SED, Honecker spricht.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Honecker, watched by his mentor [[Walter Ulbricht]] at the Party's 5th congress, 1958]]
On 7 October 1949, the German Democratic Republic was formed with the adoption of a new [[Constitution of East Germany|constitution]], establishing a political system similar to that of the [[Soviet Union]]. Within the state's socialist single party government, Honecker determinedly resumed his political career and the following year was named as a candidate member of the [[Politbüro]] of the SED's Central Committee.<ref name="Epstein p112"/> As President of the Free German Youth movement, he organised the inaugural ''"Deutschlandtreffen der Jugend"'' in East Berlin in May 1950 and the [[3rd World Festival of Youth and Students]] in 1951, although the latter was beset with organisational problems.<ref name="Epstein p112"/>
During the internal party unrest following [[Uprising of 1953 in East Germany|the suppressed uprising of June 1953]], Honecker sided with First Secretary Walter Ulbricht, despite the majority of the Politburo attempting to depose Ulbricht in favour of [[Rudolf Herrnstadt]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Dankiewicz|first=Jim|title=The East German Uprising of June 17, 1953 and its Effects on the USSR and the Other Nations of Eastern Europe|url=http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/133p/133p-99/jim1953.993.htm|year=1999|publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara|archive-date=4 March 2016|access-date=29 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192006/http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/133p/133p-99/jim1953.993.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Honecker himself though faced questioning from party members about his inadequate qualifications for his position. On 27 May 1955 he handed the Presidency of the FDJ over to [[Karl Namokel]], and departed for Moscow to study for two years at the School of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Soviet Communist Party]] at Ulbricht's request.<ref name="Spiegel 1966"/> During this period he witnessed the [[20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party]] in person, where its First Secretary [[Nikita Khrushchev]] [[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|denounced]] [[Joseph Stalin]].<ref name="Unsere Zeit"/>
After returning to East Germany in 1958, Honecker became a fully-fledged member of the Politburo, taking over responsibility for military and security issues.<ref name="Winkler">{{cite book|last=Winkler|first=Heinrich August|title=Germany: The Long Road West, Vol. 2: 1933–1990|pages=266–268|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> As the Party Security Secretary he was the prime organiser of the building of the [[Berlin Wall]] in August 1961 and also a proponent of the "[[Schießbefehl|order to fire]]" along the [[Inner German border]].<ref name="Spiegel 2012">{{Cite news| title=Der unterschätzte Diktator| newspaper=Der Spiegel| ___location=Hamburg| page=46| date=20 August 2012| url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-87818590.html| language=de| archive-date=13 May 2019| access-date=28 August 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513213403/https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-87818590.html| url-status=live}}</ref>
==Leadership of East Germany==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R0518-182, Erich Honecker.jpg|thumb|upright|Honecker in 1976]]
While Ulbricht had replaced the state's [[command economy]] with, firstly the "[[New Economic System]]", then the [[Economic System of Socialism]], as he sought to improve the country's failing economy, Honecker declared the main task under his [[Economic System of Socialism|New System of Economic Socialism]] to in fact be the "unity of economic and social politics", essentially through which [[living standards]] (with increased consumer goods) would be raised in exchange for political loyalty.<ref>{{Cite web| title=Erich Honecker on the 'Unity of Economic and Social Policy' (June 15–19, 1971)| publisher=German History in Documents and Images (GHDI)| url=http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=930| access-date=29 August 2013| archive-date=4 March 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304051707/http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=930| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Allison|first=Mark| title=More from Less: Ideological Gambling with the Unity of Economic and Social Policy in Honecker's GDR|journal=Central European History| publisher=Central European History Journal (45)|url=http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FCCC%2FCCC45_01%2FS0008938911001002a.pdf&code=7d2420e61d96601179829c68c457666d|year=2012|volume=45|pages=102–127|doi=10.1017/S0008938911001002|s2cid=155068486|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Tensions had already led to his once-mentor Ulbricht removing Honecker from the position of Second Secretary in July 1970, only for the Soviet leadership to swiftly reinstate him.<ref name="Winkler"/> Honecker played up the thawing East-West German relationship as Ulbricht's strategy, to win the support of the Soviet leadership under [[Leonid Brezhnev]].<ref name="Winkler"/> With this secured, Honecker was appointed First Secretary (from 1976 titled general secretary) of the Central Committee on 3 May 1971 after the Soviet leadership forced Ulbricht to step aside "for health reasons".<ref name="Winkler"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Klenke|first=Olaf|title=Betriebliche Konflikte in der DDR 1970/71 und der Machtwechsel von Ulbricht auf Honecker|language=de|year=2004}}</ref>
After also succeeding Ulbricht as Chairman of the [[National Defense Council of East Germany|National Defence Council]] in 1971,<ref>{{cite news|title=Overview 1971|url=http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Index/id/1403656|publisher=chronik-der-mauer.de|archive-date=20 October 2013|access-date=29 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020195940/http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Index/id/1403656|url-status=live}}</ref> Honecker was eventually also elected Chairman of the State Council (a post equivalent to that of president) on 29 October 1976.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Staar|first=Richard F.| title=Communist Regimes in Eastern Europe| publisher=Hoover Press|year=1984|page=105}}</ref> With this, Honecker reached the height of power within East Germany. From there on, he, along with Economic Secretary [[Günter Mittag]] and Minister of State Security [[Erich Mielke]], made all key government decisions. Until 1989 the "little strategic clique" composed of these three men was unchallenged as the top level of East Germany's ruling class.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wehler|first=Hans-Ulrich|title=Deutsche Gesellschaftsgeschichte, Bd. 5: Bundesrepublik und DDR 1949–1950|language=de|year=2008|page=218}}</ref> Honecker's closest colleague was [[Joachim Herrmann (politician, born 1928)|Joachim Herrmann]], the SED's Agitation and Propaganda Secretary. Alongside him, Honecker held daily meetings concerning the party's media representation in which the layout of the party's own newspaper ''[[Neues Deutschland]]'', as well as the sequencing of news items in the national news bulletin ''[[Aktuelle Kamera]]'', were determined.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Morley|first=Nathan| title= The Man who Built the Berlin Wall. The Rise and Fall of Erich Honecker| publisher=Pen and Sword|year=2023|page=122}}</ref>
Under Honecker's leadership, East Germany adopted a programme of "consumer socialism", which resulted in a marked improvement in living standards already the highest among the [[Eastern bloc]] countries – though still far behind [[West Germany]]. More attention was placed on the availability of consumer goods, and the construction of new housing was accelerated, with Honecker promising to "settle the housing problem as an issue of social relevance".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/erich1.htm|last=Honecker|first=Erich|title=The GDR: A State of Peace and Socialism|year=1984|work=Calvin College German Propaganda Archive|access-date=21 March 2006|archive-date=16 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140816151817/http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/erich1.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> His policies were initially marked by a liberalisation toward culture and art. While 1973 brought the [[World Festival of Youth and Students]] to [[East Berlin]], soon dissident artists such as [[Wolf Biermann]] were expelled and the [[Stasi|Ministry for State Security]] raised its efforts to suppress political resistance. Honecker remained committed to the expansion of the [[Inner German border]] and the "[[Schießbefehl|order to fire]]" policy along it.<ref name="Schießbefehl">{{cite news|title=Protokoll der 45. Sitzung des Nationalen Verteidigungsrates der DDR (3 May 1974)|url=http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Common/Document/field/file/id/46359|publisher=chronik-der-mauer.de|language=de|archive-date=7 April 2022|access-date=28 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407203749/https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Common/Document/field/file/id/46359|url-status=live}}</ref> During his time in the office around 125 East German citizens were killed while trying to reach the West.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Index/id/593792|work=chronik-der-mauer.de|title=Todesopfer an der Berliner Mauer|language=de|access-date=13 December 2009|archive-date=6 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191006190147/http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Index/id/593792|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-P0805-314, Helsinki, KSZE-Konferenz, Schlussakte.jpg|thumb|left|Honecker at the [[Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe|CSCE]] summit in Helsinki, 1975]]
After the Federal Republic had secured an agreement with the Soviet Union on cooperation and a policy of non-violence, it became possible to reach a similar agreement with the GDR. The [[Basic Treaty, 1972|Basic Treaty between East and West Germany]] in 1972 sought to normalise contacts between the two governments.
East Germany also participated in the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe held in Helsinki in 1975, which attempted to improve relations between the West and the Eastern Bloc, and became a full member of the United Nations.<ref>{{Cite web| title=Helsinki Final Act signed by 35 participating States| publisher=Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe| url=http://www.osce.org/mc/58376| access-date=28 August 2013| archive-date=25 May 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525132245/https://www.osce.org/mc/58376| url-status=live}}</ref> These acts of diplomacy were considered Honecker's greatest successes in foreign politics.
