Editing Erich Honecker (section)

==Illness, downfall and resignation==
In the late 1980s, Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] introduced ''[[glasnost]]'' and ''[[perestroika]]'', reforms to liberalise the socialist [[planned economy]]. Frictions between him and Honecker had grown over these policies and numerous additional issues from 1985 onward.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gedmin|first=Jeffrey|title=The Hidden Hand: Gorbachev and the Collapse of East Germany|pages=55–67|year=2003|publisher=Harvard University Press}}</ref> East Germany refused to implement similar reforms, with Honecker reportedly telling Gorbachev: "We have done our perestroika; we have nothing to restructure".<ref>{{cite book|author1-link=Daniel Treisman|last=Treisman|first=Daniel|title=The Return: Russia's Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev|publisher=Free Press|year=2012|isbn=978-1416560722|page=[https://archive.org/details/returnrussiasjou0000trei/page/n100 83]|url=https://archive.org/details/returnrussiasjou0000trei|url-access=registration}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Not all of East Europe is ready for reform|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=25 July 1989|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/07/25/not-all-of-east-europe-is-ready-for-reform/}}</ref> Gorbachev grew to dislike Honecker, and by 1988 was lumping him in with Bulgaria's [[Todor Zhivkov]], Czechoslovakia's [[Gustáv Husák]] and Romania's [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]] as a "Gang of Four": a group of inflexible hardliners unwilling to make reforms.<ref name="Revolution1989">{{cite book|last=Sebetsyen|first=Victor|title=Revolution 1989: The Fall of the Soviet Empire|publisher=[[Pantheon Books]]|location=New York City|year=2009|isbn=978-0-375-42532-5|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/revolution1989fa00sebe}}</ref>

According to White House experts [[Philip Zelikow]] and [[Condoleezza Rice]], Gorbachev looked to Communist leaders in Eastern Europe to follow his example of perestroika and glasnost. They argue:
: Gorbachev himself had no particular sympathy for Erich Honecker, chairman of the East German Communist Party, and his hard-line comrades and the government. As early as 1985... [Gorbachev] had told East German party officials that kindergarten was over; no one would lead them by the hand. They were responsible for their own people. The relations between Gorbachev and Honecker went downhill from there.<ref>Philip Zelikow and Condoleezza Rice, ''Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft'' (1995).  p. 35</ref>
Western analysts, according to Zelikow and Rice, believed in 1989 that Communism was still secure in East Germany:
:Bolstered by relatively greater affluence than his country's Eastern European neighbours enjoyed in a fantastically elaborate system of internal controls, East Germany's longtime leader Eric Honecker seemed secure in his position. His government had long dealt with dissent through a mixture of brutal repression, forced emigration, and the vent of allowing occasional, limited travel to the West for a substantial part of the population.<ref>Zelikow and Rice, ''Germany Unified''  p. 36.</ref>

