Visit of Erich Honecker to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1987

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Erich Honecker visits Bonn , September 7, 1987

The visit of Erich Honecker in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1987 was a diplomatic tour of the Council of State and the Secretary General of the Central Committee of the SED of the GDR , Erich Honecker , in the Federal Republic of Germany of 7 to 11 September 1987th

It was the first and only visit of this kind made by a head of state or government of the GDR to the Federal Republic of Germany during the division of Germany . The five-day event was assessed by both the Federal Republic and the GDR as an important step in the development of German-German relations , but based on fundamentally different views. The government of the GDR interpreted the treatment of Honecker as a state guest of the Federal Republic of Germany as the long sought protocol recognition of the GDR as an independent German state also by the Federal Republic (see two-state theory ). The Federal Republic of Germany, on the other hand, viewed Honecker's visit as a “tool” of the New Ostpolitik and thus ultimately as a diplomatic means of bringing the two states closer together on the way to reunification . Until the Basic Treaty of 1972/73, the federal government assumed that it was the sole representative of German interests .

Honecker's visit to Germany attracted worldwide attention. 2,400 journalists were accredited , 1,700 of them from abroad. The "symbolism of the recognition of the German dual state" dominated the media reporting .

background

Helmut Schmidt 1981 during the visit to the GDR with Erich Honecker

Erich Honecker's visit to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1987 had a long history. The first official trip by a head of state and head of government of the GDR to the Federal Republic had been planned since 1983, but was blocked by the Soviet leadership at the time because the German-German relationship was mistrusted. There had previously been three German-German summits - in March 1970 in Erfurt , in May 1970 in Kassel and in December 1981 in the Hubertusstock hunting lodge on the Werbellinsee . At this meeting, Chancellor Helmut Schmidt invited Erich Honecker to a return visit to Bonn. When Schmidt issued the invitation to visit on December 13, 1981, martial law was imposed on the same day in Poland and Solidarność was banned, which significantly impaired East-West relations .

One of the main goals of Honecker's foreign policy since the 1970s was the pursuit of increased international recognition, which was related to the increasingly difficult economic and domestic political situation in the GDR and its relations with the leading power, the Soviet Union . As part of these efforts to achieve international recognition, Honecker visited Paris in 1988, among other places . His big goal, which he no longer achieved, was an official visit to the USA .

Until 1986 Moscow blocked a visit by Honecker to Bonn. In 1984, for example, Konstantin Tschernenko told Honecker at a summit meeting that the goal was “not cooperation, but delimitation”. The Soviet objections to Honecker's travel plans were related both to Soviet interests in the bloc confrontation and to the policy of the Schmidt and Kohl governments in the missile crisis . Almost six years passed before Honecker was able to accept the invitation to return to Bonn. In March 1985, Chancellor Kohl renewed Honecker's invitation to the Federal Republic of Germany at his first personal meeting with him on the occasion of Chernenko's funeral. On a trip to Moscow in 1986, Honecker tried to shield the GDR from the consequences of Gorbachev's reform policy, while Gorbachev, following the XI. SED party congress in East Berlin in April 1986 repeated the arguments of his predecessor Chernenko against a visit to the West by the GDR leadership. It was only in the autumn of 1986 that Gorbachev is said to have sent the message to Honecker that he wanted to agree with him on a date for his trip to Bonn. From May 1987 talks began between the West German Chancellery Minister Wolfgang Schäuble and the GDR chief negotiator Alexander Schalck-Golodkowski about the organization of the visit .

At the same time, Gorbachev tried to establish closer contacts with Western states as part of the realignment of Soviet policy according to the principles of glasnost and perestroika . Before Honecker could travel to Western Europe, Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker was received by Gorbachev on July 7, 1987 in the Katharinensaal of the Kremlin for a state visit. The abolition of the death penalty in the GDR , announced by the State Council on July 17, 1987, was also connected with Honecker's visit to Bonn, which was planned for September of that year.

In 1987 the SED leadership still hoped to refuse to accept changes similar to those in the USSR. Honecker knew that the two states could only change through a change of system in the GDR, but at the time he did not believe that the mutual alliance obligations would ever allow the GDR to dissolve. Before the federal election in 1987 , the SED regime supported the SPD after talks by Egon Bahr in East Berlin . In return, in the event of an election victory, the latter had promised full recognition of GDR citizenship. After the election victory of the CDU ( Kohl II cabinet ), the SED and SPD drafted a joint policy paper in which the existence of two states "in the long term" was recorded. Germany was reunified three years after the visit .

