Erich Honecker

Erich Honecker was born August 25, 1912, in Neunkirchen, Saarland, then part of the German Empire. He joined the Communist youth movement as a teenager and became leader of the Communist Youth League of Germany (KJVD) in the early 1930s. Arrested by the Nazis in 1935, he spent the years 1935 to 1945 imprisoned, primarily in Brandenburg-Görden prison. After World War II he was released by Soviet forces and rapidly rose through the Socialist Unity Party (SED) apparatus in the Soviet occupation zone and later East Germany.¹

Berlin Wall Construction

Honecker's first assignment of historical consequence was the operational management of the Berlin Wall's construction beginning on the night of August 12-13, 1961. As SED secretary responsible for security affairs, he coordinated the deployment of East German police, border troops, and military units that sealed the border between East and West Berlin. The logistics of barbed wire deployment, road blockades, and construction of initial barriers were executed under his direct supervision. The Wall's construction halted the mass emigration that had been draining the GDR's population since 1949.¹

Leadership of East Germany

Honecker replaced Walter Ulbricht as SED First Secretary in May 1971, with backing from Moscow. Ulbricht's refusal to subordinate East German policy to Soviet detente priorities had made him untenable; Honecker was seen as more reliably deferential to Soviet direction. He held the party leadership and later the combined role of SED General Secretary and Chairman of the State Council (head of state) until 1989.

Under Honecker, East Germany pursued a policy of Abgrenzung (demarcation) - insisting on ideological distinction from West Germany and resisting any convergence that might weaken the GDR's separate identity. Simultaneously, the regime accepted growing economic dependencies on West German credits and trade that undermined the Abgrenzung policy in practice. The Stasi under Erich Mielke expanded its surveillance apparatus to its fullest extent during this period.¹

Fall and Aftermath

In October 1989, as the Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig spread and hundreds of thousands filled the streets, the SED Politburo removed Honecker and replaced him with Egon Krenz. He had been incapacitated by illness earlier that year and was unable to manage the political crisis. The Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.

Following German reunification, Honecker fled to the Soviet Union and subsequently to the Soviet military hospital in Moscow. He was returned to Germany in 1992 to face charges relating to the Schießbefehl (shoot-to-kill orders) at the Berlin Wall, under which approximately 140 people had been killed attempting to cross. The trial was halted in January 1993 when a court ruled his liver cancer made prosecution inhumane. He was released and flew to Chile, where his daughter lived. He died in Santiago on May 29, 1994.¹