Erich Honecker: Difference between revisions
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|crimes = Human rights violations<br>Mass murder<br>[[Crimes against humanity]]<br>Abuse of power<br>High treason<br>Embezzlement<br>Institutionalized discrimination | |crimes = Human rights violations<br>Mass murder<br>[[Crimes against humanity]]<br>Abuse of power<br>High treason<br>Embezzlement<br>Institutionalized discrimination | ||
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'''Erich Honecker''' (August 25<sup>th</sup>, 1912 – May 29<sup>th</sup>, 1994) was a German politician who was the General Secretary of the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] (SED). As party leader he worked closely with Moscow (which had a large army stationed in East Germany). He controlled the government of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until he was forced out in the weeks preceding the fall of the Berlin Wall in October 1989. From 1976 onward he was also the country's official head of state as Chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic following Willi Stoph's relinquishment of the post. | '''Erich Honecker''' (August 25<sup>th</sup>, 1912 – May 29<sup>th</sup>, 1994) was a German politician who was the General Secretary of the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] (SED). As party leader he worked closely with Moscow (which had a large army stationed in East Germany). He controlled the government of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until he was forced out in the weeks preceding the fall of the Berlin Wall in October 1989. From 1976 onward he was also the country's official head of state as Chairman of the State Council of the German Democratic Republic following Willi Stoph's relinquishment of the post. | ||
==Biography== | ==Biography== | ||
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In 1970, he initiated a political power struggle that led, with support of the Kremlin leader [[Leonid Brezhnev]], 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. | In 1970, he initiated a political power struggle that led, with support of the Kremlin leader [[Leonid Brezhnev]], 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 with the advent of ''perestroika'' and ''glasnost'' – the liberal reforms introduced by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev – Honecker refused all but cosmetic changes to the East German political system. He cited the continual hardliner attitudes of [[Kim Il-sung]] and [[Fidel Castro]], whose respective regimes of North Korea and Cuba had been critical of reforms. As anticommunist protests grew, Honecker begged Gorbachev to intervene with the Soviet army to suppress the protests in order to maintain communist rule in East Germany as Moscow had done with Czechoslovakia in the Prague Spring of 1968 and with the Hungarian Revolution of 1956; Gorbachev refused. | As [[Cold War]] tensions eased in the late 1980s with the advent of ''perestroika'' and ''glasnost'' – the liberal reforms introduced by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev – Honecker refused all but cosmetic changes to the East German political system. He cited the continual hardliner attitudes of [[Kim Il-sung]] and [[Fidel Castro]], whose respective regimes of North Korea and Cuba had been critical of reforms. As anticommunist protests grew, Honecker begged Gorbachev to intervene with the Soviet army to suppress the protests in order to maintain communist rule in East Germany as Moscow had done with Czechoslovakia in the Prague Spring of 1968 and with the Hungarian Revolution of 1956; Gorbachev refused. | ||
Honecker was forced to resign by his party in October 1989 in a bid to improve the government's image in the eyes of the public. Honecker's eighteen years at the helm of the German Democratic Republic came to an end. The entire regime collapsed in the following weeks. | Honecker was forced to resign by his party in October 1989 in a bid to improve the government's image in the eyes of the public. Honecker's eighteen years at the helm of the German Democratic Republic came to an end. The entire regime collapsed in the following weeks. | ||
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[[Category:Paranoid]] | [[Category:Paranoid]] | ||
[[Category:Totalitarians]] | [[Category:Totalitarians]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:Tyrants]] | ||
[[Category:Leader]] | [[Category:Leader]] | ||
[[Category:Sadists]] | [[Category:Sadists]] | ||