East Germans Rally Against Regime While Others Flock to West Berlin

EAST BERLIN — East German demonstrators by the tens of thousands continued to criticize their government Sunday as hundreds of thousands more of their countrymen poured into West Germany for the day.

The demonstrations were staged here in the East German capital, as well as in Dresden, Potsdam and several other cities.

Many of the protesters Sunday openly criticized East German Communist Party leader Egon Krenz and the rest of the Communist leadership for their role in repressive government.

In Dresden, where the crowd was estimated at 50,000, they carried banners declaring: “We Had to Take You Long Enough.” Another made an ironic play on the words of Jesus Christ from the Cross: “Lord, Don’t Forgive Them Because They Knew What They Did.”

Other placards insisted on immediate free elections and demanded free speech.

Some protesters demanded that Krenz resign his positions as head of state, party chief and member of the ruling Politburo. They complained in particular about his supervisory role in last May’s local elections, which were widely thought to have been rigged in favor of official candidates. One protester in Dresden declared on television: “How can we trust you now, Egon Krenz, when you cheated in the last election?”

Krenz assured East Germans in a televised interview late Sunday that he will fight for political reform.

“If the party is of another opinion, then they should find another general secretary,” he said at his East Berlin home.

The demonstrations reflected the continuing dissatisfaction with those in the upper and middle levels of the Communist Party, who have fared much better in East Germany’s faltering economy than rank-and-file workers.

However, the newly appointed, reformist prime minister, Hans Modrow, who took office on Saturday, was not a target of the gatherings.

Demonstrators in the center of East Berlin sounded the same anti-Krenz theme as their counterparts in Dresden did, complaining about his background as a high-living senior official in the Communist Party.

Krenz, in an interview with Cable News Network broadcast Saturday, denied any involvement in such corruption.

“I don’t have any wealth that I achieved at the expense of the state,” he said. “I don’t have a weekend house. I don’t have a private hunting area. I don’t own anything except for what is within my own four walls and except for my apartment that I have here in Berlin today.”

Sunday’s protesting crowds also called for an end to the manipulation of the media by the Communist regime.

One group of protesters carried a coffin to mark the demise of the State Security Ministry, downgraded to an Office of National Security in the new coalition government.

“For exchange: East Germany for Mickey Mouse,” read one placard, poking fun at the country’s political crisis.

Speakers in the crowd called for prosecution of the country’s former leaders, including ousted president and party chief Erich Honecker, who was replaced by Krenz on Oct. 18.

Krenz was quoted by a West German newspaper as saying Honecker is one of those under investigation by a parliamentary commission.

The marchers left their placards and banners around the Volkskammer (Parliament) before breaking up.

There were also demonstrations in Erfurt, Frankfurt an der Oder, Karl Marx Stadt, Meiningen, Schwedt and Neustrelitz.

In another development, the official ADN news agency reported Sunday that the Communist Party cadres in the military would no longer play a leading role in political indoctrination of the troops.

The East German army is considered the best among the Warsaw Pact forces, excluding elite Soviet troops. The party-run Political Administration Secretariat has suggested that the ruling Politburo disband the leadership of Communist cells in the military ranks.

This would be an important shift away from the parallel role that the party plays in the direction of army units, a role long opposed by professional military officers.

“In the armed forces and border troops, the responsibilities and competence of party organizations and the state command organization will be clearly separated from each other in the future,” the news agency said.

The East German army consists of 172,000 soldiers and 47,000 border guards, all of whom are subject to political lectures by party cell leaders.

Meanwhile, as East Germans flooded the West, the value of the East German mark also fell against West German marks. Despite the East German government’s attempt to set an artificial one-to-one rate, unofficial rates have slipped well below 10 to 1, currency dealers said Sunday.

Border police in West Germany estimated that nearly 3 million East Germans, most of them making a sightseeing or shopping trip for the day, crossed into West Berlin and West Germany between Friday and Sunday, the second weekend since the government opened borders to the West. The officials said that only 1,409 of the East Germans who crossed the border asked to stay, bringing to about 38,500 the total of East Germans who have fled the country since travel restrictions were lifted Nov. 9.

By the afternoon Sunday, the traffic jams that stretched 20 miles on the Eastern side of the border Saturday began appearing on the Western side as the tide turned and East Germans started to head home.