Honecker felt betrayed by Gorbachev in his German policy and ensured that official texts of the Soviet Union, especially those concerning ''perestroika'', could no longer be published or sold in East Germany.<ref>{{cite news|title=Two Germanys' political divide is being blurred by Glasnost|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=18 December 1988|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/18/world/2-germanys-political-divide-is-being-blurred-by-glasnost.html|archive-date=26 September 2023|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230926075131/https://www.nytimes.com/1988/12/18/world/2-germanys-political-divide-is-being-blurred-by-glasnost.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
[[File:00 Páneurópai Piknik emlékhely.jpg|thumb|right|150px|After the [[Pan-European Picnic]], Honecker lost control of the country.]] One month after the [[1989 Polish legislative election]] in which [[Lech Wałęsa]] and the [[Solidarity Citizens' Committee]] unexpectedly won 99 out of 100 seats, at the Warsaw Pact summit on 7–8 July 1989 in Bucharest, the Soviet Union reaffirmed its shift from the [[Brezhnev Doctrine]] of the limited sovereignty of its member states, and announced "freedom of choice".<ref>{{cite book|last=Brown|first=Archie|title=The Rise and Fall of Communism|url=https://archive.org/details/risefallofcommun00brow|url-access=registration|year=2009|publisher=Ecco|isbn=9780061138799}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Warsaw Pact warms to Nato plan|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=9 July 1989|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/07/09/warsaw-pact-warms-to-nato-plan/}}</ref><ref>spiegel.de (2009): [http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/winds-of-change-from-the-east-how-poland-and-hungary-led-the-way-in-1989-a-657805-6.html ''How Poland and Hungary Led the Way in 1989'']</ref> The Bucharest statement prescribed that its signatories henceforth developed their "own political line, strategy and tactics without external intervention".<ref name="Chronik July 1989">{{cite web|title=July 1989|publisher=chronik-der-mauer.de|url=http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Index/id/652001|access-date=28 August 2013|archive-date=19 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019211903/http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/index.php/de/Start/Index/id/652001|url-status=live}}</ref> This called into question the Soviet guarantee of existence for the Communist states in Europe. Already in May 1989 [[Removal of Hungary's border fence with Austria|Hungary had begun dismantling its border with Austria]], creating the first gap in the so-called [[Iron Curtain]], through which later several thousand East Germans quickly fled in hopes of reaching West Germany by way of Austria.<ref>{{cite news|title=East German exodus echoes 1961|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=22 August 1989|url=http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-08-22/news/8901060740_1_east-germany-german-democratic-republic-border|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019175440/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-08-22/news/8901060740_1_east-germany-german-democratic-republic-border|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 October 2013}}</ref> But with the mass exodus at the [[Pan-European Picnic]] in August 1989 (which was based on an idea by [[Otto von Habsburg]] to test Gorbachev's reaction to the opening of the border),<ref>"Der 19. August 1989 war ein Test für Gorbatschows" (German – 19 August 1989 was a test for Gorbachev), in: FAZ 19 August 2009.</ref> the subsequent hesitant behaviour of the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany and the non-intervention of the Soviet Union opened the floodgates. Thus the united front of the [[Eastern Bloc]] was broken. The reaction to this from Erich Honecker in the ''Daily Mirror'' of 19 August 1989 was too late and showed the current loss of power: "Habsburg distributed leaflets far into Poland, on which the East German holidaymakers were invited to a picnic. When they came to the picnic, they were given gifts, food and Deutsche Mark, and then they were persuaded to come to the West." Later, after his fall, Honecker said of Otto von Habsburg in connection with the summer of 1989: "That this Habsburg drove the nail into my coffin."<ref>Joachim Riedl: "Ein Brückenleben. Viele Schnurren und eine Sternstunde. Zum Tode Otto von Habsburgs." In: Wochenzeitung Die Zeit, Nr. 28, 7 July 2011, p 11.</ref> Now tens of thousands of media-informed East Germans made their way to Hungary, which was no longer ready to keep its borders completely closed or to oblige its border troops to use force of arms.<ref>Thomas Roser: DDR-Massenflucht: Ein Picknick hebt die Welt aus den Angeln (German – Mass exodus of the GDR: A picnic clears the world) in: Die Presse 16 August 2018.</ref><ref>Michael Frank: Paneuropäisches Picknick – Mit dem Picknickkorb in die Freiheit (German: Pan-European picnic – With the picnic basket to freedom), in: Süddeutsche Zeitung 17 May 2010.</ref><ref>Miklós Németh in Interview, Austrian TV – ORF "Report", 25 June 2019.</ref> A 1969 treaty required the Hungarian government to send the East Germans back home;<ref name=Revolution1989/> however, starting on 11 September 1989, the Hungarians let them pass into Austria,<ref>[http://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/chronicle/_year1989/_month9/?moc=1 www.chronik-der-mauer.de] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211203063712/https://www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/chronicle/_year1989/_month9/?moc=1 |date=3 December 2021 }} (engl.)</ref> telling their outraged East German counterparts that they were refugees and that international treaties on refugees took precedence.

