Erich Honecker

Erich Honecker (1912-1994) was the longtime leader of the German Democratic Republic, or East Germany. A communist, Honecker was perhaps the most well-known official of the DDR, which he led from 1971 until his fall from power in 1989. During this time, Honecker approved a few minor reforms while refusing to implement any major efforts to open up the country. He was a supporter of the Berlin Wall, and was a prominent figure of the Cold War. Honecker was born in Saarland, near the French border in Western Germany. He joined the Communist Party as a young man and was jailed during the 1930s and 40s by the Hitler regime and was sent to the Brandenburg Gordon Prison. After an unsuccessful escape attempt, Honecker was freed when the Soviets liberated the prison camp in 1945. He returned to Communist Party politics and became a rising politician in the DDR. He was won of the few Politurbo members to support Walter Ulbricht when most of the group attempted a coup d'état in 1953. In 1971 he replaced Ulbricht, who was in declining health, as the head of East Germany. By the 1980s, relations between the DDR and the Soviet Union had deteriorated considerably. He and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had something approaching a personal animosity toward each other, and Honecker publically disagreed with glasnost, pointing to the fact that he had implemented vaguely similar ideas in Germany before. He fell from power in 1989. Not long after Honecker was deposed, the Berlin Wall fell. Facing criminal charges in Germany, he fled to Chile where he was taken in by a priest. He died in Chile in 1994. He was survived by his wife Margot, two children, and several grandchildren. Honecker was often the subject of jokes for his dry, plain-spoken style and rather uninspiring speeches. Honecker also had some rather eccentric quotes such as "Neither an ox nor a donkey is able to stop the progress of socialism." Although he was an incompetent administration, Honecker was one of the few communist leaders who was not a participant in mass murder.