Editing Erich Honecker (section)

==Opposition to the Nazis and imprisonment==
In 1930, aged 18, Honecker entered the KPD, the [[Communist Party of Germany]].<ref name="Spiegel 1966">{{Cite news| title=Immer bereit| newspaper=Der Spiegel| page=32| date=3 October 1966| url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-38223928.html| language=de| archive-date=11 February 2022| access-date=27 August 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220211180748/https://www.spiegel.de/politik/immer-bereit-a-0f9f6ec9-0002-0001-0000-000038223928?context=issue| url-status=live}}</ref> His political mentor was [[Otto Niebergall]], who later represented the KPD in the Reichstag. After returning from Moscow in 1931 following his studies at the [[International Lenin School]], he became the leader of the KJVD in the Saar region. After the [[Machtergreifung|Nazi seizure of power in 1933]], Communist activities within Germany were only possible undercover; the [[Saarland|Saar region]] however still remained outside the [[German Reich]] under a League of Nations mandate. Honecker was arrested in [[Essen]], Germany, but soon released. Following this, he fled to the [[Netherlands]] and from there oversaw KJVD's activities in Pfalz, Hesse and Baden-Württemberg.<ref name="Rheinische"/>

Honecker returned to the Saar in 1934 and worked alongside Johannes Hoffmann on the campaign against the region's re-incorporation into Germany. [[1935 Saar status referendum|A referendum on the area's future in January 1935]] however saw 90.73% vote in favour of reunifying with Germany. Like 4,000 to 8,000 others, Honecker then fled the region, initially relocating to Paris.<ref name="Rheinische"/>

On 28 August 1935 he illegally travelled to Berlin under the alias "Marten Tjaden", with a printing press in his luggage. From there he worked closely together with KPD official [[Herbert Wehner]] in opposition/resistance to the Nazi state. On 4 December 1935 Honecker was detained by the Gestapo and until 1937 remanded in Berlin's [[Moabit]] detention centre. On 3 July 1937 he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for the "preparation of high treason alongside the severe falsification of documents".<ref name="Spiegel 1966"/><ref name="Unsere Zeit">{{Cite web|title=Zum 100. Geburtstag Erich Honeckers|publisher=Unsere Zeit: Zeitung der DKP|date=24 August 2012|url=http://www.dkp-online.de/uz/4434/s1001.htm|language=de|access-date=27 August 2013|archive-date=8 December 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208100659/http://www.dkp-online.de/uz/4434/s1001.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Honecker spent the majority of his incarceration in the [[Brandenburg-Görden Prison]], where he also carried out tasks as a handyman.<ref name="Rheinische"/> In early 1945, he was moved to the [[Barnimstrasse women's prison]] in Berlin due to good behaviour and to be put to work repairing the bomb-damaged building, as he was a skilled roofer.<ref name="Secret marriage">{{cite web|title=Honeckers geheime Ehen|publisher=Netzeitung.de|url=http://www.netzeitung.de/wirtschaft/223454.html|language=de|date=20 January 2003|access-date=29 August 2013|archive-date=4 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120704093915/http://www.netzeitung.de/wirtschaft/223454.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> During an Allied bombing raid on 6 March 1945, he managed to escape and hid himself at the apartment of Lotte Grund, a female prison guard. After several days she persuaded him to turn himself in, and his escape was then covered up by the guard.

After the liberation of the prisons by [[Battle of Berlin|advancing Soviet troops]] on 27 April 1945, Honecker remained in Berlin.<ref name="Spiegel 1977">{{Cite news| title=Farblos, scheu, wenig kameradschaftlich| newspaper=Der Spiegel| location=Hamburg| page=87|date=31 October 1977|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-40749009.html|language=de}}</ref> His "escape" from prison and his relationships during his captivity later led to his experiencing difficulties within the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|Socialist Unity Party]], as well as straining his relations with his former inmates. In later interviews and in his personal memoirs, Honecker falsified many of the details of his life during this period.<ref>{{cite book|last=Przybylski|first=Peter|title=Tatort Politbüro: Die Akte Honecker|language=de|pages=55–65|year=1991|publisher=Rowohlt}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Völklein|first=Ulrich|title=Honecker: Eine Biografie|language=de|pages=154–178|year=2003}}</ref> Material from the [[Ministerium für Staatssicherheit|East German State Security Service]] has been used to allege that, to be released from prison, Honecker offered the [[Gestapo]] evidence incriminating fellow imprisoned Communists, claimed he had renounced communism "for good", and was willing to serve in the German army.<ref>{{cite news|last=Paterson|first=Tony|title=Honecker was forced to resign by secret police|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/honecker-was-forced-to-resign-by-secret-police-2293508.html|newspaper=The Independent|date=6 June 2011|archive-date=26 September 2023|access-date=27 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926075129/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/honecker-was-forced-to-resign-by-secret-police-2293508.html|url-status=live}} Martin Sabrow (2016). Erich Honecker. Das Leben davor, C. H. Beck: Munich 2016, p. 376</ref>