The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic from the country's establishment in 1949 until the Peaceful Revolution of 1989. Formed in 1946
Otto Grotewohl (right) and Wilhelm Pieck (left) seal the unification of the SPD and KPD with a symbolic handshake. Walter Ulbricht is seated in the foreground to the right of Grotewohl. Photograph by Avraham Pisarek, 21 April 1946.
1950, before the East German uprising of 1953
1954, after the East German uprising of 1953
International Relations Secretary Hermann Axen (left) and PCI Politburo member Pietro Ingrao (right) at the 7th Party Congress, 18 April 1967
Erich Honecker
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Erich Ernst Paul Honecker was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the posts of Gen
Socialist Unity Party of Germany
…a series of failed economic reforms aimed at raising the GDR's competitiveness, as well as a worsening relationship with the Soviets. His successor, Erich Honecker, presided over a period of increasing economic stagnation until 1989. The SED promoted universal education and healthcare, the collectivisation of…
Official portrait, 1976
Honecker's childhood home in Wiebelskirchen
Honecker, founder of FDJ, 1946
Honecker, watched by his mentor Walter Ulbricht at the Party's 5th congress, 1958