Gorbachev Urged Ouster of Honecker, W. German Says

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev met with the East German Politburo earlier this month and delivered a forceful message in favor of ousting Erich Honecker, the East German leader who resigned this week, a senior West German official said in an interview Friday.

“We are convinced that this was the place where Gorbachev told them to change things,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

He said it was not clear whether Gorbachev, in the Oct. 7 meeting, explicitly urged Honecker to retire. But he said Gorbachev’s intervention was the final straw that forced out the 77-year-old party boss.

The official noted that Gorbachev’s action contradicted his frequent promises to allow East Bloc states to go their own way.

The lesson, he said: “Change in the GDR (German Democratic Republic, East Germany’s official name) . . . depends on Soviet Russia. It depends on Gorbachev. Sure, he told us he would not interfere. We were interested that he did interfere.”