East Germany's 'Purple Witch' Dies In Chile

[Kurgen]

The former first lady of East Germany, Margot Honecker, has been cremated in Chile a day after she died of cancer at the age of 89.

Mrs Honecker had moved to South America in 1992, three years after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

In her own country she was known as the "purple witch", after her dyed hair, and because of the communist government’s repressive regime.

Despite her husband Erich Honecker’s administration being described as a dictatorship that crushed dissent and spied on its citizens, Mrs Honecker remained unrepentant.

Speaking in 2000, she said that, in East Germany, "there was no unemployment, no homelessness, no property speculation, no rent extortion.

"Proper apartments, fair rents, health, culture, education for all, kindergarten for the young, pensions for the old: all that was reality.

"The elections were free, secret and equal."

But critics told a very different story.

Former Bundestag president Wolfgang Thierse described her as "the most hated person" in East Germany after the head of the Stasi secret police, Erich Mielke.

Mrs Honecker was East Germany’s education minister for 26 years.

In 1978, despite opposition from parents and churches, she introduced military lessons for 9th and 10th grade pupils, including weapons training.

She said that youngsters had to defend socialism "if necessary with a weapon in the hand".

It was also claimed that she was responsible for the forced adoption of jailed dissidents’ children, or the offspring of those who tried to leave East Germany.

Education Ministry files discovered in 1991 appeared to confirm the allegations.

In one case, a couple expelled to the west were apparently forced to abandon their three children.

But when asked about a programme of forced adoption, Mrs Honecker said: "It didn’t exist."

Born in 1927, she joined the Communist Party in 1945.

In 1950, at the age of 22, she became the youngest lawmaker in the East German parliament.

She married Erich Honecker in 1953.

Two months after the reunification of Germany in October 1990, Erich Honecker was charged with manslaughter for ordering shootings along the east-west border.

The couple took refuge in a Soviet military hospital outside Berlin, and in March 1991 were taken to Moscow.

In a TV interview two months later, Margot Honecker complained of a "witch hunt" and said their names had been "dragged through the mud".

When the Soviet Union collapsed later that year, they took refuge at the Chilean Embassy in Moscow.

Erich Honecker was extradited to Berlin for trial in 1992, but proceedings were halted in 1993 because he had liver cancer.

He then joined his wife in Santiago - where she had fled to avoid also being extradited to Germany - before his death in 1994.

East Germany's 'Purple Witch' Dies In Chile

[harrybarracuda]

You do know we have an RIP thread right?

https://teakdoor.com/3265214-post3597.html

[Kurgen]

Cujo has spoken!

[harrybarracuda]

Cujo has spoken!

He wouldn't have heard of her for sure, but I don't see any point in duplicating posts.

[wasabi]

Oh well times move on and most young Germans don't even know about those old days.

Life was better for us Londoners in the old days when that E.European lot where locked up behind the Berlin Wall.

[pseudolus]

Merkel is proposing an official day of EU mourning for her.

[wasabi]

Merkel is proposing an official day of EU mourning for her.

That will help Merkels popularity

[pseudolus]

Merkel is proposing an official day of EU mourning for her.

That will help Merkels popularity

Building the global empire isn't a popularity contest - it is a destiny that her and the Eurocrats share.