Culver City,
California
Erich Honecker Papers
Erich Honecker’s personal papers in the Wende Museum’s collection document the last four years in the life of the communist leader who ruled East Germany from 1971 to 1989. In his will, Honecker specifically requested that his personal papers be housed in a non-German institution.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Honecker was imprisoned in Berlin’s Moabit Prison and charged with thirteen counts of manslaughter for ordering deadly force against citizens attempting to flee East Germany. These orders resulted in 350 deaths. His trial for crimes against humanity began in November 1992 but ended early in January 1993 due to failing health. He died in Santiago, Chile, of liver cancer in 1994. In his memoir, Moabiter Notizen (Notes from Moabit), he wrote that if it had been up to him, East Germany would still exist. During his trial, he credited the Berlin Wall with preventing World War III.
Honecker’s personal archive includes legal correspondence from his defense lawyers, medical records documenting his liver cancer, detailed reports of the allegations against him, information about the appeal process, and news articles with his handwritten annotations. The archive also includes drafts and notes for Moabiter Notizen and books from Honecker’s personal library, marked with his stamp.
The cataloging and digitization of this collection was made possible by the support of Arcadia – a charitable fund of Lisbet Rausing and Peter Baldwin.
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Showing search results 2-12 of 12
