History of Germany (1945–90) eventually hundreds of thousands of people in several cities—particularly in Leipzig—continued to grow. On 7 October, the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev visited Berlin to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment of East Germany and urged the East German leadership to pursue reform, without success. The movement of civil resistance against the East German regime—both the emigration and the demonstrations—continued unabated. On 18 October, Erich Honecker was forced to resign as head of the SED and as head of state and was replaced by Egon Krenz. But the exodus continued unabated, and pressure for political reform mounted. On 4 November,
Erich Bär German DKP and the West Berlin Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin. Bär retired in 1972. Erich Bär Erich Bär (born May 23, 1916 in Dresden; died April 5, 2005) was a resistance against Nazism and later Lieutenant Colonel of Ministry of State Security (Stasi) of the GDR. He was, from 1957 to 1972 head of the executive offices of the Stasi in East Berlin. Bär, son of a worker made after Volksschule a training for tinsmith and plumber. Early on, he was active in communist organizations and was 1931-1935 a functionary in the Young Communist League of Germany. After