Erich Honecker

It is one of The Most bizarre tours I have ever experienced. I drive around Berlin with Egon Krenz , The Last Communist leader of East Germany .

"This way formerly Stalin Allee!" he says to me as we head down to Karl-Marx-Allee. "They called it, died after Stalin.

"And Over There was the Lenin square. It was a huge statue of Lenin. But they took it down. "

He looks out The Window and smiles.

"The GDR [German Democratic Republic ] built all this. "

Mr. Krenz, a sprightly 82-year-old, is in fine obesity, diabetes as the Land he once ran. The German Democratic Republic - East Germany - no longer exists. Thirty years after the turbulent events of 1989 and The Fall of the Berlin Wall , Mr. Krenz has agreed to meet me.

loved Due To My bad English and Mr Krenz lack of English, we communicate in Russian. It is a language he knows well. He had: the GDR was a satellite state of Moscow .

"I love Russia and I loved the Soviet Union ," he tells me. "I still have many connections there. The GDR was a child of the Soviet Union . The USSR, the GDR was on the cradle's. And, unfortunately, it also stood out from his death bed. "

For The Communist Russia, East Germany was its most important Outpost in Europe. The Soviet Union had 800 military garrisons in East Germany and half a million soldiers.

"an occupying Power or not, we saw Soviet troops as our friends," said Mr Krenz.

But what is the advantage was that you, as a part of the Soviet Empire?

"this expression 'part of the Soviet Empire'... this is typical Western terminology," he replies. "In the Warsaw Pact , we saw ourselves as the Moscow partners. Although, of course, when it came to My Country , the Soviet Union had The Last word. "

in 1937, reached Born, The Son of a tailor, Egon Krenz climbed The Communist ladder quickly.

"I was a Young pioneer. Then a member of The Free German youth. Then I joined the Socialist unity party. Then I was party chief. I've done it all!"

For many years, he was seen as the "young Prince " successor-in-waiting, to long-serving DDR leader Erich Honecker .

to be replaced But the time, he Honecker in October 1989, the government party lost its grip on Power .

From Poland to Bulgaria, the Power of the people was to cross The Eastern bloc. East Germany was no exception.

flew in A week before The Fall of the Berlin Wall , Mr. Krenz to Moscow for urgent talks with the Soviet head of state Mikhail Gorbachev .

"Gorbachev said to me, the people in the Soviet Union , the perspective of the East Germans, like their brothers," he said.

"And to the Soviet people, he loved the people of the GDR, most of. So then I asked: would you like to see as a Father Figure to the GDR? "Of course, Egon," he said. "If you Association point to possible German again, which is not on The Agenda . '

"I thought at the time, Gorbachev was sincere. That was my mistake. "

do you feel in the Soviet Union , you betray? I Ask You A Question.

"Yes . "

At 9. November 1989, the Berlin Wall fell. Crowds of ecstatic East Germans poured through the open border.

"It was the worst Night of My Life ," Mr. Krenz recalls. "I don't want to experience that again. When politicians say in The West , it was a festival of the people, I understand that. But I shoulders all the responsibility. In such an emotionally charged moment, if someone had been killed That Night , we sucked and had, in a military conflict between the major Powers . "

Within a month of The Wall fall, Mr. Krenz stepped leader, as the GDR. In The Following year East and West Germany reunited. The GDR was handed over to history.

It was not long before the Soviet Union disintegrated itself. But the whole of Eastern Europe , Mikhail Gorbachev , in contrast to Egon Krenz , as a hero, so that the Iron Curtain to be Torn Down .

said to me, in 2013, former Soviet President: "I'm often accused of giving away Central and Eastern Europe . But who did I admit it? I was in Poland, for example, back to the poles. Who else is it then?"

Mr. Krenz Power had lost and his country.

next, he lost his freedom.

in 1997, he was convicted in the killing of people by the East Germans shot trying to escape over the Berlin Wall . He spent four years in prison.

Egon Krenz finished" still interested in politics. And still supported by Moscow .

"After the weak President like Gorbachev and Yeltsin, it is a great luck for Russia that it is [President Vladimir] Putin. "

He insists that the Cold War never ended, But "were fought with various methods".

Today, Mr. Krenz is living a quiet life on Germany 's Baltic Sea coast.

"I still get many letters and calls from the grandchildren of the citizens of the GDR. You tell me that your grandparents would love it if I could, wish you a happy birthday. Sometimes people come to me and ask me for an autograph or a selfie. "

If we are to come out of The Car in the centre of Berlin, a history teacher, and his group of 10-graders to us. It is your lucky day.

"We are on a class trip from Hamburg to the study of the history of the GDR," The Teacher , Mr. Krenz said. "It is amazing that you as a living testimony. What was it like For You when The Wall fell?"

"It was not a carnival," said Mr Krenz. "It was a very dramatic Night . "

Source of news: bbc.com