E. Germans in Hungary Shift Vigil to Church

Hundreds of East Germans who want to live in the West moved their vigil Tuesday from the closed West German Embassy to a nearby church, while German and Hungarian officials negotiated their fate.

These and other East Germans, who demand permission to emigrate via West German diplomatic facilities in the East Bloc, have created a standoff involving their Communist homeland, West Germany and Hungary.

West German diplomats closed their Budapest consulate and embassy Monday because they said they could not handle the crush of East Germans demanding asylum.

Rezsoe Stuchlik, head of the Hungarian Red Cross foreign section, said Tuesday that about 200 East Germans had come from the consulate to the courtyard of a Roman Catholic church about two miles away.

An East German outside the church grounds said later that the number had risen to about 300.

About 30 East Germans remained in front of the consulate. They said West Germany diplomats had given them money.

“I’m staying here as long as it takes,” said a 47-year-old man from the Berlin area who spoke on condition of anonymity. “One month, two months, I don’t care.”

Allowed in at Night

Varying numbers of East Germans have been maintaining a vigil in front of the embassy and consulate for at least a week. They had been allowed inside at night until the buildings closed Monday.

In Bonn, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hanns Schumacher said Monday that 141 other adults and 40 children were holed up inside the embassy in Budapest. Political opposition figures estimate that 400 East Germans have overstayed their visas and gone underground.

West Germany closed its East Berlin mission Aug. 8 after 131 East Germans seeking guarantees that they can go to West Germany sought refuge there.

Negotiations involving both German states and Hungary continued Tuesday, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry said. It gave no details.

In Bonn, government spokesman Herbert Schmuelling said Chancellor Helmut Kohl wrote a letter on the problems in Hungary to East German leader Erich Honecker. He did not say what the letter said.

Red Cross officials said they didn’t know how long the East Germans at the Budapest church would continue their vigil.