Honecker received additional high-profile personal recognitions including honorary doctorates of business administration from East Berlin's [[Humboldt University]] in 1976, Tokyo's [[Nihon University]] in 1981 and the [[London School of Economics]] in 1984 and the [[Olympic Order]] from the [[International Olympic Committee|IOC]] in 1985. In September 1987, he became the first East German head of state to [[Erich Honecker's 1987 visit to West Germany|visit West Germany]], where he was received with full state honours by West German Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]] in an act that seemed to confirm West Germany's acceptance of East Germany's existence. During this trip he also journeyed to his birthplace in Saarland, where he held an emotional speech in which he spoke of a day when Germans would no longer be separated by borders.<ref name="Spiegel 2012"/> This trip had been planned twice before, including September 1984,<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1987/09/07/world/honecker-s-west-german-visit-divided-meaning.html?pagewanted=all Honecker's West German Visit: Divided Meaning], ''[[The New York Times]]'', 7 September 1987</ref> but was initially blocked by the Soviet leadership which mistrusted the special East-West German relationship,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-09-07-mn-4189-story.html|title=Honecker begins historic visit to Bonn today|date=7 September 1987|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|archive-date=3 December 2024|access-date=14 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241203064232/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-09-07-mn-4189-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> particularly efforts to expand East Germany's limited independence in the realm of foreign policy.<ref>{{Cite book|title=A History of Germany: 1815–1990|last=Carr|first=William|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton|year=1991|edition=4th|___location=London, United Kingdom|pages=392}}</ref>
==Illness, downfall and resignation==
In the late 1980s, Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] introduced ''[[glasnost]]'' and ''[[perestroika]]'', reforms to liberalise the socialist [[planned economy]]. Frictions between him and Honecker had grown over these policies and numerous additional issues from 1985 onward.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gedmin|first=Jeffrey|title=The Hidden Hand: Gorbachev and the Collapse of East Germany|pages=55–67|year=2003|publisher=Harvard University Press}}</ref> East Germany refused to implement similar reforms, with Honecker reportedly telling Gorbachev: "We have done our perestroika; we have nothing to restructure".<ref>{{cite book|author1-link=Daniel Treisman|last=Treisman|first=Daniel|title=The Return: Russia's Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev|publisher=Free Press|year=2012|isbn=978-1416560722|page=[https://archive.org/details/returnrussiasjou0000trei/page/n100 83]|url=https://archive.org/details/returnrussiasjou0000trei|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Not all of East Europe is ready for reform|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=25 July 1989|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/07/25/not-all-of-east-europe-is-ready-for-reform/}}</ref> Gorbachev grew to dislike Honecker, and by 1988 was lumping him in with Bulgaria's [[Todor Zhivkov]], Czechoslovakia's [[Gustáv Husák]] and Romania's [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]] as a "Gang of Four": a group of inflexible hardliners unwilling to make reforms.<ref name="Revolution1989">{{cite book|last=Sebetsyen|first=Victor|title=Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire|publisher=[[Pantheon Books]]|___location=New York City|year=2009|isbn=978-0-375-42532-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/revolution1989fa00sebe}}</ref>
According to White House experts [[Philip Zelikow]] and [[Condoleezza Rice]], Gorbachev looked to Communist leaders in Eastern Europe to follow his example of perestroika and glasnost. They argue:
: Gorbachev himself had no particular sympathy for Erich Honecker, chairman of the East German Communist Party, and his hard-line comrades and the government. As early as 1985... [Gorbachev] had told East German party officials that kindergarten was over; no one would lead them by the hand. They were responsible for their own people. The relations between Gorbachev and Honecker went downhill from there.<ref>Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice, ''Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft'' (1995). p. 35</ref>
Western analysts, according to Zelikow and Rice, believed in 1989 that Communism was still secure in East Germany:
:Bolstered by relatively greater affluence than his country's Eastern European neighbours enjoyed in a fantastically elaborate system of internal controls, East Germany's longtime leader Eric Honecker seemed secure in his position. His government had long dealt with dissent through a mixture of brutal repression, forced emigration, and the vent of allowing occasional, limited travel to the West for a substantial part of the population.<ref>Zelikow and Rice, ''Germany Unified'' p. 36.</ref>
Honecker felt betrayed by Gorbachev in his German policy and ensured that official texts of the Soviet Union, especially those concerning ''perestroika'', could no longer be published or sold in East Germany.<ref>{{cite news|title=Two Germanys' political divide is being blurred by Glasnost|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=18 December 1988|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/18/world/2-germanys-political-divide-is-being-blurred-by-glasnost.html|archive-date=26 September 2023|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926075131/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/18/world/2-germanys-political-divide-is-being-blurred-by-glasnost.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:00 Páneurópai Piknik emlékhely.jpg|thumb|right|150px|After the [[Pan-European Picnic]], Honecker lost control of the country.]] One month after the [[1989 Polish legislative election]] in which [[Lech Wałęsa]] and the [[Solidarity Citizens' Committee]] unexpectedly won 99 out of 100 seats, at the Warsaw Pact summit on 7–8 July 1989 in Bucharest, the Soviet Union reaffirmed its shift from the [[Brezhnev Doctrine]] of the limited sovereignty of its member states, and announced "freedom of choice".<ref>{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Archie|title=The Rise and Fall of Communism|url=https://archive.org/details/risefallofcommun00brow|url-access=registration|year=2009|publisher=Ecco|isbn=9780061138799}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Warsaw Pact warms to Nato plan|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=9 July 1989|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/07/09/warsaw-pact-warms-to-nato-plan/}}</ref><ref>spiegel.de (2009): [http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/winds-of-change-from-the-east-how-poland-and-hungary-led-the-way-in-1989-a-657805-6.html ''How Poland and Hungary Led the Way in 1989'']</ref> The Bucharest statement prescribed that its signatories henceforth developed their "own political line, strategy and tactics without external intervention".<ref name="Chronik July 1989">{{cite web|title=July 1989|publisher=chronik-der-mauer.de|url=http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Index/id/652001|access-date=28 August 2013|archive-date=19 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019211903/http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Index/id/652001|url-status=live}}</ref> This called into question the Soviet guarantee of existence for the Communist states in Europe. Already in May 1989 [[Removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria|Hungary had begun dismantling its border with Austria]], creating the first gap in the so-called [[Iron Curtain]], through which later several thousand East Germans quickly fled in hopes of reaching West Germany by way of Austria.<ref>{{cite news|title=East German exodus echoes 1961|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=22 August 1989|url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-08-22/news/8901060740_1_east-germany-german-democratic-republic-border|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019175440/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-08-22/news/8901060740_1_east-germany-german-democratic-republic-border|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 October 2013}}</ref> But with the mass exodus at the [[Pan-European Picnic]] in August 1989 (which was based on an idea by [[Otto von Habsburg]] to test Gorbachev's reaction to the opening of the border),<ref>"Der 19. August 1989 war ein Test für Gorbatschows" (German – 19 August 1989 was a test for Gorbachev), in: FAZ 19 August 2009.</ref> the subsequent hesitant behaviour of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the non-intervention of the Soviet Union opened the floodgates. Thus the united front of the [[Eastern Bloc]] was broken. The reaction to this from Erich Honecker in the ''Daily Mirror'' of 19 August 1989 was too late and showed the current loss of power: "Habsburg distributed leaflets far into Poland, on which the East German holidaymakers were invited to a picnic. When they came to the picnic, they were given gifts, food and Deutsche Mark, and then they were persuaded to come to the West." Later, after his fall, Honecker said of Otto von Habsburg in connection with the summer of 1989: "That this Habsburg drove the nail into my coffin."<ref>Joachim Riedl: "Ein Brückenleben. Viele Schnurren und eine Sternstunde. Zum Tode Otto von Habsburgs." In: Wochenzeitung Die Zeit, Nr. 28, 7 July 2011, p 11.</ref> Now tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans made their way to Hungary, which was no longer ready to keep its borders completely closed or to oblige its border troops to use force of arms.<ref>Thomas Roser: DDR-Massenflucht: Ein Picknick hebt die Welt aus den Angeln (German – Mass exodus of the GDR: A picnic clears the world) in: Die Presse 16 August 2018.</ref><ref>Michael Frank: Paneuropäisches Picknick – Mit dem Picknickkorb in die Freiheit (German: Pan-European picnic – With the picnic basket to freedom), in: Süddeutsche Zeitung 17 May 2010.</ref><ref>Miklós Németh in Interview, Austrian TV – ORF "Report", 25 June 2019.</ref> A 1969 treaty required the Hungarian government to send the East Germans back home;<ref name=Revolution1989/> however, starting on 11 September 1989, the Hungarians let them pass into Austria,<ref>[http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/chronicle/_year1989/_month9/?moc=1 www.chronik-der-mauer.de] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203063712/https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/chronicle/_year1989/_month9/?moc=1 |date=3 December 2021 }} (engl.)</ref> telling their outraged East German counterparts that they were refugees and that international treaties on refugees took precedence.
