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
Margot Honecker Margot Honecker Margot Honecker (née Feist; 17 April 1927 – 6 May 2016) was an East German politician who was an influential member of the East German communist party and the country's regime until 1989. From 1963 until 1989, she was Minister of National Education ("Ministerin für Volksbildung") of the GDR. She was married to Erich Honecker, the 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 known as the "Purple Witch" for her tinted hair and hardline Stalinist views, and was