At the time, Honecker was sidelined through illness, leaving his colleagues unable to act decisively. He had been taken ill with [[biliary colic]] during the Warsaw Pact summit. He was shortly afterwards flown home to East Berlin.<ref name=Revolution1989/><ref name="Chronik July 1989"/> After an initial stabilisation in his health, he underwent surgery on 18 August 1989 to remove his inflamed gallbladder and, due to a perforation, part of his colon.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker recuperating after gallstone operation|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=24 August 1989|url=https://apnews.com/b35275a4daa8b6639ad71aba6c2e9266?SearchText=honecker%201989;Display_|archive-date=20 September 2021|access-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920222527/https://apnews.com/b35275a4daa8b6639ad71aba6c2e9266?SearchText=honecker%201989;Display_|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Upheaval in the East; Honecker, in disgrace and in poor health, is arrested as he leaves a Berlin hospital|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=30 January 1990|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/01/30/world/upheaval-east-honecker-disgrace-poor-health-arrested-he-leaves-berlin-hospital.html}}</ref> According to the urologist Peter Althaus, the surgeons left a suspected carcinogenic nodule in Honecker's right kidney due to his weak condition, and also failed to inform the patient of the suspected cancer;<ref>{{cite book|last=Kunze|first=Thomas|title=Staatschef: Die letzten Jahre des Erich Honecker|page=77|year=2001|publisher=Links|language=de}}</ref> other sources say the tumour was simply undetected. As a result of this operation, Honecker was away from his office until late September 1989.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker deteriorating|newspaper=[[Deseret News]]|date=11 September 1989|url=http://www.deseretnews.com/article/63098/HONECKER-DETERIORATING.html?pg=all|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130909165614/http://www.deseretnews.com/article/63098/HONECKER-DETERIORATING.html?pg=all|url-status=dead|archive-date=9 September 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker returns to work after surgery|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=26 September 1989|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-09-26-mn-232-story.html}}</ref>

Back in office, Honecker had to contend with the rising number and strength of demonstrations across East Germany that had first been sparked by reports in the West German media of fraudulent results in local elections on 7 May 1989,<ref name="Revolution1989"/><ref>{{cite news|title=The Opposition charges the SED with fraud in the local elections of May 1989 (May 25, 1989)|publisher=German History in Documents and Images|url=http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/sub_document.cfm?document_id=1179}}</ref> the same results he had labelled a "convincing reflection" of the populace's faith in his leadership.<ref>{{cite book|last=De Nevers |first=Rene|title=Comrades No More: The Seeds of Political Change in Eastern Europe |page=173|year=2002|publisher=MIT Press}}</ref> He also had to deal with a new refugee problem. Several thousand East Germans tried to go to West Germany by way of [[Czechoslovakia]], only to have that government bar them from passing. Several thousands of them headed straight for the [[Embassy of Germany, Prague|West German embassy in Prague]] and demanded safe passage to West Germany. With some reluctance, Honecker allowed them to go – but forced them to go back through East Germany on [[sealed train]]s and stripped them of their East German citizenship. Several members of the SED ''Politbüro'' realised this was a serious blunder and made plans to get rid of him.<ref name=Revolution1989/>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-1120-030, Dresden, Montagsdemonstration.jpg|thumb|left|East Germans protest against Honecker's diehard regime hindering all reforms, 1989.]]
As unrest visibly grew, large numbers began fleeing the country through the West German embassies in Prague and [[Embassy of Germany, Budapest|Budapest]], as well as over the borders of the "socialist brother" states.<ref>{{cite news|title=Hundreds of East Germans reported in Prague Embassy|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=21 September 1989|url=https://apnews.com/b9243565455b75d263cbd3eb938f651b?SearchText=east%20germany%20czechoslovakia%201989;Display_}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Refugees crowd West German embassies in East Bloc|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=19 September 1989|url=https://apnews.com/29e0f6c7d1872f56f0fa7bfe4852fc50?SearchText=east%20germany%20budapest%201989;Display_}}</ref> Each month saw tens of thousands more exit.<ref>{{cite news|title=16,000 refugees flee for freedom East Germany exodus grows|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=12 September 1989|url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-09-12/news/8903020848_1_east-german-berlin-wall-east-berlin|access-date=10 September 2013|archive-date=19 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019061414/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1989-09-12/news/8903020848_1_east-german-berlin-wall-east-berlin|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=East Germans fill refugee camps; New wave from Czechoslovakia|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=12 September 1989|url=https://apnews.com/1d07063d4c081a0003285280f46677df?SearchText=east%20germany%20czechoslovakia%201989;Display_}}</ref> On 3 October 1989 East Germany closed its borders to its eastern neighbours and prevented visa-free travel to Czechoslovakia;<ref>{{cite news|title=East Germany closes its border after 10,000 more flee to West|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=4 October 1989|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/10/04/east-germany-closes-its-border-after-10000-more-flee-to-west/}}</ref> a day later these measures were also extended to travel to Bulgaria and Romania. East Germany was now not only behind the Iron Curtain to the West, but also cordoned off from most other Eastern bloc states.<ref>{{cite news|title=It's not easy being East Germany|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=7 October 1989|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1989/10/07/its-not-easy-being-east-germany/}}</ref>
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-1007-402, Berlin, 40. Jahrestag DDR-Gründung, Ehrengäste.jpg|thumb|right|Honecker, with [[Mikhail Gorbachev|Gorbachev]] on his right, at the forefront of East Germany's 40th anniversary celebration, shortly before being forced to resign]]

