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Person1912 – 1994

Erich Honecker

Leader of East Germany (1971–1989) who had organized the building of the Berlin Wall and was ousted amid the protests of autumn 1989

Born into a Saarland miner’s family, he joined the communist youth movement and spent ten years in Nazi prisons. After the war he led the Free German Youth and, as the SED Central Committee secretary for security, organized the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Succeeding Ulbricht in 1971, he won international recognition through the Basic Treaty and UN membership and expanded social welfare, while foreign debt mounted. Rejecting Gorbachev’s reforms, he was forced out in October 1989; after unification he was tried over the shootings at the Wall, released on grounds of illness, and died in Chile.

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3 related events

  1. 1
    1972Ostpolitik and the Basic Treatyrelated figure

    As the culmination of Brandt’s Ostpolitik, the two German states signed the Basic Treaty, recognizing each other as equals and exchanging permanent missions — “change through rapprochement”.

  2. 2
    1973Both German States Join the United Nationsrelated figure

    Following the Basic Treaty, East and West Germany became the 133rd and 134th members of the United Nations on the same day. The two Koreas joined together in the same way in 1991.

  3. 3
    1989Leipzig Monday Demonstrationsrelated figure

    After Monday prayers at Leipzig’s St. Nicholas Church, citizens took to the streets chanting “We are the people”. On 9 October some 70,000 marched and the regime did not use force — the turning point of the Peaceful Revolution.

People who appear alongside

  • Willy Brandt1913 – 1992

    Mayor of West Berlin (1957–1966) and chancellor of West Germany (1969–1974) whose Ostpolitik sought reconciliation with the East; Nobel Peace Prize 1971

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