At the time, Honecker was sidelined through illness, leaving his colleagues unable to act decisively. He had been taken ill with [[biliary colic]] during the Warsaw Pact summit. He was shortly afterwards flown home to East Berlin.<ref name=Revolution1989/><ref name="Chronik July 1989"/> After an initial stabilisation in his health, he underwent surgery on 18 August 1989 to remove his inflamed gallbladder and, due to a perforation, part of his colon.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker recuperating after gallstone operation|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=24 August 1989|url=https://apnews.com/b35275a4daa8b6639ad71aba6c2e9266?SearchText=honecker%201989;Display_|archive-date=20 September 2021|access-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920222527/https://apnews.com/b35275a4daa8b6639ad71aba6c2e9266?SearchText=honecker%201989;Display_|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Upheaval in the East; Honecker, in disgrace and in poor health, is arrested as he leaves a Berlin hospital|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=30 January 1990|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/30/world/upheaval-east-honecker-disgrace-poor-health-arrested-he-leaves-berlin-hospital.html}}</ref> According to the urologist Peter Althaus, the surgeons left a suspected carcinogenic nodule in Honecker's right kidney due to his weak condition, and also failed to inform the patient of the suspected cancer;<ref>{{cite book|last=Kunze|first=Thomas|title=Staatschef: Die letzten Jahre des Erich Honecker|page=77|year=2001|publisher=Links|language=de}}</ref> other sources say the tumour was simply undetected. As a result of this operation, Honecker was away from his office until late September 1989.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker deteriorating|newspaper=[[Deseret News]]|date=11 September 1989|url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/63098/HONECKER-DETERIORATING.html?pg=all|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130909165614/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/63098/HONECKER-DETERIORATING.html?pg=all|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 September 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker returns to work after surgery|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=26 September 1989|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-09-26-mn-232-story.html}}</ref>
Back in office, Honecker had to contend with the rising number and strength of demonstrations across East Germany that had first been sparked by reports in the West German media of fraudulent results in local elections on 7 May 1989,<ref name="Revolution1989"/><ref>{{cite news|title=The Opposition charges the SED with fraud in the local elections of May 1989 (May 25, 1989)|publisher=German History in Documents and Images|url=http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=1179}}</ref> the same results he had labelled a "convincing reflection" of the populace's faith in his leadership.<ref>{{cite book|last=De Nevers |first=Rene|title=Comrades No More: The Seeds of Political Change in Eastern Europe |page=173|year=2002|publisher=MIT Press}}</ref> He also had to deal with a new refugee problem. Several thousand East Germans tried to go to West Germany by way of [[Czechoslovakia]], only to have that government bar them from passing. Several thousands of them headed straight for the [[Embassy of Germany, Prague|West German embassy in Prague]] and demanded safe passage to West Germany. With some reluctance, Honecker allowed them to go – but forced them to go back through East Germany on [[sealed train]]s and stripped them of their East German citizenship. Several members of the SED ''Politbüro'' realised this was a serious blunder and made plans to get rid of him.<ref name=Revolution1989/>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-1120-030, Dresden, Montagsdemonstration.jpg|thumb|left|East Germans protest against Honecker's diehard regime hindering all reforms, 1989.]]
As unrest visibly grew, large numbers began fleeing the country through the West German embassies in Prague and [[Embassy of Germany, Budapest|Budapest]], as well as over the borders of the "socialist brother" states.<ref>{{cite news|title=Hundreds of East Germans reported in Prague Embassy|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=21 September 1989|url=https://apnews.com/b9243565455b75d263cbd3eb938f651b?SearchText=east%20germany%20czechoslovakia%201989;Display_}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Refugees crowd West German embassies in East Bloc|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=19 September 1989|url=https://apnews.com/29e0f6c7d1872f56f0fa7bfe4852fc50?SearchText=east%20germany%20budapest%201989;Display_}}</ref> Each month saw tens of thousands more exit.<ref>{{cite news|title=16,000 refugees flee for freedom East Germany exodus grows|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=12 September 1989|url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-09-12/news/8903020848_1_east-german-berlin-wall-east-berlin|access-date=10 September 2013|archive-date=19 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019061414/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-09-12/news/8903020848_1_east-german-berlin-wall-east-berlin|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=East Germans fill refugee camps; New wave from Czechoslovakia|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=12 September 1989|url=https://apnews.com/1d07063d4c081a0003285280f46677df?SearchText=east%20germany%20czechoslovakia%201989;Display_}}</ref> On 3 October 1989 East Germany closed its borders to its eastern neighbours and prevented visa-free travel to Czechoslovakia;<ref>{{cite news|title=East Germany closes its border after 10,000 more flee to West|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=4 October 1989|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/10/04/east-germany-closes-its-border-after-10000-more-flee-to-west/}}</ref> a day later these measures were also extended to travel to Bulgaria and Romania. East Germany was now not only behind the Iron Curtain to the West, but also cordoned off from most other Eastern bloc states.<ref>{{cite news|title=It's not easy being East Germany|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=7 October 1989|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/10/07/its-not-easy-being-east-germany/}}</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-1007-402, Berlin, 40. Jahrestag DDR-Gründung, Ehrengäste.jpg|thumb|right|Honecker, with [[Mikhail Gorbachev|Gorbachev]] on his right, at the forefront of East Germany's 40th anniversary celebration, shortly before being forced to resign]]
On 6–7 October 1989 the national celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the East German state took place with Gorbachev in attendance.<ref>{{cite news|title=Gorbachev in East Berlin|work=[[BBC News]]|date=25 March 2009|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7902635.stm}}</ref> To the surprise of Honecker and the other SED leaders in attendance, several hundred members of the Free German Youth — reckoned as the future vanguard of the party and nation — began chanting, ''"Gorby, help us! Gorby, save us!"''.<ref name="Spiegel DDR Birthday">{{cite magazine|title=Oct. 7, 1989: How 'Gorbi' spoiled East Germany's 40th Birthday Party|magazine=Der Spiegel|date=25 March 2009|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/oct-7-1989-how-gorbi-spoiled-east-germany-s-40th-birthday-party-a-653724.html}}</ref> In a private conversation between the two leaders Honecker praised the success of the country, but Gorbachev knew that, in reality, it faced bankruptcy;<ref name="Revolution1989"/><ref>{{cite news|title=Gorbachev visit triggered Honecker's ouster, former aid says|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=27 December 1989|url=https://apnews.com/bb6ffec469fa573093132427d80e101a?SearchText=east%20germany%20october%201989;Display_|archive-date=20 September 2021|access-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920234421/https://apnews.com/bb6ffec469fa573093132427d80e101a?SearchText=east%20germany%20october%201989&Display_|url-status=live}}</ref> East Germany had already accepted billions of dollars in loans from West Germany during the decade as it sought to stabilise its economy.<ref>{{cite news|title=East Germany seeking $371 million Bonn loan|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=2 December 1983|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/03/business/east-germany-seeking-371-million-bonn-loan.html|archive-date=24 July 2016|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160724155128/http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/03/business/east-germany-seeking-371-million-bonn-loan.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Attempting to make Honecker accept a need for reforms, Gorbachev warned Honecker that "He who is too late is punished by life", yet Honecker maintained that "we will solve our problems ourselves with socialist means".<ref name="Spiegel DDR Birthday"/> Protests outside the reception at the [[Palace of the Republic, Berlin|Palace of the Republic]] led to hundreds of arrests in which many were brutally beaten by soldiers and police.<ref name="Spiegel DDR Birthday"/>
{{Rquote|1=right|2=Being able to have an apartment, a job, clothes to put on, something to eat, and not having to sleep under bridges: that was already, for Erich Honecker, socialism.|3= [[Hans Modrow]], 2005.<ref>{{cite web |title=Goodbye DDR, E04: Erich und die Mauer |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvQhJ5aLJOc&t=734s |publisher=[[ZDF]] |access-date=24 December 2022 |date=20 September 2005}}</ref>}}
As the reform movement spread throughout Central and Eastern Europe, mass demonstrations against the East German government erupted, most prominently in [[Leipzig]]—the first of several [[Monday demonstrations in East Germany|demonstrations which took place on Monday nights]] across the country. In response, an elite paratroop unit was dispatched to Leipzig—almost certainly on Honecker's orders, since he was [[National People's Army|commander-in-chief of the Army]]. A bloodbath was averted only when local party officials themselves ordered the troops to pull back. In the following week, Honecker faced a torrent of criticism. This gave his Politburo comrades the impetus they needed to replace him.<ref name=Revolution1989/>
After a crisis meeting of the Politburo on 10–11 October 1989, Honecker's planned state visit to Denmark was cancelled and, despite his resistance, at the insistence of the regime's number-two-man, [[Egon Krenz]], a public statement was issued that called for "suggestions for attractive socialism".<ref>{{cite news|title=Leadership reaffirms commitment to Communism|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=11 October 1989|url=https://apnews.com/35e3fce7f4d5c637f00a9534cbe1bcf6?SearchText=honecker%20%20denmark;Display_|archive-date=20 September 2021|access-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920223313/https://apnews.com/35e3fce7f4d5c637f00a9534cbe1bcf6?SearchText=honecker%20%20denmark;Display_|url-status=live}}</ref> Over the following days Krenz worked to secure himself the support of the military and the [[Stasi]] and arranged a meeting between Gorbachev and Politburo member [[Harry Tisch]], who was in Moscow, to inform the Kremlin about the now-planned removal of Honecker;<ref>{{cite news|title=Plot to oust East German leader was fraught with risks|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=28 October 1990|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/10/28/plot-to-oust-e-german-leader-was-fraught-with-risks/}}</ref> Gorbachev reportedly wished them good luck.<ref>{{cite news|title=Erich Honeckers Sturz|publisher=[[Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk|MDR]]|language=de|url=http://www.mdr.de/damals/archiv/artikel92506.html|date=5 January 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019145938/http://www.mdr.de/damals/archiv/artikel92506.html|archive-date=19 October 2013}}</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-1024-028, 10. Volkskammertagung, Rede Egon Krenz.jpg|thumb|left|[[Egon Krenz]] introduces himself to the People's Chamber as Honecker's replacement for general secretary.]]
