Editing Erich Honecker (section)

==Post-war return to politics==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-23724-0001, Berlin, FDJ-Aktivtagung, Erich Honecker spricht.jpg|upright|thumb|right|Honecker, founder of [[Free German Youth|FDJ]], 1946]]
In May 1945 Honecker was "picked up" by chance in Berlin by [[Hans Mahle]] and taken to the [[Ulbricht Group]], a collective of exiled German communists that had returned from the Soviet Union to Germany after the end of the Nazi regime.<ref name="Epstein p112">{{cite book|last=Epstein|first=Catherine|title=The Last Revolutionaries: German Communists and their century|url=https://archive.org/details/lastrevolutionar00epst|url-access=limited|page=[https://archive.org/details/lastrevolutionar00epst/page/n126 112]|year=2003|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674010451}}</ref> Through [[Waldemar Schmidt]], Honecker befriended [[Walter Ulbricht]], who had not been aware of him at that point. Honecker's future role in the group was still undecided until well into the summer months, as he had yet to face a party process. This ended in a reprimand due to his "undisciplined conduct" in fleeing from prison at the start of the year, an action which was debated upon, potentially jeopardising the other (communist) inmates.<ref name="Spiegel 1977"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Epstein|first=Catherine|title=The Last Revolutionaries: German communists and their century|url=https://archive.org/details/lastrevolutionar00epst|url-access=limited|pages=[https://archive.org/details/lastrevolutionar00epst/page/n150 136]–137|year=2003|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674010451}}</ref>

In 1946, Honecker became the co-founder of the [[Free German Youth]] (FDJ), whose chairmanship he also undertook. After the formation of the SED, the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|Socialist Unity Party]], in April 1946 through a merger of the [[Communist Party of Germany|KPD]] and [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SPD]], Honecker swiftly became a leading party member and took his place in the party's [[Central Committee]].

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-57000-0512, V. Parteitag der SED, Honecker spricht.jpg|thumb|left|220px|Honecker, watched by his mentor [[Walter Ulbricht]] at the Party's 5th congress, 1958]]
On 7 October 1949, the German Democratic Republic was formed with the adoption of a new [[Constitution of East Germany|constitution]], establishing a political system similar to that of the [[Soviet Union]]. Within the state's socialist single party government, Honecker determinedly resumed his political career and the following year was named as a candidate member of the [[Politbüro]] of the SED's Central Committee.<ref name="Epstein p112"/> As President of the Free German Youth movement, he organised the inaugural ''"Deutschlandtreffen der Jugend"'' in East Berlin in May 1950 and the [[3rd World Festival of Youth and Students]] in 1951, although the latter was beset with organisational problems.<ref name="Epstein p112"/>

During the internal party unrest following [[Uprising of 1953 in East Germany|the suppressed uprising of June 1953]], Honecker sided with First Secretary Walter Ulbricht, despite the majority of the Politburo attempting to depose Ulbricht in favour of [[Rudolf Herrnstadt]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Dankiewicz|first=Jim|title=The East German Uprising of June 17, 1953 and its Effects on the USSR and the Other Nations of Eastern Europe|url=http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/133p/133p-99/jim1953.993.htm|year=1999|publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara|archive-date=4 March 2016|access-date=29 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304192006/http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/classes/133p/133p-99/jim1953.993.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> Honecker himself though faced questioning from party members about his inadequate qualifications for his position. On 27 May 1955 he handed the Presidency of the FDJ over to [[Karl Namokel]], and departed for Moscow to study for two years at the School of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Soviet Communist Party]] at Ulbricht's request.<ref name="Spiegel 1966"/> During this period he witnessed the [[20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party]] in person, where its First Secretary [[Nikita Khrushchev]] [[On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences|denounced]] [[Joseph Stalin]].<ref name="Unsere Zeit"/>

After returning to East Germany in 1958, Honecker became a fully-fledged member of the Politburo, taking over responsibility for military and security issues.<ref name="Winkler">{{cite book|last=Winkler|first=Heinrich August|title=Germany: The Long Road West, Vol. 2: 1933–1990|pages=266–268|year=2007|publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref> As the Party Security Secretary he was the prime organiser of the building of the [[Berlin Wall]] in August 1961 and also a proponent of the "[[Schießbefehl|order to fire]]" along the [[Inner German border]].<ref name="Spiegel 2012">{{Cite news| title=Der unterschätzte Diktator| newspaper=Der Spiegel| location=Hamburg| page=46| date=20 August 2012| url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-87818590.html| language=de| archive-date=13 May 2019| access-date=28 August 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190513213403/https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-87818590.html| url-status=live}}</ref>