On 6–7 October 1989 the national celebrations of the 40th anniversary of the East German state took place with Gorbachev in attendance.<ref>{{cite news|title=Gorbachev in East Berlin|work=[[BBC News]]|date=25 March 2009|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7902635.stm}}</ref> To the surprise of Honecker and the other SED leaders in attendance, several hundred members of the Free German Youth — reckoned as the future vanguard of the party and nation — began chanting, ''"Gorby, help us! Gorby, save us!"''.<ref name="Spiegel DDR Birthday">{{cite magazine|title=Oct. 7, 1989: How 'Gorbi' spoiled East Germany's 40th Birthday Party|magazine=Der Spiegel|date=25 March 2009|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/oct-7-1989-how-gorbi-spoiled-east-germany-s-40th-birthday-party-a-653724.html}}</ref> In a private conversation between the two leaders Honecker praised the success of the country, but Gorbachev knew that, in reality, it faced bankruptcy;<ref name="Revolution1989"/><ref>{{cite news|title=Gorbachev visit triggered Honecker's ouster, former aid says|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=27 December 1989|url=https://apnews.com/bb6ffec469fa573093132427d80e101a?SearchText=east%20germany%20october%201989;Display_|archive-date=20 September 2021|access-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920234421/https://apnews.com/bb6ffec469fa573093132427d80e101a?SearchText=east%20germany%20october%201989&Display_|url-status=live}}</ref> East Germany had already accepted billions of dollars in loans from West Germany during the decade as it sought to stabilise its economy.<ref>{{cite news|title=East Germany seeking $371&nbsp;million Bonn loan|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=2 December 1983|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/03/business/east-germany-seeking-371-million-bonn-loan.html|archive-date=24 July 2016|access-date=7 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160724155128/http://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/03/business/east-germany-seeking-371-million-bonn-loan.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Attempting to make Honecker accept a need for reforms, Gorbachev warned Honecker that "He who is too late is punished by life", yet Honecker maintained that "we will solve our problems ourselves with socialist means".<ref name="Spiegel DDR Birthday"/> Protests outside the reception at the [[Palace of the Republic, Berlin|Palace of the Republic]] led to hundreds of arrests in which many were brutally beaten by soldiers and police.<ref name="Spiegel DDR Birthday"/>

{{Rquote|1=right|2=Being able to have an apartment, a job, clothes to put on, something to eat, and not having to sleep under bridges: that was already, for Erich Honecker, socialism.|3= [[Hans Modrow]], 2005.<ref>{{cite web |title=Goodbye DDR, E04: Erich und die Mauer |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvQhJ5aLJOc&t=734s |publisher=[[ZDF]] |access-date=24 December 2022 |date=20 September 2005}}</ref>}}
As the reform movement spread throughout Central and Eastern Europe, mass demonstrations against the East German government erupted, most prominently in [[Leipzig]]—the first of several [[Monday demonstrations in East Germany|demonstrations which took place on Monday nights]] across the country. In response, an elite paratroop unit was dispatched to Leipzig—almost certainly on Honecker's orders, since he was [[National People's Army|commander-in-chief of the Army]]. A bloodbath was averted only when local party officials themselves ordered the troops to pull back. In the following week, Honecker faced a torrent of criticism. This gave his ''Politburo'' comrades the impetus they needed to replace him.<ref name=Revolution1989/>

After a crisis meeting of the Politburo on 10–11 October 1989, Honecker's planned state visit to Denmark was cancelled and, despite his resistance, at the insistence of the regime's number-two-man, [[Egon Krenz]], a public statement was issued that called for "suggestions for attractive socialism".<ref>{{cite news|title=Leadership reaffirms commitment to Communism|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=11 October 1989|url=https://apnews.com/35e3fce7f4d5c637f00a9534cbe1bcf6?SearchText=honecker%20%20denmark;Display_|archive-date=20 September 2021|access-date=16 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210920223313/https://apnews.com/35e3fce7f4d5c637f00a9534cbe1bcf6?SearchText=honecker%20%20denmark;Display_|url-status=live}}</ref> Over the following days Krenz worked to secure himself the support of the military and the [[Stasi]] and arranged a meeting between Gorbachev and Politburo member [[Harry Tisch]], who was in Moscow, to inform the Kremlin about the now-planned removal of Honecker;<ref>{{cite news|title=Plot to oust East German leader was fraught with risks|newspaper=[[Chicago Tribune]]|date=28 October 1990|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1990/10/28/plot-to-oust-e-german-leader-was-fraught-with-risks/}}</ref> Gorbachev reportedly wished them good luck.<ref>{{cite news|title=Erich Honeckers Sturz|publisher=[[Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk|MDR]]|language=de|url=http://www.mdr.de/damals/archiv/artikel92506.html|date=5 January 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019145938/http://www.mdr.de/damals/archiv/artikel92506.html|archive-date=19 October 2013}}</ref>