Course of the visit to the Federal Republic of Germany

September 7th - Bonn

Honecker and Kohl walking past the company of honor in front of the Federal Chancellery, September 7, 1987

When he arrived at Cologne / Bonn Airport on board the GDR government aircraft of the type IL-62M flown by the TG-44 , Honecker was first greeted by Chancellery Minister Wolfgang Schäuble . Honecker then drove in a motorcade with a motorcycle escort to Bonn's government district , where he arrived at half past ten in the morning and was received with military honors by Helmut Kohl in front of the Federal Chancellery .

After an initial exchange of ideas between the two heads of government in a small group in the offices of the Federal Chancellery, Honecker was invited to lunch with Federal President Richard von Weizsäcker in the neighboring Villa Hammerschmidt . The GDR insisted on this, even though the visit was officially not a state visit, but a working visit. In his dinner speech, Weizsäcker welcomed the guest as a “German among Germans” and called for further “system-opening cooperation”.

The afternoon of the first day of the visit was mainly devoted to discussions in the Federal Chancellery , with topics such as travel and visitor traffic , border determination in the Elbe section, minimum exchange rates , town twinning and the shooting order .

In the evening the federal government gave a “joint dinner” (not a state banquet ) for the delegations in the Godesberg Redoute , during which the basic political positions of the heads of government were exchanged during the dinner speeches. Chancellor Kohl had insisted in advance that the table speeches of the two heads of government be broadcast directly on state television in both the FRG and the GDR.

The Chancellor emphasized the “awareness of the unity of the nation”: “The will to preserve it is unbroken. This unity is expressed in a common language, in a common cultural heritage, in a long, ongoing common history. [...] This visit cannot and will not change the differing views of the two states on fundamental issues, including the national question . On behalf of the Federal Government I repeat: The preamble to our Basic Law is not up for discussion because it corresponds to our convictions. It wants a united Europe, and it calls on the entire German people to complete the unity and freedom of Germany through free self-determination. That is our goal. “Kohl also called on Honecker to get rid of the Berlin Wall and the order to shoot : “ The people in Germany suffer from the separation. They suffer from a wall that literally stands in their way and that repels them. When we dismantle what separates people, we take into account the unmistakable desire of Germans: They want to be able to come together because they belong together. Therefore obstacles of all kinds have to be removed. People in Germany expect that barriers will not be piled up. They want us - especially these days - to build new bridges. This is one of the reasons why we should strive even more intensively to enable the Germans to have a maximum of togetherness and encounters, travel and exchange. "

In his answer, Honecker spoke primarily about the priority of world peace . The realities of this world also include “that socialism and capitalism cannot be combined any more than fire and water.” At dinner in Bad Godesberg, Honecker did not go into the removal of the wall and shooting orders, which Kohl had warned about.

Honecker spent the night in Gymnich Castle , which at that time was used as the guest house of the Federal Republic of Germany. In the days that followed, Honecker received numerous guests at Gymnich Castle, including representatives from the West German states .


September 8 - Bonn

Press conference on the results of the official talks on September 8, 1987. From right: Friedhelm Ost (Head of the Press and Information Office ), Wolfgang Schäuble (Head of the Federal Chancellery), Hans-Otto Bräutigam (Head of the Permanent Mission of the FRG in the GDR )

After driving from Gymnich Castle to Bonn's government district , Honecker again conferred with Kohl and Schäuble in a small group. The Palais Schaumburg was also used for political meetings, receptions and contract signing during the visit. Topics here were particularly German-German cooperation in the fields of science, environmental protection , nuclear energy and the fight against AIDS , as well as West German loans for infrastructure measures such as the improvement of the motorway and rail network in the GDR.

This was followed by meetings between Honecker and Bundestag President Philipp Jenninger , former Federal President Karl Carstens and the chairmen of the political parties and parliamentary groups represented in the Bundestag , including the SPD chairman Hans-Jochen Vogel .

