Editing Erich Honecker (section)

==Family==
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-1986-0313-300, Margot Honecker, Minister für Volksbildung.jpg|thumb|right|Margot, Honecker's wife of forty years]]
Honecker was married three times. After being liberated from prison in 1945, he married the prison warden Charlotte Schanuel (née Drost), nine years his senior, on 23 December 1946.<ref name="Secret marriage"/><ref name="Spiegel 2012"/> She died suddenly from a brain tumour in June 1947.<ref name="Spiegel 2012"/> Details of this marriage were not revealed until 2003.<ref name="Secret marriage"/><ref name="Spiegel 2003">{{Cite news| title=Honeckers verschwiegene Ehe| newspaper=Der Spiegel| page=20|date=20 January 2003|url=http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-26161757.html|language=de}}</ref>

By the time of her death, Honecker was already romantically involved with the [[Free German Youth]] official [[Edith Baumann]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=149|title=Baumann, Edith (verh. Honecker-Baumann) * 1.8.1909, † 7.4.1973 Generalsekretärin der FDJ, Sekretärin des ZK der SED|work=Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur|access-date=1 March 2017|archive-date=6 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006040704/http://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=149|url-status=live}}</ref> whom he met on a trip to Moscow.<ref name="Frauen">{{Cite web|title=Honeckers Frauen|newspaper=MDR|date=10 February 2011|url=http://www.mdr.de/damals/archiv/artikel92510.html|language=de|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611153843/http://www.mdr.de/damals/archiv/artikel92510.html|archive-date=11 June 2016}}</ref> With her, he had a daughter.<ref name="Spiegel 2012"/>{{failed verification|date=February 2017}} Sources differ on whether Honecker and Baumann married in 1947<ref name="Die Stasi Akte">{{cite web|url=http://www.berliner-kurier.de/news/politik---wirtschaft/die-stasi-akte-margot-wie-sie-sich-ihren-erich-angelte-24022464|title=Die Stasi-Akte Margot Wie sie sich ihren Erich angelte|date=8 May 2016|work=Berliner Kurier|access-date=28 February 2017|language=de}}</ref> or 1949,<ref name="Frauen"/> but in 1952 he fathered an illegitimate daughter with [[Margot Honecker|Margot Feist]], a People's Chamber member and chairperson of the [[Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation]].

In September 1950, Baumann wrote directly to Walter Ulbricht to inform him of her husband's extramarital activity in the hope of him pressuring Honecker to end his relationship with Feist.<ref name="Die Stasi Akte"/> Following his divorce and reportedly under pressure from the Politburo, he married Feist.  However, sources again differ on both the year of his divorce from Baumann and of his marriage to Feist; depending on the source, the events took place either in 1953<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bpb.de/geschichte/zeitgeschichte/deutschlandarchiv/228204/margot-honecker-die-frau-an-seiner-seite|title=Margot Honecker – Die Frau an seiner Seite|date=24 May 2016|author=Helmut Müller-Enbergs|work=Budeszentrale für politische Bildung|access-date=1 March 2017|language=de|archive-date=3 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170503034420/http://www.bpb.de/geschichte/zeitgeschichte/deutschlandarchiv/228204/margot-honecker-die-frau-an-seiner-seite|url-status=live}}</ref> or 1955.<ref name="Spiegel 2003"/> For more than twenty years, Margot Honecker served as [[Council of Ministers of the GDR|Minister of National Education]]. In 2012 intelligence reports collated by West German spies alleged that both Honecker and his wife had secret affairs but did not divorce for political reasons;<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thelocal.de/20120123/40283|title=Secret files: Communist Honecker cheated on wife|date=23 January 2012|work=The Local|access-date=28 February 2017|archive-date=1 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301010406/https://www.thelocal.de/20120123/40283|url-status=live}}</ref> however, his bodyguard Bernd Brückner, in a book about his time spent in Honecker's service, denied the claims.<ref name="An Honeckers Seite">{{cite web|url=http://www.focus.de/kultur/buecher/erich-honecker-so-hielt-er-es-mit-frauen-familie-und-autos_id_3830830.html|title=Erich Honecker: So hielt er es mit Frauen, Familie und Autos|date=9 May 2014|work=FOCUS Online|access-date=1 March 2017|language=de|archive-date=25 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170225215224/http://www.focus.de/kultur/buecher/erich-honecker-so-hielt-er-es-mit-frauen-familie-und-autos_id_3830830.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>