29 Facts About Margot Honecker

Margot Honecker was an East German politician and influential member of the country's Communist government until 1989.

Margot Honecker was married to Erich Honecker, leader of East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party from 1971 to 1989 and concurrently from 1976 to 1989 the country's head of state.

Margot Honecker was widely referred to as the "Purple Witch" for her tinted hair and hardline Stalinist views.

Margot Honecker was responsible for the enactment of the "Uniform Socialist Education System" in 1965 and mandatory military training in schools to prepare pupils for a future war with the west.

Margot Honecker then fled from Moscow to Chile to avoid a similar fate.

Margot Honecker's parents were members of Communist Party of Germany.

Margot Honecker's father was imprisoned in Lichtenburg concentration camp in the 1930s and from 1937 until 1939 in Buchenwald concentration camp.

Margot Honecker's mother died in 1940 when Margot was 13 years old.

Margot Honecker's brother Manfred Feist later became the leader of the Foreign Information department within the party's Central Committee.

Margot Honecker then began a meteoric rise through its various departments.

Margot Honecker was already married, as well as being fifteen years her senior.

In 1963, Margot Honecker became Minister of National Education, after a period occupying the office as Acting Minister.

In 1978, Margot Honecker introduced, against the opposition of the churches and many parents, military lessons for 9th and 10th grade high school students.

Margot Honecker later joined the newly refounded Communist Party of Germany.

Margot Honecker was permitted to fly to Santiago to join her daughter Sonja and her family, who had been living in Chile since 1990.

Margot Honecker left Berlin for the last time on 13 March 1993, bound for Chile.

Margot Honecker lived with his wife and daughter, whose own twenty-year marriage ended in divorce the year after her parents moved in.

Margot Honecker died of liver cancer at the age of 81 on 29 May 1994 in Santiago.

Margot Honecker received a survivor's pension and the old-age pension of the German old-age pension insurance federation of about 1,500 euros, which she regarded as insolently sparse.

On 19 July 2008, on the occasion of the 29th anniversary of the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, Margot Honecker was awarded the "Ruben Dario" order for cultural independence from President Daniel Ortega.

Margot Honecker was reported to have said she was grateful for the honor, but said nothing publicly.

In October 2009, Margot Honecker celebrated the 60th anniversary of the founding of the GDR with former Chilean exiles who had sought asylum in East Germany.

Margot Honecker participated in singing a patriotic East German song and gave a short speech in which she stated that East Germans "had a good life in the GDR" and that many felt that capitalism has made their lives worse.

On 2 April 2012, Margot Honecker gave an interview during which she defended the GDR, attacked those who helped to "destroy" it, and complained about her pension.

Margot Honecker felt that there was no need for people to climb over the Berlin Wall and lose their lives.

Margot Honecker suggested that the GDR was a good country and that the demonstrations were driven by the GDR's enemies.

Margot Honecker died in Santiago on 6 May 2016, at the age of 89.

Margot Honecker's funeral was described by German media as "bizarre", featuring 50 "diehard" communists with East German flags.

Margot Honecker is a recurring antagonist in the 2022 German Netflix spy thriller Kleo.