Unrestricted Travels and Free Elections in East Germany (1989)

[music] - Again tonight, our major focus is the historic rush of events in East Germany. We have extended reports on today's developments and then analysis by leading American observers. First from Britain's Independent Television News, on-the-scene reports by David Smith in the Soviet Union and Nik Gowing in East Berlin. - The Berlin Wall has symbolized the divide between East and West for 27 years. Suddenly tonight, the minefield and border fortifications between East and West Germany appear to have been rendered redundant at a stroke and with immediate effect. The announcement of the decision taken at the East German Council of Ministers came within the last hour at a press conference by a leading member of the new Politburo. - [German, voice of translator] Today we have decided to introduce measures permitting every citizen of the DDR to leave for the Federal Republic by any crossing points.

- The right of East Germans to have a passport giving them free and unrestricted travel abroad was the climax to a day of fast-moving and momentous developments which began with the overnight promise of free elections. It was Günter Schabowski, Politburo member, rival to Egon Krenz and a leading reformer who flew the kite that the new East German leadership was now ready to accept free elections with all political groups being allowed to participate. So at Communist Party headquarters on day two of the Central Committee meeting, the new slimmed-down reformist Politburo arrived to confront heated debate over how to guarantee the party's supremacy in what will eventually be the first open political contest in the state's 40-year existence. Some Central Committee members had no intention of airing their view on free elections, certainly not to a Western correspondent. Others though did have a robust

view that the Communist Party would reform itself and win a majority in open elections. - "What a bad thing," said this army officer. "We are going to do everything in our decisions to win back the people's trust," said this Central Committee member. As public disillusionment with the Communist Party spreads by the hour, some faces betrayed anxiety. Others though rejected any idea that the party's supremacy was under threat. "I tell you, we don't feel threatened at all," said this member. Does the party feel under threat? Can you survive if there are free elections? - Yeah, I am quite sure. - But is everyone convinced? - But if we would say we can't, we will not succeed. - But in Poland, the Communist Party believed they had it right and would win elections and they didn't, they were humiliated. - We have gone another way in the past. Then Poland, it's another situation.

- Meanwhile, the pace of political change continued unabated. The Volkskammer, the parliament, will meet an emergency session on Monday to elect a new government. And after pressure from pro-reform Party officials, Party headquarters this afternoon announced the convening of a special congress next month. One hadn't been due until next March. But most remarkable were the shambolic events which took place in this apartment block in a rundown part of East Berlin this afternoon. Western correspondents were invited to a flat which for many years until a few days ago had been under police surveillance, the home of a painter who is the founding member of the New Forum pro-reform group. The small artist studio was bursting with television crews and it was all too much for the group's leaders who until last weekend were used to underground political activity, arrest and harassment. So this cutting edge of democracy was forced to decamp in pandemonium to a backyard

for the very first news conference by New Forum. The group's camera-shy leading figures announced that as from last night, the authorities had told them New Forum was no longer an illegal organization. Six weeks ago New Forum had just 2,000 supporters willing to brave arrest for supporting the group. Tonight they have 200,000. In a constitutional ruse designed not to antagonize the Communist Party, they said they would fight free elections as an organization, not as a political party. - We don't want to be a party and we think we have now good things for change something in the GDR for change of situation and perhaps for to say to people, please stay in the GDR, live and work here. - There is then no let up to the extraordinary pace of change here. What has long been impossible is not just becoming possible. Within days

or hours it is actually taking place sanctioned by a partially-renovated East German leadership which is racing against time to halt the refugee exodus and to preserve the viability of East Germany as a sovereign communist state. - In Moscow there has been no sense of crisis or crisis management when it comes to East Germany. Because at this stage the Soviet leadership believes the shake-up in East Berlin is a much needed change for the better. That explains why in the past 24 hours, Soviet television has reported the dramatic events in East Germany more fully than ever before. Nothing it seems has been left out: not the demonstrations, not the upheaval under Mr. Krenz in the Politburo and the East German government. Not even the reaction of Chancellor Kohl in West Germany. The clear implication is that the removal of East Germany's old guard was discussed and agreed by President Gorbachev and Mr.

Krenz when they met in Moscow last week. Certainly the East German leader did get Moscow's approval for what he's done in the days since that crucial meeting. - In general terms how concerned are you by events in East Germany? - We were watching them closely and they are improving the situation in the sense that they are moving to Perestroika on their own terms. - Do you welcome the changes that have taken place in the leadership in the Politburo? - It's Perestroika on their own terms, yes. - Little evidence there then of a sense of alarm here. Rather cautious optimism and some satisfaction that the East Germans are following Mr. Gorbachev's lead. Yet in the long term the Soviets do have their worries because they know that ultimately what's happening in East Germany raises the question of reunification and the prospect of irreparable damage to the Warsaw Pact to communism as a political philosophy. The Soviets have nearly 400,000 troops in East Germany because unlike Poland or Hungary it's the front line with NATO. And while Mr. Gorbachev would not use them as his predecessors

did in Czechoslovakia, he cannot tolerate anything that might have East Germany leaving the Warsaw Pact. [German] That's why the Kremlin has to back Mr. Krenz from now. He's seen as the best hope here of preventing East Germany slipping away from socialism, because if it did it would have lost its reason to exist and there'd be nothing to stop the reunification of the two Germanies. [German, voice of translator] The very life of East Germany is socialism. Without it, it will lose its national identity and become part of West Germany. It would be inevitable. - Seen from Moscow then, East Germany is not like Poland or Hungary. And already the future dilemma for the Soviets is becoming obvious. Tonight for example, spokesman Gennady Gerasimov said East Germany could go the way of Poland and elect a non-communist government. - It's their decision, just like in Poland or Frank Sinatra... "He had it

his way," so Poland has it its way. - But then he categorically ruled out what a non-communist government might mean: reunification. - No, nobody. Even in Bundesrepublik, even then the Federal Republic of Germany discusses seriously this question of reunification of two Germanies. They drifted too much apart. - Tonight as they were dismantling at the end of this week's anniversary celebrations, the choice for the Soviets seemed clear. They can reconstruct the Eastern bloc. They can open up the Berlin Wall as they've done tonight. But they may ultimately have to draw one line for some like Poland, and quite a different one for others like East Germany. - When he met with reporters in the Oval Office