The long-serving East German leader of the walled republic
His removal in October 1989 showed that the GDR's collapse could no longer be contained even within its leadership.
A German communist trained at Moscow's International Lenin School, he rose through East Germany's youth organization and party leadership. He led the Socialist Unity Party from 1971 to 1989 as the GDR's long-serving ruler.
Career Timeline
- 1930–1931Studies at Moscow's International Lenin School
- 1971–1989First, then general secretary of the SED
- 1976–1989Chairman of the GDR State Council
- 1989Removed amid mass protests
Related historical events
Wall Builder and the Shoot-to-Kill Order
Honecker was the architect and enforcer of the GDR's lethal border regime. Appointed security secretary of the SED Central Committee in 1958, he took operational charge of building the Berlin Wall in August 1961. But the Wall was only the beginning. As Chairman of the State Council and the National Defence Council for the next eighteen years, Honecker institutionalized the use of firearms against escapees. On 3 May 1974 he told the National Defence Council: "A perfectly clear view of the target must be guaranteed everywhere (…); firearms must be used ruthlessly in the case of attempts to break through the border, and the comrades who have used firearms successfully are to be commended." Under this directive, border troops fired at distances of 100 to 300 metres; guards who shot fugitives received bonuses and leave. At least several hundred people died under the Schießbefehl (shoot-to-kill order). After his removal in 1989, Honecker was indicted for murder in connection with the border deaths. The trial was suspended due to his deteriorating health, but the Wall and the lethal border regime he built remain the starkest emblem of East German totalitarianism.