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1989-1024-028, 10. Volkskammertagung, Rede Egon Krenz.jpg|thumb|left|[[Egon Krenz]] introduces himself to the People's Chamber as Honecker's replacement for general secretary.]]
The sitting of the SED Central Committee planned for the end of November 1989 was pulled forward a week, with the most urgent item on the agenda now being the composition of the Politburo. Krenz and Mielke attempted by telephone on the night of 16 October to win other Politburo members over to remove Honecker. At the beginning of the session on 17 October, Honecker asked his routine question of "Are there any suggestions for the agenda?"<ref name="17 October">{{cite news|title=Die Genossen opfern Honecker – zu spät|newspaper=[[Der Tagesspiegel]]|language=de|url=http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/deutschland/wendechronik-die-genossen-opfern-honecker-zu-spaet/1617090.html|date=17 October 2009}}</ref> Stoph replied, "Please, general secretary, Erich, I propose that a new item be placed on the agenda.  It is the release of Comrade Erich Honecker as general secretary and the election of Comrade Egon Krenz in his place."<ref name=Revolution1989/> Honecker reportedly calmly responded: "Well, then I open the debate".<ref name="Spiegel 1999">{{cite magazine|title=Sekt statt Blut|magazine=Der Spiegel|date=30 August 1999|language=de|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-14442983.html|page=60|access-date=12 September 2013|archive-date=19 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019131951/http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-14442983.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

All those present then spoke, in turn, but none in favour of Honecker.<ref name="Spiegel 1999"/> [[Günter Schabowski]] even extended the dismissal of Honecker to also include his posts in the State Council and as Chairman of the National Defence Council while childhood friend Günter Mittag moved away from Honecker.<ref name="17 October"/> Mielke, hollering and pounding the conference room table with his fist pointed at Honecker and blamed him for almost all the country's current ills and threatened to publish compromising information that he possessed, if Honecker refused to resign.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker was forced to resign by secret police|newspaper=The Independent|date=6 June 2011|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/honecker-was-forced-to-resign-by-secret-police-2293508.html|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}}</ref> A [[ZDF]] documentary on the matter claims this information was contained in a large red briefcase found in Mielke's possession in 1990.<ref>{{YouTube|sCHM2FMcuIE|''Geheimakte Honecker''}}</ref> After three hours the Politburo voted to remove Honecker.<ref name="Spiegel 1999"/><ref>{{cite news|title=Gorbachev visit triggered Honecker's ouster, former aid says|work=[[Associated Press]]|date=27 December 1989|url=https://apnews.com/bb6ffec469fa573093132427d80e101a}}</ref>  In accordance with longstanding practice, Honecker voted for his own removal.<ref name=Revolution1989/> As a concession to Honecker, he was allowed to publicly save face by resigning due to "ill health".<ref>{{cite news|title=1989: East Germany leader ousted|date=18 October 1989|publisher=BBC|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/18/newsid_2450000/2450783.stm|archive-date=13 November 2013|access-date=28 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131113193717/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/18/newsid_2450000/2450783.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> Krenz was unanimously elected as his successor as General Secretary.<ref>{{cite news|title=Honecker ousted in East Germany, ending 18 years of Iron Rule|newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=18 October 1989|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-10-18-mn-415-story.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=East Germans oust Honecker|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=19 October 1989|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1989/oct/19/germany.fromthearchive|archive-date=4 August 2019|access-date=14 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190804205432/https://www.theguardian.com/world/1989/oct/19/germany.fromthearchive|url-status=live}}</ref> This closely echoed how Honecker helped force Ulbricht out 18 years earlier; he too had been publicly allowed to retire for health reasons.