Reagan to Shorten W. German Trip, Avoid V-E Issue

President Reagan, sidestepping a controversy in West Germany over how to treat the 40th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, will cut short a state visit in Bonn to address the European Parlianment in France on May 8, V-E Day, the White House said Thursday.

With West Germany still struggling to come to grips with the commemoration of the Nazi defeat at the hands of the Allied armies, Reagan was faced with the dilemma posed by the possibility that he would have to mark the date among extremely sensitive hosts.

Instead, he will leave West Germany earlier than planned after the annual summit conference of the major industrial democracies and a state visit in Bonn, flying on to Spain. Then, he will travel to France on May 8, deliver his speech in Strasbourg and return later that day to the Iberian Peninsula for a visit to Portugal, a White House official said.

Reagan’s speech to the European Parliament--a legislative body of the Common Market that carries limited authority--will give him an opportunity to focus on the Allies’ victory in Europe as an event that led to prosperity, reconciliation and democracy, rather than as a military triumph.

‘Too Much Time’

Originally, the President was scheduled to be in West Germany from April 30 through May 8--a nine-day stretch that the White House official said was “too much time.” He said Deputy Chief of Staff Michael K. Deaver realized that “it would be impossible to sustain interest in Germany or here in what the President was doing” over that period.

The official said the schedule was originally drawn up to include enough time for Reagan to visit Eastern Europe as well. But such a side trip failed to materialize and, with German sensitivities to the celebration of V-E Day surfacing, “the invitation to visit Strasbourg was perfect,” he said.

Although the official insisted that there was no problem with the President spending May 8 in West Germany, he noted that “there was no reason to be there.”

Administration sources also said the Germans had raised the possibility of a Reagan visit to the former concentration camp at Dachau. However, the United States has been reluctant to schedule such a trip.

West Germans Excluded

The potential diplomatic pitfalls raised by Reagan’s presence in Europe during early May are similar to those that occurred last June, when he and other Allied leaders marked the 40th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that led to the liberation of France and then Europe from the Nazi grip. West Germany was excluded from that commemoration on the beaches of Normandy.

In the Soviet Union, ambitious plans are being made to use May 8 not only as a celebration of victory in World War II but also as a propaganda event to focus on West German “revanchism”--Bonn’s desire to recover lost territory.

But in West Germany, an emotional debate is under way over how to mark the date. No clear-cut answers have emerged to the question of whether it should be celebrated as the day of liberation from the Nazi dictatorship or as a moment of mourning.