Margot Honecker née Feist (born 17 April 1927) is a former East German politician, who was a very important member of the political scene in the Socialist Unity Party. From 1963 until 1989, she was Minister of Education ("Volksbildung") of the GDR. She was married to Erich Honecker, the leader of East Germany from 1971 until 1989.Honecker, who was known for her hard line political views, was responsible for the enactment of the "Uniform Socialist Education System" in 1965 and mandatory military training in schools. She was one of the few spouses of a ruling Communist party leader who was a power in her own right, though her prominence in the government predated her husband's ascension to the leadership of the SED.Following the movement for reunification in 1989, Honecker fled to the Soviet Union with her husband to avoid criminal charges from the new regime. She obtained political asylum from the Chilean ambassador in Russia and subsequently emigrated to Chile, where she currently lives with her daughter Sonja.
As a young woman, she was a telephone operator, but quickly rose to prominence as a member of Germany's postwar Communist Party. In 1950, she became the youngest member of parliament in the newly-formed East Germany.
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Her father was a factory worker who was imprisoned by the Nazis because of his membership in the Communist Party.
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She was minister of education in East Germany from 1963 to 1989. She required mandatory classes in socialist thought and military tactics, and was one of the most powerful and most feared figures in the repressive communist regime.
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Lives with her daughter in Santiago de Chile. [December 2003]
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1963-1989 Minister for national education in East-Germany.
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Daughter Sonja (b. 1. December 1952) with Erich Honecker.
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Der Sturz - Honeckers Ende
2012
TV Movie documentary
Herself
Fidel Castro. Ewiger Revolutionär
2004
Documentary short
Herself, former East German politician
Die Honeckers privat
2003
TV Movie documentary
Herself
Honeckers Flucht - Das Ende eines Kommunisten
2002
TV Movie documentary
Herself
Archive Footage
Title
Year
Status
Character
Geheimnisvolle Orte
2010
TV Series documentary
Herself
The Lost World of Communism
2009
TV Mini-Series documentary
Herself
Genossin Ehefrau - Margot Honecker und Elena Ceausescu