Emotional Hometown Visit for Honecker

East German Communist Party leader Erich Honecker visited his hometown Thursday for the first time since 1948 in the emotional high point of his trip to West Germany.

Honecker arrived in Wiebelskirchen after he had toured the ancient city of Trier and left 50 red roses in the house where Karl Marx, one of the founders of communism, was born in 1818.

In Trier, Honecker’s host, Rhineland Palatinate state Premier Bernhard Vogel, urged the Communist leader to lift the shoot-to-kill orders given to East German border guards to halt those trying to flee to the West.

Honecker, 75, left his native Wiebelskirchen in 1935 and later spent a decade in a Nazi prison. He last visited his hometown in 1948.

More Cheerful Than Usual

Honecker, the first East German Communist chief to visit West Germany, appeared more cheerful than usual during his hometown tour. Wiebelskirchen has a population of about 10,000 and borders France and Luxembourg.

He smiled broadly after touring the house where he was born. He also spent about two hours with his 70-year-old sister Gertrud, who still lives in Wiebelskirchen but is believed to visit her brother every year in East Germany. Honecker and his sister also paid a private visit to the local cemetery where their parents are buried.

The East German leader was welcomed by a cheering crowd of about 1,000 people who lined the streets as his motorcade drove through the town.

Greeted by Protesters

As he stepped out of the car and went into the family house, some people waved East German flags but about 20 demonstrators carried signs protesting the shoot-to-kill orders and demanding freedom for East German political prisoners.

Police detained a man shouting slogans for the release of political prisoners. Police said the man was a former East German political prisoner and added that he would be released shortly.

Meanwhile, West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, giving his first assessment of two days of talks with Honecker, praised the results of the visit but also urged him to lift the shooting orders.

Kohl said West Germany would remain committed to its long-term goal of peaceful reunification of the German nations.

“The (East) German Democratic Republic is not a foreign country for us,” Kohl said in a speech in the Bonn Parliament.

He also called on Honecker to allow East Germans to have more contacts with the West and stressed West Berlin’s ties to the rest of West Germany.

The chancellor also said Honecker’s visit is expected to result in bigger trade and more cooperation between the two German states.