A German Communist Party leader, Erich Honecker (1912-1994) was instrumental in establishing a Communist government in East Germany after World War II (East Germany was reunited with West Germany in 1990). He became general secretary of the Communist Party in East Germany and head of the German Democratic Republic in 1971 until 1989.

Erich Honecker was born on August 25, 1912, to a working-class family in Wiebelskirchen, Germany. He grew up in a strongly Communist milieu. His father was a militant coal miner who joined the Communist Party after it was founded in 1918. He spent his youth in Wiebelskirchen, which voted heavily for the Communists. Honecker joined the Communist Party's children's group in 1922 and its youth organization (KJVD) in 1926. His upbringing, youthful experiences, and early intellectual development convinced him that Communism was the solution to the troubles of the working class and that the Soviet Union (now Russia/The Commonwealth of Independent States...