The sitting of the SED Central Committee planned for the end of November 1989 was pulled forward a week, with the most urgent item on the agenda now being the composition of the Politburo. Krenz and Mielke attempted by telephone on the night of 16 October to win other Politburo members over to remove Honecker. At the beginning of the session on 17 October, Honecker asked his routine question of "Are there any suggestions for the agenda?"<ref name="17 October">{{cite news|title=Die Genossen opfern Honecker – zu spät|newspaper=[[Der Tagesspiegel]]|language=de|url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/deutschland/wendechronik-die-genossen-opfern-honecker-zu-spaet/1617090.html|date=17 October 2009}}</ref> Stoph replied, "Please, general secretary, Erich, I propose that a new item be placed on the agenda. It is the release of Comrade Erich Honecker as general secretary and the election of Comrade Egon Krenz in his place."<ref name=Revolution1989/> Honecker reportedly calmly responded: "Well, then I open the debate".<ref name="Spiegel 1999">{{cite magazine|title=Sekt statt Blut|magazine=Der Spiegel|date=30 August 1999|language=de|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-14442983.html|page=60|access-date=12 September 2013|archive-date=19 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019131951/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-14442983.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
All those present then spoke, in turn, but none in favour of Honecker.<ref name="Spiegel 1999"/> [[Günter Schabowski]] even extended the dismissal of Honecker to also include his posts in the State Council and as Chairman of the National Defence Council while childhood friend Günter Mittag moved away from Honecker.<ref name="17 October"/> Mielke, hollering and pounding the conference room table with his fist pointed at Honecker and blamed him for almost all the country's current ills and threatened to publish compromising information that he possessed, if Honecker refused to resign.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker was forced to resign by secret police|newspaper=The Independent|date=6 June 2011|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/honecker-was-forced-to-resign-by-secret-police-2293508.html|archive-date=26 September 2023|access-date=27 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926075129/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/honecker-was-forced-to-resign-by-secret-police-2293508.html|url-status=live}}</ref> A [[ZDF]] documentary on the matter claims this information was contained in a large red briefcase found in Mielke's possession in 1990.<ref>{{YouTube|sCHM2FMcuIE|''Geheimakte Honecker''}}</ref> After three hours the Politburo voted to remove Honecker.<ref name="Spiegel 1999"/><ref>{{cite news|title=Gorbachev visit triggered Honecker's ouster, former aid says|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=27 December 1989|url=https://apnews.com/bb6ffec469fa573093132427d80e101a}}</ref> In accordance with longstanding practice, Honecker voted for his own removal.<ref name=Revolution1989/> As a concession to Honecker, he was allowed to publicly save face by resigning due to "ill health".<ref>{{cite news|title=1989: East Germany leader ousted|date=18 October 1989|publisher=BBC|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/18/newsid_2450000/2450783.stm|archive-date=13 November 2013|access-date=28 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113193717/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/18/newsid_2450000/2450783.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> Krenz was unanimously elected as his successor as General Secretary.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker ousted in East Germany, ending 18 years of Iron Rule|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=18 October 1989|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-18-mn-415-story.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=East Germans oust Honecker|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=19 October 1989|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1989/oct/19/germany.fromthearchive|archive-date=4 August 2019|access-date=14 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190804205432/https://www.theguardian.com/world/1989/oct/19/germany.fromthearchive|url-status=live}}</ref> This closely echoed how Honecker helped force Ulbricht out 18 years earlier; he too had been publicly allowed to retire for health reasons.
==Start of prosecution and asylum attempts==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1990-0129-016, Berlin, Charité, Horst Vogler, Pressekonferenz.jpg|thumb|right|Surgeon Peter Althaus informs media in January 1990 that Honecker is too ill to be detained.]]
Three weeks after Honecker's ousting [[fall of the Berlin Wall|the Berlin Wall fell]], and the SED swiftly lost control of the country. On 1 December, the Volkskammer deleted the provisions in the [[Constitution of East Germany#1968 constitution|East German constitution]] giving the SED a monopoly on power, thus formally ending Communist rule in East Germany two months after Honecker's removal. In an effort to rehabilitate itself, the SED expelled Honecker and several other former officials two days later.<ref>{{cite news|title=Entire East German leadership resigns|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=4 December 1989|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-12-04-mn-128-story.html}}</ref> He went on to join the newly founded [[Communist Party of Germany (1990)|Communist Party of Germany]] in 1990, remaining a member until his death.<ref>{{Cite web|last=mdr.de|title=Honecker, Erich {{!}} MDR.DE|url=https://www.mdr.de/zeitreise/ddr/artikel12194.html|access-date=13 September 2020|website=www.mdr.de|language=de}}</ref>
During November the [[People's Chamber]] had already set up a committee to investigate corruption and abuses of office, with Honecker being alleged to have received annual donations from the National Academy of Architecture of around 20,000 marks as an "honorary member".<ref>{{cite news|title=East Germany to prosecute ousted rulers|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=27 November 1989|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/11/27/e-germany-to-prosecute-ousted-rulers/}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Upheaval in the East; Tide of luxuries sweep German leaders away|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=10 December 1989|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/10/world/upheaval-in-the-east-tide-of-luxuries-sweep-german-leaders-away.html}}</ref> On 5 December 1989 the chief public prosecutor in East Germany formally launched a judicial inquiry against him on charges of high treason, abuses of confidence and [[embezzlement]] to the serious disadvantage of socialist property<ref name="Spiegel 1990">{{Cite news| title=Bürger A 000 000 1| newspaper=Der Spiegel| page=22|date=26 February 1990|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-13507480.html|language=de}}</ref> (the charge of high treason was dropped in March 1990).<ref>{{cite news|title=East Germany calls off plans to try Honecker, 3 others|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=26 March 1990|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-03-26-mn-255-story.html}}</ref> As a result, Honecker was placed under house arrest for a month.<ref name="House arrest">{{cite news|title=Honecker released from month-long house arrest|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=5 January 1990|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-05-mn-230-story.html}}</ref>
Following the lifting of his house arrest, Honecker and his wife Margot were forced to vacate their apartment in the [[Waldsiedlung]] housing area in [[Wandlitz]], exclusively used by senior SED party members, after the [[People's Chamber]] decided to put it to use as a sanatorium for the disabled.<ref name="House arrest"/> In any case, Honecker spent the majority of January 1990 in hospital after having the error of the tumour missed in 1989 corrected after the suspicion of cancer was confirmed.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker has tumor removed|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=10 January 1990|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-10-mn-365-story.html|archive-date=21 October 2023|access-date=14 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231021112028/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-10-mn-365-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Upon leaving the hospital on 29 January he was re-arrested and held at the Berlin-Rummelsburg remand centre.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker jailed on treason charge|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=29 January 1990|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-29-mn-888-story.html|archive-date=22 February 2025|access-date=14 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250222015845/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-29-mn-888-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> However, on the evening of the following day, 30 January, Honecker was again released from custody: The district court had annulled the arrest warrant and, due to medical reports, certified him unfit for detention and interrogation.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker freed; Court says he's too ill for jail|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=31 January 1990|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-01-31-mn-971-story.html}}</ref>
[[File:Holmer uwe2.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Pastor Uwe Holmer gave the Honeckers sanctuary in 1990.]]
Lacking a home, Honecker instructed his lawyer Wolfgang Vogel to ask the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg for help. Pastor [[Uwe Holmer]], leader of the Hoffnungstal Institute in Lobetal, Bernau bei Berlin, offered the couple a home in his vicarage.<ref name="Holmer">{{cite news|title=Margot und Erich Honecker Asyl im Pfarrhaus gewährt|publisher=Mainpost.de|date=4 April 2011|url=http://www.mainpost.de/regional/main-spessart/Margot-und-Erich-Honecker-Asyl-im-Pfarrhaus-gewaehrt;art776,6078656|language=de|access-date=2 September 2013|archive-date=16 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116111318/https://www.mainpost.de/regional/main-spessart/Margot-und-Erich-Honecker-Asyl-im-Pfarrhaus-gewaehrt;art776,6078656|url-status=dead}}</ref> This drew immediate condemnation and later demonstrations against the church for assisting the Honeckers, given they had both discriminated against Christians who did not conform with the SED leadership's ideology.<ref name="Holmer"/><ref>{{cite news|title=Der Mann, der Erich Honecker damals Asyl gab|publisher=[[Hamburger Abendblatt]]|date=30 January 2010|url=http://www.abendblatt.de/politik/deutschland/article1362544/Der-Mann-der-Erich-Honecker-damals-Asyl-gab.html|language=de}}</ref> Aside from a stay at a holiday home in Lindow in March 1990 that lasted only one day before protests swiftly brought it to an end,<ref>{{cite news|title=Ein Sieg Gottes|newspaper=Berliner Zeitung|date=30 January 2010|url=http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/archiv/vor-20-jahren-bot-uwe-holmer-der-familie-honecker-asyl-im-pfarrhaus-an--ein-sieg-gottes-,10810590,10695684.html|language=de|access-date=2 September 2013|archive-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924145231/http://www.berliner-zeitung.de/archiv/vor-20-jahren-bot-uwe-holmer-der-familie-honecker-asyl-im-pfarrhaus-an--ein-sieg-gottes-,10810590,10695684.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> the couple resided at the Holmer residence until 3 April 1990.<ref name="Holmer"/>
The couple then moved into a three-room living quarters within the Soviet military hospital in [[Beelitz]].<ref name="Die letzten Jahre">{{cite book|last=Kunze|first=Thomas|title=Staatschef: Die letzten Jahre des Erich Honecker|pages=106–107|year=2001|publisher=Links|language=de}}</ref> Here, doctors diagnosed a malignant liver tumour following another re-examination. Following [[German reunification]], prosecutors in Berlin issued a further arrest warrant for Honecker in November 1990 on charges that he gave the order to fire on escapees at the [[Inner German border]] in 1961 and had repeatedly reiterated that command (most specifically in 1974).<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker accused of ordering deaths|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=2 December 1990|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-12-02-mn-8089-story.html}}</ref> However, this warrant was not enforceable because Honecker lay under the protection of Soviet authorities in Beelitz.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker's Arrest Sought in Berlin Wall Shootings|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=2 December 1990|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/12/02/world/evolution-in-europe-honecker-s-arrest-sought-in-berlin-wall-shootings.html}}</ref> On 13 March 1991 the Honeckers fled Germany from the Soviet-controlled [[Sperenberg Airfield]] to Moscow on a military jet with the aid of Soviet hardliners.<ref>{{cite news|title=Soviets may return Honecker to West|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=26 August 1991|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-26-mn-809-story.html|archive-date=11 March 2023|access-date=14 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230311191913/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-08-26-mn-809-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
