The Secretary-General of East Germany for most of its existence, and, with Erich Mielke, the most influential figure in its tyrannical, police state structure. In the final days of East Germany, Honecker tried to prosecute and incarcerate demonstrators, but to no avail—revolutionaries tore down the Berlin Wall and prosecuted Honecker himself. Honecker later fled to Chile, where he died of cancer.
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Erich Honecker Character Timeline in Stasiland
The timeline below shows where the character Erich Honecker appears in Stasiland. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 6: Stasi HQ
...Security. In the seventies, he organized another coup that resulted in the appointment of Erich Honecker to Secretary-General of East Germany.
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“The two Erichs” ran East Germany for nearly two decades. Honecker was the “face” of East Berlin, and Mielke was in charge of surveillance. Honecker had...
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...of One Thousand Eyes”—in early 1990. By that time, Funder recalls from her own research, Honecker and Mielke were old men, yet still in excellent health. They spent most of their...
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...in tens of thousands of East German citizens, many of whom continued into West Germany. Honecker tried to maintain control by incarcerating demonstrators in Berlin and Leipzig. However, there were so...
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As a last resort, Honecker’s successor tried to relax travel restrictions between East and West Germany. Within hours of the...
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Chapter 7: The Smell of Old Men
After the fall of East Germany, Mielke was roundly criticized, and—along with Erich Honecker—accused of treason. Mielke was sent to various prisons, and Honecker was prosecuted for executions. He...
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Chapter 11: Major N.
...Major. N’s command. Her parents urged her, a little naively, to write directly to Erich Honecker. The next day, Julia nervously called Major N. and said that she’d told her family...
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