E. German Paper Urges Free Debate

The official newspaper of the East German Communist Party called Friday for public debate to solve the country’s mounting problems.

The newspaper, Neues Deutschland, said that under the new leadership of Egon Krenz the party is “ready to face the truth about reform.”

With the change in leadership, it said, “all important questions are up for discussion,” including the reasons for the recent flight to the West by thousands of East German citizens.

“It is time,” the newspaper added, “to stop painting things in rosy colors.”

Neues Deutschland has been widely criticized by opposition leaders for ignoring East Germany’s pressing problems and presenting a glowing picture of conditions.

Yet on Friday the paper described as “like a thunderstorm clearing the air” the party Central Committee meeting Wednesday that accepted the resignation of Erich Honecker, the 77-year-old ailing party leader, and named Krenz to succeed him.

The signal for this abrupt change in the newspaper’s tone was sounded Wednesday when the Central Committee dismissed the Politburo propaganda chief, Joachim Herrmann.

In the past few weeks, at mass demonstrations nationwide, opposition leaders have been calling for open debate on economic and political reform--and thus many were surprised to read in Neues Deutschland: “All people are urged to call problems by their names and to work together to solve them.”

Rolf Heinrich, one of the founders of the opposition group New Forum, called on East Germans to give the 52-year-old Krenz an opportunity to address the nation’s ills.

“It doesn’t make any sense to deny him a chance,” Heinrich said.

In West Germany, Chancellor Helmut Kohl said Friday he sees indications that East German leaders realize they must talk openly about their problems.

“It seems that some East German leaders have recognized the signs of the times,” Kohl said at a fair in Hanover. “But a simple shuffling of the leadership will not solve everything. We hope the positive signs won’t deceive us and that the first signals of a readiness to discuss problems will lead toward freedom and self-determination. That is the only way the crisis in East Germany can be overcome peacefully.”