Honecker was born on Max-Braun-Straße in Neunkirchen, now Saarland, as the son of Wilhelm Honecker, a coal miner and political activist, who in 1905 had married Caroline Catharina Weidenhof.

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.

Erich Honecker and guests of honor like Mikhail Gorbachev celebrate the 40th ( and last ) anniversary of the socialist regime of the German Democratic Republic on 7 October 1989.

Unable to stop the growing civil unrest, Erich Honecker was forced to resign in October, and on 9 November, East German authorities unexpectedly allowed East German citizens to enter West Berlin and West Germany.

File: BerlinWall01b. jpg | Mural on the Berlin Wall at the East Side Gallery featuring Leonid Brezhnev and Erich Honecker riding together in a Trabant ( Spring 2002 ).

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 ".

Nonetheless, Honecker appeared to be on solid footing.

With some reluctance, Honecker allowed them to go — but forced them to go back through East Germany on sealed trains and stripped them of their East German citizenship.

When the trial formally opened in early 1993, Honecker was released due to ill health and on 13 January of that year moved to Chile to live with his daughter Sonja, her Chilean husband Leo Yáñez, and their son Roberto.

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 detailed the increased agricultural and industrial production of the period and the resultant social progress as, in his words, the country continued " on the path to socialism and communism.

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.

Erich Honecker ( East Germany | GDR, left ) and Helmut Schmidt ( West Germany | FRG ) at the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe held in Helsinki in 1975

Following popular protests against the GDR's Communist regime, the SED Politburo voted to remove Honecker on 18 October 1989, and Krenz was elected as the new General Secretary of the SED Central Committee.

In October 1989, Schabowski, along with several other members of the Politburo, turned on longtime SED leader Erich Honecker and forced him to step down in favour of Egon Krenz.

Following the ousting of Erich Honecker in October 1989, Stoph and all 44 members of his cabinet resigned on 7 November in response to public pressure.

In 1977, Erich Honecker publicly denounced the Intershops in a speech on East German state television.

His rise was cut short in October 1976, as party leader Erich Honecker deemed him too liberal on economics.

Honecker had to resign on October 18.

Combined with the large non-violent demonstrations carried out throughout the country, it was enough to force Honecker to resign on October 18, in favour of his top lieutenant, Egon Krenz.

A few days later, on 18 October, Honecker was finally deposed by his own comrades of SED.

In 1954, Wollweber became a delegate to the Volkskammer and a member of the SED ’ s Central Committee, but in 1956 his influence began to wane when he clashed with Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker on issues ranging from East Germany ’ s policies towards Poland to the estimate of the number of anti-Communist groups within the GDR.

Built during the era of Nation Building, this street is connected with historical events like the rebellion on the 17th of June 1953, in which the construction workers played an important role, the sudden disappearance of the Stalin monument, the demonstrations on the 1st of May and the parades during the era of Erich Honecker.

Similarly, the party ’ s subordination to the SED went so far that its election manifesto, though being already officially accepted by the board of the party, was submitted to Erich Honecker for revisions, who indeed made a number of corrections to the version that had already been agreed upon and established as definitive.

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.

Following the SED victory in the October 1946 elections, Honecker took his place amongst the SED leadership in the first postwar East German parliament, the German People's Congress ( Deutscher Volkskongress ).

In June 1989 Interflug introduced the first Western-built aircraft in the form of three Airbus A310s as its director at the time, Dr. Klaus Henkes, successfully appealed to the then leader of the GDR, SED General Secretary Erich Honecker, to purchase Western aircraft in order to position Interflug as a modern airline.

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.

This honor was the first public appearance of Margot Honecker since the fall of the Berlin Wall.

* 1912 – Erich Honecker, German politician ( d. 1994 )

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

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

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.

These developments greatly disturbed hardline communists such as the East German leader Erich Honecker, who condemned the end of the traditional " socialist unity " of the Soviet bloc and appealed to Moscow to rein in the Hungarians.

Honecker faced a growing crisis at home, with massive anti-government demonstrations in Leipzig and other East German cities.

** Erich Honecker, East German leader ( d. 1994 )

Erich Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994 ) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic as General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1971 until 1989, serving as Head of State as well after Willi Stoph's relinquishment of that post in 1976.

Honecker and the East German government refused to implement similar reforms in the GDR, with Honecker reportedly telling Gorbachev: " We have done our perestroika, we have nothing to restructure ".

Honecker got another rude shock at the GDR's 40th anniversary gala in September, when several hundred members of the Free German Youth — the SED's supposed future vanguard — began chanting, " Gorby, help us!

( 2008 ) The people's state: East German society from Hitler to Honecker.

* Honecker im Internet ( in German )

However, after a final round of talks with Gorbachev, Honecker signed a hard-line communiqué that openly attacked the policies of the West German government.

Brandt's successor Helmut Schmidt with East German party leader Erich Honecker, Döllnsee 1981.

Chancellor of Federal Republic of Germany ( West Germany ) Helmut Schmidt, Chairman of the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic ( East Germany ) Erich Honecker, U. S. president Gerald Ford and Austrian chancellor Bruno Kreisky

# Erich Honecker Chairman of the Council of State of the German Democratic Republic