Erich Honecker and, despite his resistance, at the insistence of the regime's number-two man, Egon Krenz, a public statement was issued that called for "suggestions for attractive socialism". Over the following days Krenz worked to secure himself the support of the military and the Stasi and arranged a meeting between Gorbachev and Politburo member Harry Tisch, who was in Moscow, to inform the Kremlin about the now-planned removal of Honecker; Gorbachev reportedly wished them good luck. The sitting of the SED Central Committee planned for the end of November 1989 was pulled forward a week, with the most urgent item on the
Vilm of the GDR, they used it as a private retreat for high functionaries, including the GDR heads of state Walter Ulbricht and Erich Honecker. Two days before the end of the GDR, on 1 October 1990, the government designated the island and surrounding seas as a landscape protection area of central importance with the designation "southeast-southwest-Rügen biosphere reserve". This and other protected areas could not by law be transferred to the Federal Republic of Germany directly; instead the GDR had to sign them over to an individual who could then sign them over to the Bundesrepublik Deutschland. This is how