Cheering Crowds Again Greet Gorbachev : ‘Bravo!’ Shouted as Soviet Leader Tours High-Tech German State

Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev was mobbed by West German well-wishers for the second straight day today as he visited Stuttgart to view the high technology he needs to modernize the Soviet economy.

A crowd of 5,000 gathered behind barriers across from the New Castle state residence where Gorbachev spent more than two hours talking with political and industrial leaders of Baden-Wuerttemberg, one of West Germany’s most prosperous states.

Before his formal meetings with local leaders and a tour of a robotics and industrial machinery exhibit at Stuttgart University, the Kremlin leader mingled with the crowd and signed autographs to thunderous cheers and cries of “Bravo, Gorby!”

“I like Mike,” “Greetings, Gorby” and “New Thinking, No New Weapons,” proclaimed some of the signs hoisted by well-wishers.

Referring to the cheering receptions he has been accorded at all of his public appearances, Gorbachev said, “This has really pleased all the Soviet people.”

Inside New Castle, a reconstructed 18th-Century palace that houses two government ministries, Gorbachev praised Baden-Wuerttemberg Premier Lothar Spaeth and the people of his state for their pioneering role in joint economic ventures with the Soviet Union.

“I want to note that the people of your state have been out in front,” Gorbachev, on the third day of his West German visit, said during the brief welcoming ceremony.

He said the crowds on the cobblestone square in front of the building personified the rapprochement between West Germany and the Soviet Union after years of tense relations.

“This is more than feelings. This is evidence of the great changes that have taken place,” Gorbachev said.

Spaeth praised Gorbachev’s role in pressing for a “common European home” with more cooperation between East and West.

“No one has worked as much as you have to make this possible,” he said.

But Spaeth--tapped as a possible West German chancellor--also noted that Germany remains divided into two states and that the Communist East is fenced off by barbed wire and the Berlin Wall.

“The building site for the European House is not yet finished. There are still barbed wire and walls. But despite this we must begin,” Spaeth said.