The German Chancellery had only been informed by Soviet diplomats about the Honeckers’ flight to Moscow one hour in advance.<ref name="Moscow flight">{{cite news|title=Honecker flown to Moscow by Soviets; Bonn protests|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=15 March 1991|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-15-mn-203-story.html|archive-date=6 December 2024|access-date=14 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241206200113/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-15-mn-203-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> It limited its response to a public protest, claiming the existence of an arrest warrant meant the Soviet Union was breaching international law by admitting Honecker.<ref name="Moscow flight"/> The initial Soviet reaction was that Honecker was now too ill to travel and was receiving medical treatment after a deterioration of his health.<ref>{{cite news|title=Germany demands return of Honecker|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=16 March 1991|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-03-16-mn-174-story.html}}</ref> He underwent further surgery the following month.<ref>{{cite news|title=Moscow military hospital operates on Honecker|newspaper=[[Orlando Sentinel]]|date=16 April 1991|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/1991/04/16/moscow-military-hospital-operates-on-honecker/|access-date=6 September 2013|archive-date=13 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150513131007/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1991-04-16/news/9104160792_1_honecker-moscow-military-hospital|url-status=live}}</ref>
On 11 December 1991 the Honeckers sought refuge in the Chilean Embassy in Moscow, while also applying for political asylum in the Soviet Union.<ref>{{cite news|title=Chilean Embassy in Moscow is giving shelter to Honecker|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=13 December 1991|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-12-13-mn-150-story.html|archive-date=6 March 2016|access-date=14 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306135106/http://articles.latimes.com/1991-12-13/news/mn-150_1_erich-honecker|url-status=live}}</ref> Despite an offer of help from [[North Korea]],<ref>{{cite news|title=Moscow's Communist faithful hold rally for Honecker|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=17 December 1991|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-12-17-mn-591-story.html|archive-date=26 September 2023|access-date=14 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926075137/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-12-17-mn-591-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Honecker instead reached out to the Chilean government under Christian Democrat [[Patricio Aylwin]]. Under Honecker's rule, East Germany had granted many Chileans exile following [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|the military coup of 1973]] by [[Augusto Pinochet]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Chile shelters Honecker because of past favors|newspaper=[[The Seattle Times]]|date=12 March 1992|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19920312/1480577/chile-shelters-honecker-because-of-past-favors|access-date=4 September 2013|archive-date=26 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826120123/http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19920312&slug=1480577|url-status=live}}</ref> In addition his daughter Sonja was married to a Chilean.<ref>{{cite news|title=Ein Leben im Rückwärts|newspaper=[[Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung]]|date=18 February 2012|url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/neues-von-den-honeckers-ein-leben-im-rueckwaerts-11654846.html|language=de|archive-date=25 June 2021|access-date=2 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210625020407/https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/neues-von-den-honeckers-ein-leben-im-rueckwaerts-11654846.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Chilean authorities, however, stated he could not enter their country without a valid [[German passport]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Chile in quandary over protecting Honecker|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=15 January 1990|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/15/world/chile-in-quandary-over-protecting-honecker.html|archive-date=24 July 2016|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160724155144/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/15/world/chile-in-quandary-over-protecting-honecker.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[Mikhail Gorbachev]] agreed to the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union]] on 25 December 1991 and gave all his powers to Russian president [[Boris Yeltsin]]. Russian authorities had long been keen on expelling Honecker,<ref>{{cite news|title=Russia says Honecker will be expelled|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=17 November 1991|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-11-17-mn-380-story.html}}</ref> against the wishes of Gorbachev,<ref>{{cite news|title=Russia wants to expel former East German leader|newspaper=[[Orlando Sentinel]]|date=17 November 1991|url=http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1991-11-17/news/9111170703_1_east-germany-honecker-back-to-germany|access-date=6 September 2013|archive-date=26 August 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140826113808/http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/1991-11-17/news/9111170703_1_east-germany-honecker-back-to-germany|url-status=dead}}</ref> and the new government now demanded that he leave the country or else face deportation.<ref>{{cite news|title=Soviet disarray; Pyongyang offers Honecker refuge|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=15 December 1991|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/15/world/soviet-disarray-pyongyang-offers-honecker-refuge.html|archive-date=9 August 2019|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809033440/https://www.nytimes.com/1991/12/15/world/soviet-disarray-pyongyang-offers-honecker-refuge.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
In June 1992, Chilean President [[Patricio Aylwin]], leader of a center-left coalition, finally assured German Chancellor [[Helmut Kohl]] that Honecker would be leaving the embassy in Moscow.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker to leave embassy sanctuary in Chile|newspaper=[[The Seattle Times]]|date=30 June 1992|url=https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19920630/1499847/world----news-in-brief|access-date=4 September 2013|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304002439/http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19920630&slug=1499847|url-status=live}}</ref> Reportedly against his will,<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker arraigned on 49 counts|newspaper=[[Deseret News]]|date=30 June 1992|url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/239517/HONECKER-ARRAIGNED-ON-49-COUNTS.html?pg=all|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130904181419/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/239517/HONECKER-ARRAIGNED-ON-49-COUNTS.html?pg=all|url-status=dead|archive-date=4 September 2013}}</ref> Honecker was ejected from the embassy on 29 July 1992 and flown to [[Berlin Tegel Airport|Berlin's Tegel Airport]], where he was arrested and detained in [[Moabit]] Prison.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker back in Berlin, may go on trial|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=30 July 1992|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-30-mn-4799-story.html|archive-date=26 September 2023|access-date=14 August 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926075135/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-30-mn-4799-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> By contrast, his wife Margot travelled on a direct flight from Moscow to Santiago, Chile, where she initially stayed with her daughter Sonja.<ref>{{cite news|title=Ousted East German leader returned to stand trial|newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun]]|date=30 July 1992|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1992/07/30/ousted-east-german-leader-returned-to-stand-trial/|access-date=28 August 2013|archive-date=15 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150115031059/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1992-07-30/news/1992212057_1_east-german-leader-honecker-west-germany|url-status=live}}</ref> Honecker's lawyers unsuccessfully appealed for him to be released from detention in the period leading up to his trial.<ref>{{cite news|title=Court in Berlin refuses to free ailing Honecker|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=4 September 1992|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-09-04-mn-6450-story.html}}</ref>
==Criminal trial==
[[File:DDR steel watch tower cropped.jpg|thumb|upright|Honecker gave [[Schießbefehl|orders to fire]] along the [[inner German border]].]]
On 12 May 1992, while under protection in the Chilean embassy in Moscow, Honecker, along with several co-defendants, including [[Erich Mielke]], [[Willi Stoph]], [[Heinz Kessler]], [[Fritz Streletz]] and [[Hans Albrecht (politician)|Hans Albrecht]], were accused in a 783-page indictment of taking part in the "collective manslaughter" of 68 people as they attempted to flee East Germany.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker charged in deaths of East Germans in flight|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=16 May 1992|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/16/world/honecker-charged-in-deaths-of-east-germans-in-flight.html|archive-date=24 July 2016|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160724155158/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/05/16/world/honecker-charged-in-deaths-of-east-germans-in-flight.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Trial research paper">{{cite news|title=The Honecker trial: The East German past and the German future|publisher=Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies|date=January 1996|url=http://kellogg.nd.edu/publications/workingpapers/WPS/216.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://kellogg.nd.edu/publications/workingpapers/WPS/216.pdf |archive-date=9 October 2022 |url-status=live}}</ref> It was alleged that Honecker, in his role as Chairman of the [[National Defense Council of East Germany|National Defence Council]], had both given the decisive order in 1961 for the construction of the [[Berlin Wall]] and also, at subsequent meetings, ordered the extensive expansion of the border fortifications around West Berlin and the barriers to the West so as to make any passing impossible.<ref name="Trial research paper"/> In addition, specifically at a May 1974 sitting of the National Defence Council, he had stated that the development of the border must continue, that lines of fire were warranted along the whole border and, as prior, the use of firearms was essential: "Comrades who have successfully used their firearms [are] to be praised".<ref name="Schießbefehl"/><ref name="Trial research paper"/>
The charges were approved by the [[Landgericht Berlin|Berlin District Court]] on 19 October 1992 at the opening of the trial.<ref name="Trial start">{{cite news|title=Honecker trial starts Nov. 12|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=21 October 1992|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/21/world/honecker-trial-starts-nov-12.html}}</ref> On the same day, it was decided that the hearing of 56 charges would be postponed and the remaining twelve cases would be the subject of the trial to begin on 12 November 1992.<ref name="Trial start"/> The question of under which laws the former East German leader could be tried was highly controversial and, in the view of many jurists, the process had an uncertain outcome.<ref name="Trial research paper"/><ref name="Trial defence">{{cite book|last=Laughland|first=John|title=A History of Political Trials: From Charles I to Saddam Hussein|pages=195–206|year=2008|publisher=Peter Lang}}</ref>
During his 70-minute-long statement to the court on 3 December 1992, Honecker said that he had political responsibility for the building of the Berlin Wall and subsequent deaths at the borders, but claimed he was "without juridical, legal or moral guilt".<ref name="Trial defence"/> He blamed the escalation of the [[Cold War]] for the building of the Berlin Wall, saying the decision had not been taken solely by the East German leadership but all the [[Warsaw Pact]] countries that had collectively concluded in 1961 that a "Third World War with millions dead" would be unavoidable without this action.<ref name="Trial defence"/> He quoted several West German politicians who had opined that the wall had indeed reduced and stabilised the two factions.<ref name="Trial defence"/> He stated that he had always regretted every death, both from a human point of view and due to the political damage they caused.<ref name="Trial defence"/>
[[File:Berlin Wall 1961-11-20.jpg|thumb|right|Honecker said the [[Berlin Wall]] was "unavoidable" to prevent a "third World War with millions dead".]]
