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Margot Honecker (née Feist; 17 April 1927 – 6 May 2016) was an East German politician and influential member of the country's Communist government until 1989. From 1963 until 1989, she was Minister of National Education (Ministerin für Volksbildung) of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). She was married to Erich Honecker, 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 referred to as the "Purple Witch" ("Lila Hexe" in German) for her tinted hair and hardline Stalinist views, and was described as "the most hated person" in East Germany next to Stasi chief Erich Mielke by former Bundestag president Wolfgang Thierse. She was responsible for the enactment of the "Uniform Socialist Education System" in 1965 and mandatory military training in schools to prepare pupils for a future war with the west. She was alleged to have been responsible for the regime's forced adoption of children of jailed dissidents or people who attempted to flee the GDR, and is considered to have "left a cruel legacy of separated families." Honecker also established prison-like institutions for children, including a camp at Torgau known as "Margot's concentration camp." She was one of the few spouses of a ruling Communist Party leader who held significant power in her own right, as her prominence in the regime predated her husband's ascension to the leadership of the SED. Following the downfall of the communist regime in 1990, Honecker fled to the Soviet Union with her husband to avoid criminal charges from the government of reunified Germany. Their asylum pleas were never acted upon in light of similar problems befalling the Soviet government. Fearing extradition to Germany, they took refuge in the Chilean embassy in Moscow in 1991, but the following year her husband was extradited to Germany by Yeltsin's Russian government to face criminal trial, and detained in the Moabit prison. Margot Honecker then fled from Moscow to Chile to avoid a similar fate. At the time of her death, she lived in Chile with her daughter Sonja. Honecker left the party in 1990, after her husband's expulsion, and both later became members of the small fringe Communist Party of Germany, considered extremist by German authorities. Formed in East Berlin in January 1990, the party claims to be the direct successor of the historical party formed in 1918 and is known for its support for North Korea's government; however, it operates only in the territory of the former East Germany. Early life Honecker was born Margot Feist in Halle on 17 April 1927, the daughter of a shoemaker, Gotthard Feist (1906–1993), and a factory worker, Helene Feist (c. 1906–1940). Her parents were members of Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Her father was imprisoned in Lichtenburg concentration camp in the 1930s and from 1937 until 1939 in Buchenwald concentration camp. Gestapo agents searched the family apartment for evidence of subversive activities on several occasions. After graduating from elementary school, she was a member of the Nazi Party's girls' organisation Bund Deutscher Mädel, in which membership was compulsory, from 1938 to 1945. Her mother died in 1940 when Margot was 13 years old. Her brother Manfred Feist later became the leader of the Foreign Information department within the party's Central Committee. Party In 1945, Margot Feist joined the KPD. After April 1946, with the contentious merger of the SPD and KPD, she became a member of East Germany's next ruling party, the Socialist Unity Party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands / SED), working in Halle as a shorthand typist with the FDGB (Trades Union Federation) regional executive for Saxony-Anhalt. In 1946, Feist also joined the regional secretariat of the Free German Youth (FDJ)—effectively the youth wing of the ruling party—in Halle. She then began a meteoric rise through its various departments. In 1947, she became the leader of the culture and education department in the FDJ's regional executive, and in 1948, secretary of the FDJ's central council as well as chairperson of the Ernst Thälmann Pioneer Organisation. By 1949, Feist was a member of the GDR's precursor parliament (German: Volksrat). That year, aged 22, she was elected as a representative in the newly founded People's Chamber (German: Volkskammer). Margot Feist met her future husband, Erich Honecker, at FDJ meetings when he was the chairman of the Freie Deutsche Jugend. Honecker was already married, as well as being fifteen years her senior. The relationship between them developed when Feist, in her capacity as leader of the "Ernst Thälmann young pioneers", joined the East German delegation that traveled to Moscow for the celebration of Stalin's official birthday. The delegation was led by Erich Honecker. After she became pregnant and gave birth to their daughter Sonja in 1952, Honecker divorced his second wife Edith and married Margot. Minister of National Education In 1963, Honecker became Minister of National Education (German: Volksbildungsministerin), after a period occupying the office as Acting Minister. On 25 February 1965, she introduced the law that made "the uniform socialist education system" standard in all schools, colleges and universities throughout East Germany. For her work as Minister of National Education, Honecker was awarded the Order of Karl Marx, the nation's highest award, in 1977. In 1978, Honecker introduced, against the opposition of the churches and many parents, military lessons (German: Wehrkunde) for 9th and 10th grade high school students (this included training on weapons such as aerial guns and the KK-MPi). Her tenure lasted until early November 1989. Though the accusations were never proven, Honecker was allegedly responsible for the regime's kidnapping and forced adoption of children of jailed dissidents and those who tried to flee the GDR, and she is considered to have "left a cruel legacy of separated families." She dismissed the allegations that she had directed a program of forced adoptions, saying "It didn’t exist". Honecker also established prison-like institutions for children, including a camp at Torgau known as "Margot's concentration camp." In 1990, charges were made against Honecker as Minister of Education. These included accusations that she had arranged politically motivated arrests, separated children against their will from their parents, and ordered compulsory adoptions of children from persons deemed unreliable by the state. Loss of power During the Peaceful Revolution of 1989, Honecker briefly remained in office after her husband's ousting as leader of the Socialist Unity Party in October 1989, but was sacked from cabinet on 2 November. On 4 February 1990, she resigned from the Party of Democratic Socialism, successor of the SED; her husband had been expelled two months earlier. She later joined the newly refounded Communist Party.... Discover the Wolfram Eilenberger popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Wolfram Eilenberger books.