In the evening Honecker gave a return invitation to dinner at the Hotel Bristol , where he gave a speech reciprocated by Kohl. Also on September 8th, a joint communiqué was published in which the governments of the FRG and the GDR affirmed their intention to " develop normal, good neighborly relations with one another on the basis of equality in the sense of the Basic Treaty" .

September 9 - North Rhine-Westphalia

On the third day, Honecker visited North Rhine-Westphalia . To do this, he flew from Nörvenich air base (most of the state guests accommodated in Gymnich Castle landed at the air base within sight and were then driven to the guest house in a car) with a helicopter of the Federal Border Guard initially to Düsseldorf , where he was a guest at the castle with Prime Minister Johannes Rau Benrath was. Honecker and Rau ate lunch with 200 guests, including Rhenish sauerbraten . At the meeting, Honecker and Rau agreed to hold contact discussions at least every six months in future, primarily on environmental protection technologies.

Honecker's journey then led to Essen , where he landed in front of Villa Hügel . In the villa he met leading representatives of the German economy, including Berthold Beitz from Krupp AG , Otto Wolff von Amerongen from the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry , Carl H. Hahn from Volkswagen and Franz Steinkühler from IG Metall . In the Cologne Chamber of Commerce , Honecker met over 300 representatives from large-scale industry and medium-sized businesses . This event was intended to give selected heads of combines and foreign trade companies in the GDR the opportunity to initiate contacts and business deals with West German entrepreneurs. Two days after Honecker's arrival, the GDR managers were flown to Cologne-Bonn with a special Interflug plane .

In Wuppertal , Honecker and Prime Minister Rau visited the Engels house where Friedrich Engels grew up. In front of the Friedrich-Engels-Haus, Udo Lindenberg , who at the time was particularly active in the area of intra-German relations in addition to his musical work , handed Honecker an electric guitar with the slogan “Guitars instead of creaking”.


September 10th - Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland

On the fourth day of his visit to the Federal Republic of Germany, Honecker went to Trier , where he was received by Prime Minister Bernhard Vogel in front of the Electoral Palace . He then discussed possibilities for economic and cultural relations between the GDR and the state of Rhineland-Palatinate with Vogel , which was followed by a festive lunch. Vogel addressed the wish of all Germans " that no one is prevented from doing so by force of arms if they want to cross the border" ( Die Welt , November 11, 1987). In the afternoon, Honecker visited the Karl Marx House in Trier , the birthplace of Karl Marx , and laid a wreath there . Honecker saw a “special highlight” of his trip in the visit to the Karl Marx House.

From Trier, Honecker traveled by plane to Saarland , where he was received by Prime Minister Oskar Lafontaine at Saarbrücken-Ensheim Airport and then officially welcomed at the Saarland State Chancellery . From there Honecker traveled by motorcade with a motorcycle escort to Neunkirchen , where he visited his younger sister Gertrud Hoppstädter (1917-2010) and the grave of his parents Wilhelm (1881-1969) and Caroline Catharina Honecker (1883-1963) in the Wiebelskirchen district . Honecker also met childhood friends. The visit ended with a reception hosted by Mayor Neuber in the community center of Neunkirchen. In his speech there, Honecker indicated a possible normalization of the situation on the inner-German border . Because they are firmly anchored in the respective alliances, the borders between East and West are not “ as they should be ”, and “ the day will also come when borders no longer separate us, but borders unite us, just like us the border between the German Democratic Republic and the People's Republic of Poland united. "

After this private part of the visit, Honecker took part in a meal in the Dillinger Hütte casino with Prime Minister Lafontaine and representatives from the economy and politics of Saarland. He also spent the night in the Dillinger Hütte. September 11, 1987 at 11 am Honecker flew with a passenger aircraft of the German Air Force to Munich.


September 11th - Bavaria and Munich

Lunch in the Antiquarium of the Munich Residenz , one of the oldest Renaissance vaults in Europe

Honecker last day of the visit in the Federal Republic was Munich , where he was Prime Minister Franz Josef Strauss at Riem airport picked up and with him in the Bavarian State conferred. As is often the case at receptions of the Bavarian state government , Strauss gave a lunch in honor of Honecker in the Antiquarium of the Munich Residenz , to which around 130 representatives from Bavaria's politics and economy were invited. In his dinner speech, Strauss pointed out - apparently unexpected for Honecker - that the German question was still open and emphasized the right to national self-determination and the unity of the nation . After saying goodbye in the afternoon, Honecker flew back from Munich to Berlin-Schönefeld .