Making reference to past trials in Germany against communists and socialists such as [[Karl Marx]] and [[August Bebel]], he claimed that the legal process against him was politically motivated and a "[[show trial]]" against communism.<ref>{{cite book|last=Weitz|first=Eric D.|title=Creating German Communism, 1890–1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State|page=3|year=1996|publisher=Princeton University Press}}</ref><ref name="Das Ende">{{cite news|title=Das Ende der Honecker-Ära|publisher=[[Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk|MDR]]|language=de|url=http://www.mdr.de/damals/archiv/artikel92582.html|date=5 January 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604001537/http://www.mdr.de/damals/archiv/artikel92582.html|archive-date=4 June 2016}}</ref> He stated that no court lying in the territory of West Germany had the legal right to place him, his co-defendants or any East German citizen on trial, and that the portrayal of East Germany as an {{lang|de|"[[Unrechtsstaat]]"}} was contradictory to its recognition by over one hundred other states and the [[United Nations Security Council|UN Security Council]].<ref name="Honecker defence">{{cite news|title=Persönliche Erklärung von Erich Honecker vor dem Berliner Landgericht am 3. Dezember 1992|publisher=Glasnost.de|language=de|url=http://www.glasnost.de/db/DokZeit/92honerkl.html|archive-date=27 September 2013|access-date=8 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927085435/http://www.glasnost.de/db/DokZeit/92honerkl.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Furthermore, he questioned how a German court could now legally judge his political decisions in the light of the lack of legal action taken over various military operations that had been carried out by Western countries with either overt support or absence of condemnation from (West) Germany.<ref name="Honecker defence"/> He dismissed public criticism of the [[Stasi]], arguing that journalists in Western countries were praised for denouncing others.<ref name="Honecker defence"/> While accepting political responsibility for the deaths at the Wall, he believed he was free of any "legal or moral guilt", and thought that East Germany would go down in history as "a sign that socialism is possible and is better than capitalism".<ref>{{cite news|title=Terminally ill Honecker should be released from jail, court rules|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=13 January 1993|url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1993-01-13/news/9301030351_1_erich-honecker-honecker-defense-attorney-trial|access-date=31 August 2013|archive-date=27 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927113156/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1993-01-13/news/9301030351_1_erich-honecker-honecker-defense-attorney-trial|url-status=dead}}</ref>
By the time of the proceedings Honecker was already seriously ill.<ref name="Illness threatens">{{cite news|title=Illness threatens Honecker's trial|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=18 November 1992|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/18/world/illness-threatens-honecker-s-trial.html}}</ref> A new [[CT scan]] in August 1992 had confirmed an ultrasound examination made in Moscow and the existence of a malignant tumour in the right lobe of his liver.<ref>{{cite news|title=Doctor says Honecker too sick to stand trial|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=17 August 1992|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1992/08/17/doctor-says-honecker-too-sick-to-stand-trial/}}</ref> Based on these findings and additional medical testimonies, Honecker's lawyers requested that the legal proceedings, as far as they were aimed against their client, be abandoned and the arrest warrant against him withdrawn; the cases against both [[Erich Mielke|Mielke]] and [[Willi Stoph|Stoph]] had already been postponed due to their ill health.<ref name="Illness threatens"/> Arguing that his life expectancy was estimated to be three to six months, while the legal process was forecast to take at least two years, his lawyers questioned whether it was humane to try a dying man.<ref>{{cite news|title=Report sent to court gives Honecker short time to live|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=16 December 1992|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/16/world/report-sent-to-court-gives-honecker-short-time-to-live.html|archive-date=24 July 2016|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160724155213/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/16/world/report-sent-to-court-gives-honecker-short-time-to-live.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Their application was rejected on 21 December 1992 when the court concluded that, given the seriousness of the charges, no obstacle to the proceedings existed.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker trial to go forward|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=22 December 1992|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/12/22/world/honecker-trial-to-go-forward.html}}</ref>
Honecker lodged a constitutional complaint to the recently created [[Constitutional Court of the State of Berlin]], stating that the decision to proceed violated his fundamental right to human dignity, which was an overriding principle in the Constitution of Berlin, above even the state penal system and criminal justice.<ref name="Trial defence"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Quint|first=Peter E.|title=The Imperfect Union: Constitutional Structures of German Unification|url=https://archive.org/details/imperfectunion00quin_798|url-access=limited|pages=[https://archive.org/details/imperfectunion00quin_798/page/n108 96]–97|year=1997|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=9780691086569}}</ref> On 12 January 1993, Honecker's complaint was upheld and the Berlin District Court therefore abandoned the case and withdrew their arrest warrant.<ref>{{cite news|title=Court ends Honecker trial, citing violation of 'human dignity'|newspaper=[[The Baltimore Sun]]|date=13 January 1993|url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/1993/01/13/court-ends-honecker-trial-citing-violation-of-human-dignity/|access-date=28 August 2013|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304074429/http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1993-01-13/news/1993013131_1_honecker-berlin-wall-east-germany|url-status=live}}</ref> An application for a new arrest warrant was rejected on 13 January. The court also refused to commence with the trial related to the indictment of 12 November 1992, and withdrew the second arrest warrant related to these charges. After a total of 169 days Honecker was released from custody, drawing protests both from victims of the East German regime as well as German political figures.<ref name="Trial research paper"/><ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker release drawing fire in Germany|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=24 January 1993|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/24/world/honecker-release-drawing-fire-in-germany.html|archive-date=24 March 2014|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140324192823/https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/24/world/honecker-release-drawing-fire-in-germany.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
Honecker flew via Brazil to [[Santiago]], Chile, to reunite with his wife and his daughter Sonja, who lived there with her son Roberto. Upon his arrival he was greeted by the leaders of the Chilean Communist and Socialist parties.<ref>{{cite news|title=Frail Honecker arrives in Santiago|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=15 January 1993|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1993-01-15-mn-1460-story.html}}</ref> In contrast, his co-defendants [[Heinz Kessler]], [[Fritz Streletz]] and Hans Albrecht were sentenced on 16 September 1993 to imprisonment of between four and seven-and-a-half years.<ref name="Trial research paper"/> On 13 April 1993 a final attempt to separate and continue the trial against Honecker in his absence was discontinued.<ref>{{cite news|title=Mielke und Honecker: Konspirationsgewohnt|newspaper=[[Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung]]|language=de|url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/politik/autokraten-mielke-und-honecker-konspirationsgewohnt-121537.html}}</ref> Four days later, on the 66th birthday of his wife Margot, he gave a final public speech, ending with the words: "Socialism is the opposite of what we have now in Germany. For that I would like to say that our beautiful memories of the German Democratic Republic are testimony of a new and just society. And we want to always remain loyal to these things".<ref name="Das Ende"/>
== Death ==
Honecker died on 29 May 1994 of [[liver cancer]] at the age of 81 in a terraced house in the [[La Reina]] district of Santiago. His funeral, arranged by the [[Communist Party of Chile]], was conducted the following day at the central cemetery in Santiago.<ref>{{cite news|title=Wo Honecker heimlich begraben wurde|url=http://www.bild.de/politik/inland/erich-honecker/wo-honecker-heimlich-begraben-wurde-25858452.bild.html|newspaper=Bild|language=de|date=25 August 2012|archive-date=25 May 2019|access-date=28 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525132220/https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/erich-honecker/wo-honecker-heimlich-begraben-wurde-25858452.bild.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Family==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1986-0313-300, Margot Honecker, Minister für Volksbildung.jpg|thumb|right|Margot, Honecker's wife of forty years]]
Honecker was married three times. After being liberated from prison in 1945, he married the prison warden Charlotte Schanuel (née Drost), nine years his senior, on 23 December 1946.<ref name="Secret marriage"/><ref name="Spiegel 2012"/> She died suddenly from a brain tumour in June 1947.<ref name="Spiegel 2012"/> Details of this marriage were not revealed until 2003.<ref name="Secret marriage"/><ref name="Spiegel 2003">{{Cite news| title=Honeckers verschwiegene Ehe| newspaper=Der Spiegel| page=20|date=20 January 2003|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-26161757.html|language=de}}</ref>
By the time of her death, Honecker was already romantically involved with the [[Free German Youth]] official [[Edith Baumann]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=149|title=Baumann, Edith (verh. Honecker-Baumann) * 1.8.1909, † 7.4.1973 Generalsekretärin der FDJ, Sekretärin des ZK der SED|work=Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur|access-date=1 March 2017|archive-date=6 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006040704/http://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=149|url-status=live}}</ref> whom he met on a trip to Moscow.<ref name="Frauen">{{Cite web|title=Honeckers Frauen|newspaper=MDR|date=10 February 2011|url=http://www.mdr.de/damals/archiv/artikel92510.html|language=de|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611153843/http://www.mdr.de/damals/archiv/artikel92510.html|archive-date=11 June 2016}}</ref> With her, he had a daughter.<ref name="Spiegel 2012"/>{{failed verification|date=February 2017}} Sources differ on whether Honecker and Baumann married in 1947<ref name="Die Stasi Akte">{{cite web|url=http://www.berliner-kurier.de/news/politik---wirtschaft/die-stasi-akte-margot-wie-sie-sich-ihren-erich-angelte-24022464|title=Die Stasi-Akte Margot Wie sie sich ihren Erich angelte|date=8 May 2016|work=Berliner Kurier|access-date=28 February 2017|language=de}}</ref> or 1949,<ref name="Frauen"/> but in 1952 he fathered an illegitimate daughter with [[Margot Honecker|Margot Feist]], a People's Chamber member and chairperson of the [[Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation]].
