16,000 More Poised to Flee E. Germany, Hungary Says : Thousands Already on Their Way

About 16,000 East Germans have crossed the Czechoslovak border into Hungary over the past 24 hours apparently intent on joining an exodus of East German refugees to the West, Budapest Radio said today,

The radio said more East Germans were expected to arrive in Hungary from Romania and Bulgaria. Many of them are expected to make use of Hungary’s temporary opening of its borders with Austria and join the more than 8,000 refugees who have left Hungary since the border was opened at midnight Sunday.

An estimated 60,000 East German tourists are still in Hungary, and Budapest has already made it clear it was ready to allow those who wished to leave for the West to go.

According to the latest count by the Austrian Interior Ministry, 8,100 East Germans have crossed into Austria since midnight in private cars, special Red Cross buses and on foot and were already on their way to West Germany.

“I decided on escaping 27 years ago, and today it worked. It’s a feeling that’s just tops, just wild,” said a 40-year-old Leipzig man after crossing into West Germany at Passau.

Single people, couples and families with children and babies made the journey from Hungary to West Germany--by bus, rickety sedans or motorcycle.

“We did not really plan to come here, but when we heard about the opening of the (Hungarian-Austrian) border, we decided this was a chance,” said 20-year-old Volkmar Windt, who crossed into West Germany on a small East German-made motorcycle along with his twin sister, Katrin.

Many refugees were cheering and shouting as they reached Bavaria under the blaze of television lights while their children played with teddy bears handed out by relief workers.

Some tumbled out of compact cars packed with people and jubilantly flashed victory signs after crossing into West Germany.

It was the greatest flood of East German refugees since 1961, the year the Berlin Wall halted the flow to the East.

Hungary’s action marks the first time a Warsaw Pact country has aided an exodus of refugees from an allied Communist nation. East German leaders expressed outrage at the Hungarian government, and state news media accused it of “organized smuggling of humans.”