I Was the Last Citizen of the GDR

There isn’t much that is publicly known about the last years of Erich and Margot Honecker, who were granted political asylum in Chile. Now, two years after Margot Honecker’s death, her grandson, Roberto Yañez, breaks the silence. For the first time, he speaks about his life as the »favorite grandchild« and about what happened after his grandfather was overthrown and the GDR broke down.

Roberto Yañez, son of Sonja Honecker, grew up with the privileges of power. When the Berlin Wall is torn down, he is 15 years old. His beloved grandparents are chased as criminals. He himself feels persecuted, even after his family has left for Chile, his father’s home country. He has a hard time adapting to the unfamiliar culture. After his parents’ separation, he moves in with Margot Honecker, who holds on to her political belief system unwaveringly. Time and again, Roberto breaks free from the strict rules and looks for a new life among art, music and drugs. But his grandmother remains the person he feels closest to and he keeps returning to her again and again. It’s only when she dies in 2016 that he can free himself from the burden of his family history – and talk about the glorious times of his childhood, the end of the GDR, how the Honeckers experienced the political developments as a family and about his grandparents’ last years in Chile.