In September 1950, Baumann wrote directly to Walter Ulbricht to inform him of her husband's extramarital activity in the hope of him pressuring Honecker to end his relationship with Feist.<ref name="Die Stasi Akte"/> Following his divorce and reportedly under pressure from the Politburo, he married Feist. However, sources again differ on both the year of his divorce from Baumann and of his marriage to Feist; depending on the source, the events took place either in 1953<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bpb.de/geschichte/zeitgeschichte/deutschlandarchiv/228204/margot-honecker-die-frau-an-seiner-seite|title=Margot Honecker – Die Frau an seiner Seite|date=24 May 2016|author=Helmut Müller-Enbergs|work=Budeszentrale für politische Bildung|access-date=1 March 2017|language=de|archive-date=3 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170503034420/http://www.bpb.de/geschichte/zeitgeschichte/deutschlandarchiv/228204/margot-honecker-die-frau-an-seiner-seite|url-status=live}}</ref> or 1955.<ref name="Spiegel 2003"/> For more than twenty years, Margot Honecker served as [[Council of Ministers of the GDR|Minister of National Education]]. In 2012 intelligence reports collated by West German spies alleged that both Honecker and his wife had secret affairs but did not divorce for political reasons;<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thelocal.de/20120123/40283|title=Secret files: Communist Honecker cheated on wife|date=23 January 2012|work=The Local|access-date=28 February 2017|archive-date=1 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301010406/https://www.thelocal.de/20120123/40283|url-status=live}}</ref> however, his bodyguard Bernd Brückner, in a book about his time spent in Honecker's service, denied the claims.<ref name="An Honeckers Seite">{{cite web|url=http://www.focus.de/kultur/buecher/erich-honecker-so-hielt-er-es-mit-frauen-familie-und-autos_id_3830830.html|title=Erich Honecker: So hielt er es mit Frauen, Familie und Autos|date=9 May 2014|work=FOCUS Online|access-date=1 March 2017|language=de|archive-date=25 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225215224/http://www.focus.de/kultur/buecher/erich-honecker-so-hielt-er-es-mit-frauen-familie-und-autos_id_3830830.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Honours and awards==
===National honours===
*{{flag|East Germany}}:
**[[File:Held der DDR.png|40x40px]] [[Hero of the German Democratic Republic]], twice (1982, 1987)<ref>{{cite book|first1=Klaus H.|last1=Feder|first2=Uta|last2=Feder|title= Auszeichnungen der Nationalen Volksarmee der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik, 1954-1990|publisher=Munz Galerie|date=1994|isbn=|language=de|pages=}}</ref>
**[[File:Held der Arbeit.png|40x40px]] [[Hero of Labour (GDR)|Hero of Labour]] (1962)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.deutsche-gesellschaft-fuer-ordenskunde.de/DGOWP/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/HdA-1950-1989.pdf|title=Verleihungsliste zum Ehrentitel "Held der Arbeit" der DDR von 1950 bis 1989|newspaper=Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ordenskunde e.V.|first=Dirk|last=Hubrich|lang=de|date=June 2013|access-date=3 July 2023|archive-date=3 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220403103820/http://www.deutsche-gesellschaft-fuer-ordenskunde.de/DGOWP/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/HdA-1950-1989.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>
**[[File:Ehrenspange.png|40x40px]] Honor clasp in Gold of the [[Patriotic Order of Merit]] (1955)
** [[Order of Karl Marx]], five times (1969, 1972, 1977, 1982, 1985)<ref name=":2">{{cite web|url=https://warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=2158|title=Эрих Хонеккер|newspaper=warheroes.ru|access-date= 3 July 2023}}</ref>
**[[File:GDR Order of Banner of Labor (1954-1974) BAR.png|40x40px]] [[Banner of Labor|Order of the Banner of Labor]]<ref name=":2"/>
===Foreign honours===
*{{flag|Austria}}:
**[[File:AUT Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria - 1st Class BAR.svg|40x40px]] [[Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria|Grand Star of the Order of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria]]<ref>{{cite book|first1=Klaus H.|last1=Feder|first2=Uta|last2=Feder|title= Verfreundete Nachbarn: Deutschland - Österreich ; Begleitbuch zur Ausstellung im Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn, 19. Mai bis 23. Oktober 2005 ; im Zeitgeschichtlichen Forum Leipzig, 2. Juni bis 9. Oktober 2006 ; in Wien 2006|publisher=Stiftung Haus der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland|date=2005|isbn=9783938025185|language=de|pages=175}}</ref>
*{{flag|People's Republic of Bulgaria}}:
**[[File:Пластина на орден „Георги Димитров“.gif|40x40px]] [[Order of Georgi Dimitrov]]
*{{flag|Cuba}}:
**[[File:Ribbon jose marti.png|40x40px]] [[Order of José Martí]]<ref>{{cite book|first=Ronald H.|last=Chilcote|title= Cuba, 1953-1978: A Bibliographic Guide to the Literature|publisher=Kraus International Publications|date=1986|isbn=9780527168247|language=|pages=777}}</ref>
**[[File:Order of Playa Girón (ribbon bar).png|40x40px]] [[Order of Playa Girón]] (1986)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt900021c7&view=dsc&style=oac4&dsc.position=7501|title=Speech presenting Playa Girón Order award to Erich Honecker, East Berlin, East Germany|newspaper=Online Archive of California|date=26 October 1986|access-date=3 July 2023|archive-date=3 July 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230703095850/https://oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=kt900021c7&view=dsc&style=oac4&dsc.position=7501|url-status=live}}</ref>
*{{flag|Czechoslovakia}}:
**[[File:CZE_Rad_Bileho_Lva_3_tridy_BAR.svg|40x40px]] First Class of the [[Order of the White Lion]] (1987)<ref name=":2"/>
**[[File:Cs2okg.png|40x40px]] [[Order of Klement Gottwald]] (1982)<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20160822183204/http://www.prazskyhradarchiv.cz/archivKPR/upload/rkg.pdf Řád Klementa Gottwalda – za budování socialistické vlasti (zřízen vládním nařízením č. 14/1953 Sb. ze dne 3. února 1953, respektive vládním nařízením č. 5/1955 Sb. ze dne 8. února 1955): Seznam nositelů (podle matriky nositelů)]</ref>
*{{flag|Finland}}:
**[[File:FIN Order of the White Rose Grand Cross BAR.png|40x40px]] [[Order of the White Rose of Finland|Commander of the Grand Cross of the White Rose of Finland]] (1977)
*{{flag|Polish People's Republic}}:
**[[File:POL_Order_Zaslugi_PRL_kl1_BAR.png|40x40px]] Grand Cordon of the [[Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland|Order of Merit of the People's Republic of Poland]]
*{{flag|Nicaragua}}:
**[[File:Orden Sandino 1.svg|40x40px]] First Class of the Order of Augusto César Sandino
*{{flag|North Korea}}:
**[[File:DPRK_ribbon_bar_-_Order_of_National_Flag_1st_Class.svg|40x40px]] First Class of the [[Order of the National Flag]] (1988)<ref>{{cite book|title= IDSA News Review on East Asia - Volume 2|publisher=|date=1988|isbn=|language=|pages=60}}</ref>
*{{flag|Socialist Republic of Romania}}:
**[[File:Order Victoria Socialismului rib.png|40x40px]] [[Order of Victory of Socialism]] (1987)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lege5.ro/Gratuit/g44tmmzz/decretul-nr-141-1987-privind-conferirea-ordinului-victoria-socialismului-tovarasului-erich-honecker-secretar-general-al-comitetului-central-al-partidului-socialist-unit-din-germania-presedintele-consi|title=Decretul nr. 141/1987 privind conferirea ordinului Victoria Socialismului tovarasului Erich Honecker, secretar general al Comitetului Central al Partidului Socialist Unit din Germania, presedintele Consiliului de Stat al Republicii Democrate Germane|newspaper=Indaco lege 5|date=25 August 1987|lang=ro|access-date=3 July 2023}}</ref>
*{{flag|Soviet Union}}:
