Sympathy for Erich Honecker

Journalistic eyebrows shot up in Berlin when the Jan. 11 New Yorker magazine arrived.

Most accounts of the manslaughter and embezzlement trial of Erich Honecker, 80, portray the former East German leader as a villain, the man who supervised construction of the Berlin Wall, where up to 350 people were gunned down as they tried to escape Communism.

But The New Yorker’s lead “Talk of the Town” article was more sympathetic than most in its trial coverage.

Wednesday’s Washington Post pointed out an interesting connection: the unsigned New Yorker piece was written by Irene Dische, wife of Nikolas Becker, a Honecker defense attorney.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” said Alexander Chancellor, who edits “Talk.” “It just happens to be the format of ‘Talk of the Town’ that things aren’t signed.”

Contacted in Berlin, where she has lived for 12 years and written “for every serious magazine and newspaper in Germany,” Dische said she doesn’t understand why the piece might be considered a conflict of interest: “My name is not ‘Mr. Becker’s wife’. . . . I’m not that influenced by my husband.”

Honecker’s trial was vacated this week, and he emigrated to Chile to live with his wife and daughter.