Erich Mielke demonstrations politically and giving "every DDR citizen the right to travel." On 17 October 1989, Mielke and the rest of the GDR's Politburo met to follow Gorbachev's demand, voiced in August, for Erich Honecker be removed as General Secretary of the SED and State Council chairman. Suspecting that Honecker's personal bodyguards might try to arrest the members of the Central Committee when they met to vote Honecker out in favour of Egon Krenz, Mielke saw to it that Stasi agents were stationed near the meeting room. While deliberations were underway, Mielke told Honecker that "we simply cannot start shooting with
Willi Stoph to 14 July 1960. As defense minister, he was awarded the rank of Armeegeneral. After serving as first deputy prime minister from 1960 to 1964, he was named Chairman of the Council of Ministers (Ministerrat), or prime minister, in 1964. He was initially thought to be the heir apparent to longtime East German leader Walter Ulbricht, but his ascendancy was checked by Erich Honecker. After Ulbricht's death in 1973, Stoph became Chairman of the Council of State--a post equivalent in rank to president of the GDR. After Volkskammer elections in 1976, the state and party leadership structure was re-arranged, and