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As the 1960s came to an end, however, Ulbricht was himself in a position of weakness vis-à-vis his masters in Moscow. Leonid Brezhnev, chief of the USSR since 1964, was pushing for closer ties with West Germany in hopes of gaining access to Western technology and expertise. He found a willing partner in the Federal Republic’s new chancellor, Willy Brandt, whose Ostpolitik aimed at easing tensions with Eastern Europe and facilitating contacts between the two Germanys. Shortly after taking office in 1969, Brandt signed a Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty with Moscow and tacitly recognized the Oder-Neisse border between the former German Reich and Poland. In March 1970 he met with GDR Council of Ministers chairman Willi Stoph in Erfurt, the first such meeting between top representatives of the postwar German states. On this occasion Brandt breached the Berlin question, insisting that there was no difference between West Berlin and the Federal Republic. “Berlin is in every respect part of us,” he declared. Brandt’s enthusiastic reception from the people of Erfurt showed how desperate ordinary East Germans were to break down the barriers between the two countries. Ulbricht, on the other hand, stubbornly resisted the East-West rapprochement, fearing that it would undermine the legitimacy of his Communist government. His belief that the GDR could choose its own path in international affairs, combined with the failures of his economic policy, made him a liability for Moscow. In July 1970 Brezhnev confided to Honecker:

You can believe me, Erich, the situation which has developed in your country disturbs me deeply. Things have reached the stage where they are no longer simply your affair. The GDR is for us a socialist brother-country, an important outpost. It is the result of the Second World War, our conquest, won with the blood of the Soviet people. . . . We must and will react. . . . I tell you quite honestly, we will not permit him to go his own way. . . . After all, we have troops on your soil, Erich. I say this to you frankly, never forget that.

In time Honecker himself would forget who truly ruled the GDR, but for the moment he seemed a reliable replacement for the seventy-eight-year-old Ulbricht, and in May 1971 he was allowed to unseat his former patron with the blessing of Brezhnev. The old Communist warhorse, whose resignation was said to have been based on “health reasons,” was put out to pasture with several honorary posts and the job of handing out medals to second-tier heroes of the East German state. He died in 1973.

Honecker’s appointment as party leader was greeted with relief in East Berlin, especially among the intellectuals. Unaware of his key role in building the Berlin Wall, many GDR citizens believed him to be something of a liberal and expected him to promote more openness at home and greater contacts with the West. At first these hopes seemed justified. He ended the ban on watching Western television and allowed young people to wear jeans and other “decadent bourgeois” fashions. Boys were permitted to grow their hair long on the grounds that, as the new chief declared, it was more important what was in people’s heads than what was on top. At the Eighth SED Party Conference in June 1971 the talk was not so much about obedience and discipline as about variety, tolerance, imagination, and experimentation. Honecker personally stated that the chief goal of the party was to raise the material and cultural standard of living in the GDR, and to that end he endorsed a series of social reforms, including greater support for the old and sick, loans for young married couples, generous vacation pay, free day care for preschool children, maternity leave for pregnant mothers, and free abortions.