death_date children nationality birth_date signature term_end death_place profession order term_start spouse image name caption predecessor birth_place party successor religion article_title
29 may 1994 2 german 25 august 1912 erich honecker signature.svg 18 october 1989 18 october 1989 1989 santiago , chile politician general unity party of germany chairman of the state council of secretary the german democratic republic chairman of the national defense council of of east germany the central committee of the socialist 3 may 1971 29 october 1976 1971 charlotte divorced margot feist 1953 schanuel 1945 1947 died edith baumann 1950 1953 bundesarchiv bild 183-r0518-182 , erich honecker.jpg erich honecker honecker in may 1976 walter ulbricht willi stoph walter ulbricht neunkirchen , german empire kpd -- 1989 -rrb- kpd -lrb- 1990 -- 1994 -rrb- -lrb- 1922 -- 1946 -rrb- sed -lrb- 1946 egon krenz egon krenz egon krenz none erich honecker

erich honecker

erich honecker -lrb- ; 25 august 1912 -- 29 may 1994 -rrb- was a german politician who , as the general secretary of the socialist unity party , led the german democratic republic from 1971 until the weeks preceding the fall of the berlin wall in 1989 .
from 1976 onward he was also the country 's official head of state as chairman of the state council following willi stoph 's relinquishment of the post .
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 during the nazi era .
following world war ii , he was freed and soon relaunched his political activity , founding the youth organisation the free german youth in 1946 and serving as the group 's chairman until 1955 .
as the security secretary of the party 's central committee in the new east german state , he was the prime organiser of the building of the berlin wall in 1961 and , in this function , bore responsibility for the `` order to fire '' along the inner german border .
in 1971 , he initiated a political power struggle that led , with soviet support , to his replacing walter ulbricht as first secretary of the central committee and as chairman of the state 's national defense council .
under his command , the country adopted a programme of `` consumer socialism '' and moved toward the international community by 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 under the liberalising reforms of soviet leader mikhail gorbachev , honecker refused all but cosmetic changes to the east german political system and was consequently forced to resign by his party in october 1989 as the communist regime sought to retain its power .
honecker 's eighteen years at the helm of the soon-to-collapse german democratic republic came to an end .
following german reunification , he escaped to the chilean embassy in moscow in 1991 but was extradited back to germany a year later to stand trial for his role in the human rights abuse committed by the east german regime .
however , the proceedings were abandoned due to illness and he was freed from custody to travel to join his family in exile in chile , where he died in may 1994 from liver cancer .
