Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 30, 1994 TAG: 9405300043
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: HOLIDAY
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SANTIAGO, CHILE LENGTH: Medium
Honecker spent his final days in Chile, bitter in self-imposed exile. He suffered from liver cancer, which saved him from a near-certain manslaughter conviction for ordering the shootings of East Germans trying to escape to the West.
In 1987, Honecker said East and West Germany could not be unified because "socialism and capitalism can no more be united than fire and water." Two years later, he was ousted from power, and in October 1990 Germany was reunited.
Honecker's lawyer Nicholas Becker, reached by telephone in Berlin, said Honecker had been extremely ill and hadn't left home in four months. Honecker had lived in Chile since early 1993 with his wife, Margot, and their daughter, Sonja.
A spokesman for Chancellor Helmut Kohl, whose aggressive push for unification caused East Germany to disappear a year after Honecker was ousted in October 1989, released a brief, blunt statement.
"The death of Erich Honecker, sick for years, no longer comes as a surprise," Dieter Vogel said.
"Honecker failed in his political goals. His policies brought suffering to countless people in Germany. Out of respect for the dead, it is fitting to say little more about his role in postwar German history."
Alfred Bauer, head of a cultural center in Buenos Aires that promoted cultural relations with the former East Germany, said that, in a visit with Honecker last June, Honecker described himself as "a fighter for revolution and socialism."
"I struggled for these ideals since I was 16. . . . I shall remain loyal to my ideals until my death," Bauer quoted him as saying.
Egon Krenz, who replaced Honecker but lasted only 1 1/2 months in office, described Honecker as a victim of circumstances.
"Work, bread and peace - that was Honecker's service to East Germany," Krenz said in a statement. "Cold War and loyalty set limits on his room to maneuver that he couldn't escape."
Born Aug. 25, 1912, in Saarland in western Germany, Honecker joined a Communist youth group at age 14 and spent 10 years in a Nazi prison.
After World War II, Honecker rose in the East German party ranks and became a member of the ruling Politburo in 1958. Beginning in August 1961, he supervised the construction of the Berlin Wall to stem the westward exodus of East Germans. He took over as party leader in 1971.
by CNB