E. Germany Gives Amnesty to Emigres, Demonstrators

The new East German leadership declared an amnesty Friday for all those who have fled to the West and all those who have taken part in peaceful street demonstrations over the last month.

Since this summer, about 60,000 East Germans have fled illegally through Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland to West Germany, where all are considered to be citizens.

The official East German news agency ADN, in announcing the amnesty, did not make clear how many people might be affected. The order did not state how far back the amnesty extends, but the broad wording may mean it goes to 1961, when the Berlin Wall was erected. If so, it would affect many thousands more.

Authorities also said that rules requiring visas or passports to travel to Czechoslovakia will be lifted next Wednesday. The rules were imposed Oct. 3 to stem the flow of emigres.

Under the amnesty order, everyone arrested as a demonstrator--even those under investigation--will be released by Nov. 30, according to ADN.

The news agency said the Council of State, the highest ruling government body, specifically excluded anyone who had used force or advocated the use of force in connection with the demonstrations, which have swept East Germany in the last month.

The demonstrations followed the flight of thousands of East Germans who said they saw no possibility of getting the political and economic reforms that many are demanding. The demonstrations continued Thursday night, with 100,000 people rallying in Dresden and lesser numbers in several other cities, ADN reported.

In Bonn, the West German government said it welcomes the amnesty as a positive step. But chief spokesman Hans Klein said his government believes that most of the East Germans involved are guilty of no real offense. He said these people were only exercising their rights.

Still, Klein said, the amnesty must be looked on as a first step toward more freedom for East Germany.

The amnesty announcement was the latest in a dramatic series of developments, apparently in response to public pressure, since Egon Krenz, 52, replaced the ailing Erich Honecker, 77, as East Germany’s leader on Oct. 18.

On Friday, the West German newspaper Bild said sources in Moscow indicated that Krenz will visit Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev next week. It said Krenz will travel to Moscow on Tuesday and that he will see other top Soviet officials as well.

When Krenz succeeded to the top government and party posts, he was widely regarded as a protege of Honecker who could be expected to take a hard line against the kind of political and economic reforms that have been introduced in the Soviet Union, Poland and Hungary and that have been demanded by opposition groups in East Germany.

But Krenz appears to have charted a more reformist course. A member of his Politburo met Thursday with opposition leaders, and Krenz has agreed to meet with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

The amnesty statement made no specific reference to opposition groups such as New Forum, an organization that was established only recently but that already claims more than 26,000 followers.

New Forum was outlawed in September, and although the authorities have refused to accept it, they have made no overt effort to suppress it.

Some analysts interpreted the amnesty announcement as an attempt to limit the number of East Germans choosing to flee to the West and as an appeal to those who have already fled and may be unhappy in the West.

Analysts here in Munich said the announcement was a way to suggest that life will be better in East Germany and that those who were uncomfortable before the mass flight will find conditions improved if they return.

In all, about 120,000 of East Germany’s 16.6 million people have left for the West this year--roughly half of them as legal emigrants.

In another development Friday, the party newspaper Neues Deutschland quoted Markus Wolf, the former East German intelligence chief, as calling for greater openness and expressing sympathy for some of the people who have gone to the West.

Wolf was quoted as telling a reporter that “the recovery of trust is demanded before we can develop further.”

But in the same issue, Neues Deutschland criticized one of the founders of New Forum, the painter Baerbel Bohley, for inviting an exiled dissident to return to East Berlin. Bohley had said that Wolf Biermann, a folk singer, should be allowed to return and sing as a measure of the authorities’ commitment to reform.

Biermann has described the Communist Party leadership as “old pigs,” and Neues Deutschland said that if he meant what he said, he has “absolutely no place among us.”

“By what right,” it asked, “does Mrs. Bohley invite such a person to the German Democratic Republic?”