**[[File:Hero of the USSR Gold Star.png|40x40px]] [[Hero of the Soviet Union]] (1982)<ref name=":2"/>
**[[File:Order of Lenin Ribbon Bar.svg|40x40px]] [[Order of Lenin]], thrice (1972, 1982, 1987)<ref name=":2"/>
**[[File:SU Order of the October Revolution ribbon.svg|40x40px]] [[Order of the October Revolution]] (1977)<ref name=":2"/>
**[[File:CombatCooperationRibbon.png|40x40px]] [[Medal "For Strengthening of Brotherhood in Arms"]] (1980)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://pamyat-naroda.ru/heroes/podvig-nagrada_in_kartoteka1561719025/?backurl=%2Fheroes%2F%3Fstatic_hash%3Dba6caabd5dbb5e4a111e964d34f0ed3bv1%26last_name%3D%D0%A5%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BA%D0%BA%D0%B5%D1%80%26first_name%3D%D0%AD%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%85%26data_vibitiya_period%3Don%26group%3Dall%26types%3Dpamyat_commander%3Anagrady_nagrad_doc%3Anagrady_uchet_kartoteka%3Anagrady_ubilein_kartoteka%3Apdv_kart_in%3Apdv_kart_in_inostranec%3Apamyat_voenkomat%3Apotery_vpp%3Apamyat_zsp_parts%3Akld_ran%3Akld_bolezn%3Akld_polit%3Akld_upk%3Akld_vmf%3Apotery_doneseniya_o_poteryah%3Apotery_gospitali%3Apotery_utochenie_poter%3Apotery_spiski_zahoroneniy%3Apotery_voennoplen%3Apotery_iskluchenie_iz_spiskov%3Apotery_kartoteki%3Apotery_rvk_extra%3Apotery_isp_extra%3Asame_doroga%26page%3D1%26grouppersons%3D1|title=Эрих Хонеккер|newspaper=pamyat-naroda.ru|access-date=3 July 2023|archive-date=26 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926075130/https://pamyat-naroda.ru/heroes/podvig-nagrada_in_kartoteka1561719025/?backurl=%2Fheroes%2F%3Fstatic_hash%3Dba6caabd5dbb5e4a111e964d34f0ed3bv1%26last_name%3D%D0%A5%D0%BE%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%BA%D0%BA%D0%B5%D1%80%26first_name%3D%D0%AD%D1%80%D0%B8%D1%85%26data_vibitiya_period%3Don%26group%3Dall%26types%3Dpamyat_commander%3Anagrady_nagrad_doc%3Anagrady_uchet_kartoteka%3Anagrady_ubilein_kartoteka%3Apdv_kart_in%3Apdv_kart_in_inostranec%3Apamyat_voenkomat%3Apotery_vpp%3Apamyat_zsp_parts%3Akld_ran%3Akld_bolezn%3Akld_polit%3Akld_upk%3Akld_vmf%3Apotery_doneseniya_o_poteryah%3Apotery_gospitali%3Apotery_utochenie_poter%3Apotery_spiski_zahoroneniy%3Apotery_voennoplen%3Apotery_iskluchenie_iz_spiskov%3Apotery_kartoteki%3Apotery_rvk_extra%3Apotery_isp_extra%3Asame_doroga%26page%3D1%26grouppersons%3D1|url-status=live}}</ref>
**[[File:SU Medal In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin ribbon.svg|40x40px]] [[Jubilee Medal "In Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin"]] (1969)
**Honorary citizen of the city of [[Magnitogorsk]], [[Chelyabinsk Oblast]] (1989)<ref name=":2"/>
*{{flag|Vietnam}}
** [[File:Vietnam_Gold_Star_ribbon.png|40x40px]] [[Gold Star Order]] (1982)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://quochoi.vn/tulieuquochoi/anpham/Pages/anpham.aspx?AnPhamItemID=3747|title=Văn kiện Quốc hội toàn tập tập VI (quyển 2): 1984–1987|website=Cổng thông tin điện tử Quốc hội Việt Nam|language=vi|url-status=live|access-date=2025-01-06|archive-date=2024-12-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241212021018/https://quochoi.vn/tulieuquochoi/anpham/Pages/anpham.aspx?AnPhamItemID=3747}}</ref>
* {{Flagcountry|YUG}}:
** [[File:Order of the Yugoslavian Great Star Rib.png|40x40px]] [[Order of the Yugoslav Great Star]] (1974)
*{{flag|International Olympic Committee}}:
**[[File:Olympic Order gold ribbon.svg|40x40px]] [[Olympic Order]] (1985)<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1095739/erich-honecker-olympic-order-auctioned|title=Olympic Order awarded to former East German leader Honecker up for auction|first=Duncan|last=Mackay|date=27 June 2020|newspaper=Inside the Games|access-date=3 July 2020}}</ref>
==In popular culture==
[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F088809-0038, Berlin, East Side Gallery.jpg|thumb|left|Press photo as a mural: Honecker with Brezhnev in fraternal kiss. The inscriptions in Russian reads "''God! help me to survive amidst this deadly love"'' ({{Langx|ru|link=no|Господи! Помоги мне выжить среди этой смертной любви.}}).]]
[[Dmitri Vrubel]]'s 1990 mural on the Berlin Wall ''[[My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love]]'', depicting a [[socialist fraternal kiss]] between Honecker and [[Leonid Brezhnev]], became known around the world.<ref>{{cite book |title= Behind the Berlin Wall: East Germany and the frontiers of power|last= Major|first= Patrick |year= 2009|publisher= [[Oxford University Press]]|___location= Oxford, New York|isbn= 978-0-19-924328-0|page= 276|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJj3ylisBFEC}}</ref>
{{clear}}
[[File:D-Ampelmaennchen-gehen-o.jpg|thumb|left|"Eastern Crosswalk Man" was inspired by Honecker wearing a straw hat.]]
A traffic signal inspired by Honecker wearing a jaunty straw hat was used in parts of East Germany (Ost-[[Ampelmännchen]]) and has become a symbol of [[Ostalgie]].<ref>{{cite web |title=East Germany's iconic traffic man turns 50 |url=http://www.thelocal.de/20111013/38197 |publisher=The Local |access-date=18 May 2014 |date=13 October 2013 |archive-date=9 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180709010109/https://www.thelocal.de/20111013/38197 |url-status=live }}</ref>
{{clear}}
British actor [[Paul Freeman (actor)|Paul Freeman]] will portray Honecker in upcoming film ''Whispers of Freedom''.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Yossman |first1=K.J. |title=Cold War Thriller 'Whispers of Freedom' Sets Principal Cast (EXCLUSIVE) – Global Bulletin |url=https://variety.com/2024/film/global/cold-war-whispers-of-freedom-cast-global-bulletin-1235930376/#:~:text=Cold%20War%20thriller%20“Whispers%20of,his%20close%20friend%20Christian%20Gaudian. |access-date=14 March 2024 |publisher=Variety |date=5 March 2024 |archive-date=24 July 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240724153929/https://variety.com/2024/film/global/cold-war-whispers-of-freedom-cast-global-bulletin-1235930376/#:~:text=Cold%20War%20thriller%20“Whispers%20of,his%20close%20friend%20Christian%20Gaudian. |url-status=live }}</ref>
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
{{reflist|group=note}}
==Further reading==
* Bryson, Phillip J., and Manfred Melzer eds. ''The End of the East German Economy: From Honecker to Reunification'' (Palgrave Macmillan, 1991).
* Childs, David, ed. ''Honecker's Germany'' (London: Taylor & Francis, 1985).
* Collier Jr, Irwin L. "GDR economic policy during the honecker era." ''Eastern European Economics'' 29.1 (1990): 5–29.
* Dennis, Mike. ''Social and Economic Modernization in Eastern Germany from Honecker to Kohl'' (Burns & Oates, 1993).
* Dennis, Mike. "The East German Ministry of State Security and East German Society During the Honecker Era, 1971–1989." in ''German Writers and the Politics of Culture'' (Palgrave Macmillan, London, 200)3. 3–24 on the [[STASI]]
* Fulbrook, Mary. (2008) ''The People's State: East German Society from Hitler to Honecker''. [[Yale University Press]].
* Grix, Jonathan. "Competing approaches to the collapse of the GDR: ‘Top‐down’ vs ‘bottom‐up’," ''[[Journal of Area Studies]]'' 6#13:121–142, DOI: 10.1080/02613539808455836, Historiography.
* Lippmann, Heinz. ''Honecker and the New Politics of Europe'' (New York: Macmillan, 1972).
* McAdams, A. James. "The Honecker trial: The East German past and the German future." ''Review of Politics'' 58.1 (1996): 53–80. [https://kellogg.nd.edu/sites/default/files/old_files/documents/216_0.pdf online]
* Morley, Nathan. ''The Man who Built the Berlin Wall. The Rise and Fall of Erich Honecker''. (Pen and Sword, 2023)
* Weitz, Eric D. ''Creating German Communism, 1890–1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State'' (Princeton UP, 1997).
* Wilsford, David, ed. ''Political Leaders of Contemporary Western Europe: A Biographical Dictionary'' (Greenwood, 1995) pp. 195–201.
===Primary sources===
* Honecker, Erich. (1981) ''From My Life''. New York: Pergamon, 1981. {{ISBN|0-08-024532-3}}.
==External links==
{{Commons category|Erich Honecker}}
{{wikiquote}}
* {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war/kbank/profiles/honecker/ |date=* |title=CNN Cold War – Profile: Erich Honecker }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051124065508/http://www.honecker-im-internet.de/ Honecker im Internet] (in German)
* [http://www.warheroes.ru/hero/hero.asp?Hero_id=2158 www.warheroes.ru – Erich Honecker] (in Russian)
* [https://archive.org/details/WelcomingAddressto1979SessionoftheWorldPeaceCouncil ''Welcoming Address to 1979 Session of the World Peace Council'' Erich Honecker's speech to the WPC]
* [https://archive.org/details/ASuccessfulPolicySearedtotheNeedsofthePeople ''A Successful Policy Seared to the Needs of the People'' Volkskammer pamphlet including material by Honecker]
{{s-start}}
{{s-off}}
{{s-bef| before = [[Walter Ulbricht]] }}
{{s-ttl| title = [[Leadership of East Germany|General Secretary of the Central Committee <br />of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany]]
| years = 1971–1989 }}
{{s-aft| rows = 2 | after = [[Egon Krenz]] }}
{{s-bef| before = [[Willi Stoph]] }}
{{s-ttl| title = [[Leadership of East Germany|Chairman of the Council of State <br />of the German Democratic Republic]]
| years = 1976–1989 }}
{{s-end}}
{{SEDGenSecs}}
{{Head of State of the German Democratic Republic}}
{{Leaders of the Ruling Parties of the Eastern Bloc}}
{{Heads of State of Germany}}
{{Cold War}}
{{Fall of Communism}}
{{Berlin Wall}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Honecker, Erich}}
[[Category:Erich Honecker| ]]
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