Diplomatic protocol

The different views on the importance of Honecker's visit to the FRG (see introduction) presented the West German diplomatic protocol with particular challenges. While the political leadership of the GDR expected Honecker to be received in accordance with the diplomatic practices customary for heads of state of sovereign subjects of international law , the FRG tried precisely to avoid such a protocol recognition of the GDR as an independent state. As Kohl emphasized, the protocol concessions should not hide the fact that the federal government is sticking to the basic positions of its German policy. After lengthy negotiations between Schäuble and Schalck-Golodkowski , Honecker was granted a “working visit by a head of state with executive power”, which for the FRG meant a visible “move away from previous reservations of status”.

In practice, the FRG thus granted Honecker the essential protocol honors of a state visitor : the use of a black Mercedes-Benz 600 as a representative vehicle on which the GDR stand was placed; Accompaniment of the motorcade by a motorcycle escort of the " White Mice "; red carpet and a reception with military honors by playing the GDR anthem by the guard battalion at the Federal Ministry of Defense and Guard of Honor . In addition, the GDR flag was hoisted in front of the Chancellery with a hammer, compass and wreath of ears, and the visit also included accommodation in Gymnich Castle, which was then used as the guest house of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Honecker's wish to meet Richard von Weizsäcker in the Villa Hammerschmidt was fulfilled - the GDR leadership insisted on the meeting of the heads of state of both states "at eye level" - which in East Berlin along with other obvious references as recognition of equality and sovereignty of the GDR and at the same time as evidence of the factual dual state of Germany. In Bonn, the red carpet was shortened by a few meters than usual on official state visits , the motorcycle escort was smaller than usual with 17 police officers (instead of 21) , and there were no gun salutes at all. The pieces of music to be played at the military reception in front of the Federal Chancellery were only mentioned in the official program as "hymns" and not as " national anthems " in order not to indirectly designate the GDR as a nation. And while the GDR delegation included State and Party Leader Honecker, Foreign Minister Oskar Fischer and the de facto Economics Minister Günter Mittag , West German Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor Hans-Dietrich Genscher was not part of the official reception committee of the Federal Government, even if he later joined the was involved in bilateral talks. The usual military ceremony at the reception of foreign state guests by the Federal President was also not carried out. According to the minutes of the Federal Chancellery, Honecker was dubbed "Mr. Secretary General ", according to the minutes of the Federal President's Office as "Mr. State Council Chairman ".

In contrast, Bavaria's Prime Minister Franz Josef Strauss had the GDR anthem played by a large orchestral police force at the beginning and again at the end of Honecker's six-hour visit to Munich. Strauss granted him “the full motorcycle escort” and chose “Munich's most beautiful hall” for lunch, the Antiquarium in the Munich Residence.

Honecker's status under international law was unclear. → Main article State immunity # Honecker case

Reviews of the visit

In the media reports it was often said that with the Honecker visit " both German states celebrated the normality of division" .

Honecker himself saw the visit as the penultimate step towards recognition of the GDR. In return, he calmly accepted the demands of the host Kohl's government for the unity of the German state and the warnings for respect for human rights in the GDR. On GDR television , however, the federal government was described as petty-minded because the formal ceremony of a real state visit was not observed. The criticism was mainly directed at Helmut Kohl, while Franz Josef Strauss was praised for the befitting treatment of the GDR.

The Federal Agency for Civic Education later ruled: “It seemed as if the Federal Republic had finally recognized the existence of the second German state. The division of the country seemed to be the solution to the German question and the federal government finally bowed to this reality. Not only did Honecker repeatedly invoke the existence of two independent sovereign states in Germany during his visit, the television images conveyed recognition on an equal footing, underlined by the talks with the political prominence of the Federal Republic that the state guest had. "

Honecker informed the SED Politburo about the great "historical significance" of the first official visit of an SED General Secretary to the Federal Republic: "The fact that the visit took place and the political and protocol-based treatment of Comrade Erich Honecker as head of state of another sovereign state was documented in front of everyone World independence and equality of both German states, underlined their sovereignty and the character of their relations under international law. ” The Politburo was also informed that during the visit, agreement between the delegations was reached on “ economic cooperation between the GDR's combines and foreign trade companies and companies to further develop the FRG and to develop such forms of cooperation as cooperation in the export of plants and equipment, especially in third markets, as well as in the production of licenses ” .

