During his report at the seventh party congress in 1967, Erich Honecker had called for a return to an orthodox Socialist economic system, away from the recently instituted New Economic System.

Krenz had been approached several months earlier about ousting Honecker, but was reluctant to move against a man he called " my foster father and political teacher.

" He was willing to wait until the seriously ill Honecker died, but by October was convinced that the situation was too grave to wait for what he'd called " a biological solution.

The revolts culminated with the revolt in East Germany against the Stalinist regime of Erich Honecker and demands for the Berlin Wall to be torn down.

The grassroots democracy movement that forced the dismissal of East German head of state Erich Honecker in 1989 also empowered a younger generation of reform politicians in East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party who looked to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev's glasnost and perestroika as their model for political change.

* In 1971, Erich Honecker was chosen to lead East Germany, a role he would fill for the whole of the 1970s and 1980s.

This change from the strict rule of Baron von Stumm to French military occupation provided the backdrop for what Wilhelm Honecker understood as proletarian exploitation, and introduced young Erich to communism.

Honecker was a candidate member for the secretariat of the Central Committee in 1950 ; by 1958, he had become a full member of the Politbüro.

In 1961, Honecker, as the Central Committee secretary for security matters, was in charge of the building of the Berlin Wall.

Margot Honecker served for more than 20 years as the GDR Minister for People's Education.

The eleventh Congress, held 17 – 21 April 1986, unequivocally endorsed the SED and Honecker, whom it confirmed for another term as party head.

East Germany's successes, presented as a personal triumph for Honecker, marked a crowning point in his political career.

From then until the dissolution of the GDR, they used it as a private retreat for high functionaries, including the GDR heads of state Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker.

* The quest for Christa Wolf an interview with Hanns-Bruno Kammertöns and Stephan Lebert about private chats with Honecker, a German society in check mate, the influence of Goethe, the shortcomings of Brecht, and the lasting effects of Utopia at signandsight. com.

The Main Task, introduced by Honecker in 1971, formulated domestic policy for the 1970s.

It was the official car of DDR head of state Erich Honecker, who ordered several extended versions for official use.

After Erich Honecker had personally forbidden publication of a book he authored, he began trying to find a new profile for his party and re-adopt authentic liberalism.

He apologised to Eric Honecker, General Secretary of the SED, personally for his actions which could result in a bad image for the GDR.

In this capacity he was put in charge of the preparations for the first official state visit of Erich Honecker, Chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic ( GDR ), in 1987.

Honecker, who was known for her hard line political views, was responsible for the enactment of the " Uniform Socialist Education System " in 1965 and mandatory military training in schools.

On 19 July 2008, on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, Margot Honecker received the order for cultural independence " Rubén Dario " from President Daniel Ortega.

Honecker was reported to have said she was grateful for the honor ; but publicly no words were spoken.

The letter even contained a greeting to Erich Honecker.

In his speeches, Honecker, along with other SED officials, devoted greater attention to Third World countries than he had done in the past.

On the occasion of a state visit in June 1972 by Erich Honecker, Fidel Castro renamed the island in honour of German Communist politician and activist Ernst Thälmann, the leader of the Communist Party of Germany ( KPD ) during much of the Weimar Republic, whom was imprisoned without trial after the rise of the Nazi Party, and after eleven years of solitary confinement was shot by order of Adolf Hitler at Buchenwald concentration camp.

Honecker was 15 years older and married.

Reformist members of the East German Politbüro sought to rescue the situation by forcing the resignation of the hardline Party chairman Erich Honecker, replacing him in October 1989 with the marginally less hardline Egon Krenz.

In October 2009, Honecker celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the GDR with former Chilean exiles who had sought asylum in East Germany.

Castro explained this to Erich Honecker, communist dictator of East Germany, by saying that Siad Barre was " above all a chauvinist ".

In the late summer of 1984, the Soviet Union also prevented a visit to West Germany by East German leader Erich Honecker.

The transition to Erich Honecker ( General Secretary from 1971 to 1989 ) led to a change in the direction of national policy and efforts by the Politburo to pay closer attention to the grievances of the proletariat.

For example, in 1984, the Soviet Union prevented a visit to West Germany by East German leader Erich Honecker.

Wollweber resigned in 1957 after clashes with Ulbricht and Erich Honecker, and was succeeded by his deputy, Erich Mielke.

** The Communist leader of East Germany, Erich Honecker, is forced to step down as leader of the country after a series of health problems, and is succeeded by Egon Krenz.

Following the definite end of the Cold War, Honecker refused all but cosmetic changes and was ousted by the party in late 1989 and removed from power.

Erich Honecker, watched by his mentor Walter Ulbricht at the 5th Party Congress, 1958

At the end of the war, Honecker resumed activity in the party under leader Walter Ulbricht, and, in 1946, became one of the first members of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany ( Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED ), which was formed by the merger of the KPD and the Social Democratic Party ( SPD ) in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany.

Gorbachev grew to dislike Honecker, and by 1988 was lumping Honecker, along 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 necessary reforms.

Honecker was back in charge by September, and immediately had to deal with a new refugee problem.

Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, Honecker took refuge in the Chilean embassy in Moscow, but was extradited by the Yeltsin administration to Germany in 1992.

* A Successful Policy Seared to the Needs of the People Volkskammer pamphlet including material by Honecker

On 3 May 1971 Ulbricht was forced to resign from virtually all of his public functions ' due to reasons of poor health ' and was replaced – with the consent of the Soviets – by Erich Honecker.

He was succeeded by Erich Honecker, who only stepped down during the 1989 revolution.

At the same time, although allowing different views to be heard, the SED rejected many of these criticisms in light of its effort to maintain the special relationship with the Soviet Union emphasized by Honecker.

Honecker reiterated earlier positions on the relationship between the two German states, stressing that they were two sovereign states that had developed along different lines since World War II, and that their differences had to be respected by both sides as they continued efforts toward peaceful coexistence despite membership in antagonistic alliances.

Honecker mentioned the continually increasing numbers of young people from African, Asian, and Latin American countries who received their higher education in East Germany, and he referred to many thousands of people in those countries who had been trained as apprentices, skilled workers, and instructors by teams from East Germany.

Following the riots in the GDR in October 1989, including those in East Berlin and Leipzig, on 18 October 1989, at a special Politbüro meeting, Honecker was forced to resign ; he was replaced by Egon Krenz.

On 18 October, Erich Honecker was forced to resign as head of the SED and as head of state and was replaced by Egon Krenz.

Another party with this name was formed in 1990 in East Berlin by members of the GDR leadership who were expelled from the PDS, including Erich Honecker.