Up to 1 Million Demand Reform in E. Germany : East Bloc: Demonstrators seek free elections, end to Communist domination. It’s nation’s biggest protest.

Hundreds of thousands of East Germans calling for free elections, an end to Communist Party domination and other reforms marched here Saturday in the biggest protest demonstration in the Communist state’s history.

The estimates of the number of participants ranged from 500,000 to 1 million. The rally, organized by prominent East German artists and intellectuals, was given official sanction by the new Communist regime of Egon Krenz.

It came a day after Krenz announced that five older members of the ruling Politburo will be retired and that he plans to implement long-awaited political and economic reforms.

In Czechoslovakia, meanwhile, more than 4,000 East German refugees traveled to West Germany aboard special trains Saturday. The exodus came after Prague opened its border for thousands of East Germans to journey to the West. The border is expected to remain open until East Germany adopts a new law liberalizing foreign travel.

During the East Berlin march, police remained on the sidelines, and there was no apparent trouble or arrests. The huge crowd was well disciplined and generally quieter than those that took part in demonstrations in Dresden, Leipzig and elsewhere in recent weeks.

Dozens of stewards wearing green and yellow sashes with the words “No Violence” accompanied the marchers, who walked 20 or 30 abreast under leaden skies along the wide avenues in the heart of East Berlin.

The demonstration began with marchers assembling near the Protestant church of Gethsemane, a center of the movement for more open discussion with the regime. From there, they walked through the historic center of the city to the Alexanderplatz, one of Europe’s largest squares.

The route did not come close to the Berlin Wall, and there was no attempt by any of the marchers to go near the border with West Berlin.

During the demonstration, which lasted from mid-morning until mid-afternoon, large parts of the city center were sealed off to traffic.

In the Alexanderplatz, speakers representing both the government and opposition groups addressed the crowd. One of the first to speak was the Communist Party chief for East Berlin, Guenter Schabowski, whose remarks were greeted mainly with whistles and boos.

At one point in his speech, people shouted, “Auf hoeren!”-- ‘Shut up!”

However, there was only reserved applause by the tens of thousands in the square for those expressing opposition views.

Schabowski, a Politburo member, admitted that the party had made mistakes and created unhappiness. He said it has to “win back the trust of the people.”

“Even between people who think differently,” Schabowski said, referring to the opposition, “the hurdle should not be too great.”

He said the party sees “the need for renewal” and that the party Central Committee meeting scheduled to begin Wednesday will “put these thoughts into a program of actions.”

Markus Wolf, who served as head of espionage for more than 30 years before retiring in 1987, said that an over-reliance on security should be “done away with because it creates fear among the people.”

He added that there “should be no more blood,” a reference to the brutal police crackdown on the demonstrations in East German cities Oct. 7-8.

Protestant cleric Friedrich Schorlemmer, an opposition figure, declared: “For many years we were hiding our heads. Now we have more self-confidence and can walk upright.”

He argued that “a lot of people have got to go from their positions of power.”

“We want real results,” he added, “and not just hot air.”

Schorlemmer received a burst of applause when he criticized the detested state security apparatus known as Stasi with the words:

“The greatest risk to state security is the Stasi. We cannot tolerate the apparatus of fear nor pay for it.”

But the cleric took a sympathetic tone too, declaring: “Let’s not put new intolerance in the place of old intolerance. We cannot rebuild this country without the Communist party. But the Communist party does not have to be the leader. No one group has a monopoly on truth.”

Actor Jan Josef Liefers criticized the party’s claim that it is the leading force in the nation. He said that when the Communists “act only under pressure from us, you cannot speak of them playing a leading role.”

Communist writer Stefan Heym was warmly received when he said: “We are the people. We are now learning how to walk upright. We should never put all the power into the hands of one individual or one apparatus.”

Heym needled recently ousted leader Erich Honecker, saying that East Germany needs “real socialism, not Saarland socialism.” Honecker was born in the Saarland region of West Germany.

“Socialism,” Heym added, is “unthinkable without democracy.”

Author Christa Wolf, who has often been mentioned as a candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, referred to what she called “the October, 1989, revolution”--when the demonstrations in East Germany began in earnest.

She urged the government to introduce reforms, declaring, “We will only have this chance once.”

And she garnered one of the bigger laughs of the day when she said the Communist leadership on May Day should walk past the people in the reviewing stand--rather than the other way around.

The string of speakers scornful of the system far outnumbered those who defended the Communist regime. That mood was shared by the demonstrators, who carried placards and banners protesting almost every grievance held by anyone in the country.

“Community Service Instead of Conscription,” said one.

“Freedom is When 2 Plus 2 Equals 4, Not 98.85%”--a reference to the alleged result of government candidates in the last election, which is widely regarded as rigged.

“An End to Military Training in Schools,” read another.

“Free Travel for the Deaf,” said still another.

“Theater Without Censorship.”

And: “Democracy Now or Never.”

Walking along, one graying mother with her two teen-aged daughters explained their presence:

“We believe that it is now time to speak the truth. Socialism should be for the people, not people for socialism.

“We have come today because we don’t want to leave the country. We have waited 40 years.

“So we are prepared to give Krenz a chance. But we’re not going to wait another 40 years.”

Just off the route of the march in a pleasant bar called The Nutree, two couples who had turned out paused for a schnapps and beer.

One husband, a heavy-set, bearded electrician whose job is to maintain the lights along the Berlin Wall, commented:

“We want to show our dissatisfaction now. These people in power have too many privileges and should give them up.

“I work along the wall, but the need for border security no longer exists. We should have an open frontier like that between Hungary and Austria.”

Then they were off to Alexanderplatz to listen to the speech-making.