Not only Honecker interpreted his visit to the Federal Republic as the climax of the international recognition of the GDR. Typical of the atmosphere of the visit the set of the SPD chairman was Hans-Jochen Vogel in his conversation with Honecker on the second day of his visit, "the previous day [will] of the Master Agreement with all its elements reality" .

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote as a balance sheet of "Honecker's triumph". The Jena economist Jürgen Nitz wrote: “The black, red and gold flag, with a hammer, circle and wreath of ears on the mast, the red carpet, the honorary company, the honorary escort, the parade of prominent people from Bonn were far, far more than just for him Protocol and status symbols. " Peter Jochen Winters , the longtime correspondent of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in the GDR, sees it the same way: The visit to Bonn was" certainly the high point of his political life "for Honecker.

Web links

Commons : Honecker's visit to Germany, 1987  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ralf Zerback : State visit 1987: The recognition. In: Die Zeit , August 30, 2012, No. 36.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af Manfred Agethen: Visit of the GDR State Council Chairman Erich Honecker to the Federal Republic. In: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung , accessed on January 21, 2020.
    old version: Erich Honecker's visit to the Federal Republic of Germany in 1987. ( Memento from November 25, 2015 in the Internet Archive ).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h Manfred Wilke : The Honecker visit in Bonn 1987. In: Federal Center for Political Education , July 25, 2012.
  4. ^ A b Klaus Schroeder : The SED state. Böhlau Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-412-21109-7 , pp. 343-345.
  5. ^ A b c d e Rainer Blasius : 20 years ago: "As a German among Germans". In: FAZ , September 7, 2007.
  6. ↑ Carl-Christian Kaiser: Many truths, no wink. Erich Honecker in Bonn: The two German states have grown up in dealing with one another. ( Memento from January 21, 2020 in the Internet Archive ). In: Die Zeit , September 11, 1987, No. 38, p. 3.
  7. ↑ 25 years of Honecker's visit: When Bonn hoisted the “Spalter flag”. In: n-tv  / dpa , September 6, 2012.
  8. ↑ See report on the official visit of the Secretary General [...] to the Federal Republic of Germany [...] to the meeting of the Politburo on September 15, 1987. In: Hans-Hermann Hertle among others: The state visit. Honecker in Bonn. Press and Information Office of the Free University of Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-927474-78-9 , S. CVI., Note 34.
  9. ↑ a b Helmut Kohls and Erich Honecker's table speeches on Erich Honecker's visit to Bonn, September 7, 1987. In: 1000dokumente.de , accessed on January 21, 2020.
  10. ^ A b c d Serge Schmemann: Honecker's West German Visit: Divided Meaning. In: New York Times , September 7, 1987.
  11. ↑ Federal Ministry for Inner-German Relations (ed.), The visit of General Secretary Honecker in the Federal Republic of Germany: Documentation on the working visit of the General Secretary of the SED and State Council Chairman of the GDR, Erich Honecker, in the Federal Republic of Germany in September 1987 , Bonn 1988, p. 79, 83.
  12. ↑ Birgit Wanninger: Emperors and kings as guests in the castle. In: Rheinische Post , local editorial office Düsseldorf, September 27, 2014.
  13. ^ Honecker visit: First address. In: Der Spiegel , September 7, 1987.
  14. ↑ Jörg Isringhaus: Udo, Erich and “Guitars instead of creaking”. In: Rheinische Post , July 31, 2013.
  15. ↑ a b Review of the year 1987: Honecker comes to Bonn. In: Tagesschau.de , December 17, 2010, with video.
  16. ↑ a b c d dpa , N24: 25 years of Honecker's visit: When Bonn set the “splitter flag”. ( Memento from September 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). In: N24 , September 7, 2012.
  17. ↑ The Politburo is informed. In: German History in Documents and Pictures ( DGDB ), accessed on January 21, 2020.