Margot Honecker
| Margot Honecker | |
|---|---|
Margot Honecker in 1986
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| Spouse of the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany | |
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In office 29 October 1976 – 18 October 1989 |
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| President | Erich Honecker |
| Preceded by | Lotte Ulbricht |
| Succeeded by | Erika Krenz |
| Minister of People's Education | |
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In office 1963 – 7 November 1989 |
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| President |
Walter Ulbricht Willi Stoph Erich Honecker Egon Krenz |
| Prime Minister |
Otto Grotewohl Horst Sindermann Willi Stoph |
| Succeeded by | Willi Stoph |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Margot Feist 17 April 1927 Halle, Germany |
| Died | 6 May 2016 (aged 89) Santiago, Chile |
| Political party | SED (1946–1989) |
| Other political affiliations |
KPD (1945–1946) KPD (1990) (1990–2016) |
| Spouse(s) | Erich Honecker (1953-94) |
| Children | Sonja Honecker (b. 1952) |
| Parents | Gotthard & Helene Feist |
| Residence | Santiago, Chile |
Margot Honecker (née Feist; 17 April 1927 – 6 May 2016) was an East German politician who was an influential member of the East German communist party and the country's regime until 1989. From 1963 until 1989, she was Minister of People's Education (Ministerin für Volksbildung) of the GDR. She was married to Erich Honecker, the leader of East Germany from 1971 until 1989.
Margot Honecker was widely known as the "Purple Witch" for her tinted hair and hardline Stalinist views, and was described as "the most hated person" in East Germany next to Stasi chief Erich Mielke by former Bundestag president Wolfgang Thierse. She was responsible for the enactment of the "Uniform Socialist Education System" in 1965 and mandatory military training in schools to prepare pupils for a future war with the west. She was alleged to have been responsible for the regime's forced adoption of children of jailed dissidents or people who attempted to desert from GDR, and she is considered to have "left a cruel legacy of separated families." She also established prison-like institutions for children, including a camp at Torgau known as "Margot's concentration camp." She was one of the few spouses of ruling Communist leaders who held significant power in her own right, though her prominence in the regime predated her husband's ascension to the leadership of the SED.
Following the downfall of the communist regime in 1989, Honecker fled to the Soviet Union with her husband to avoid criminal charges from the Government of Germany. Fearing extradition to Germany, they took refuge in the Chilean embassy in Moscow in 1991, but in 1992 her husband was extradited to Germany by Yeltsin's Russian government to face criminal trial, and was detained in the Moabit prison. Margot Honecker then fled from Moscow to Chile to avoid a similar fate. At the time of her death, she lived in Chile with her daughter Sonja.
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