Erich Honecker
25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994
Erich Honecker was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic from 1971 to 1989, as General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party and from 1976 also as Chairman of the State Council. Imprisoned under the Nazi regime from 1935 to 1945, he later headed the Free German Youth and oversaw the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. He resigned during the protests of October 1989 and died in exile in Chile in 1994.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Erich Honecker.
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- Chien-Shiung Wu (1912–1997) Overlapped 82 years →
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- Dorothy Vaughan (1910–2008) Overlapped 82 years →
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Life events
Born into a mining family in the Saar region of Germany.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe became a party member and attended the International Lenin School in Moscow.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe was arrested for communist activity, sentenced to ten years and held until the end of the Second World War.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe led the state youth organisation of the Soviet occupation zone and later the German Democratic Republic until 1955.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAs the Central Committee secretary responsible for security matters he organised the sealing of the border in Berlin.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe succeeded Walter Ulbricht as leader of the ruling party of the German Democratic Republic.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe post made him head of state in addition to party leader.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe stepped down as party leader and head of state during mass demonstrations across the German Democratic Republic.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHis trial in Berlin on manslaughter charges was discontinued on health grounds and he joined his family in Santiago.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgHe died of liver cancer at the age of 81.
Source: en.wikipedia.org