Passages Cut in Wall as E. Germany Ends Border Restrictions : East Bloc: Tens of thousands stream past the Berlin Wall to the West. The Communist regime promises that freedom of travel will be permanent.

East Germany ended all border restrictions Friday and cut a new passage in the Berlin Wall at Bernauer Strasse, where desperate people once leaped from windows and border guards shot down others trying to flee.

Work was reported on many more new openings in the wall that divided the city for 28 years.

More than 100,000 jubilant East Germans climbed over and rushed through borders Friday for the first time since 1961. They chatted amiably with stony-faced guards who no longer have orders to open fire.

Thousands crossed back and forth during the day. West German television showed East German guards helping East Berliners climb over the wall to avoid congested check points. Some border guards were handed roses by beaming girls.

Communist leader Egon Krenz told a huge rally in East Berlin his new reforms “will not be turned back.”

Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany flew to West Berlin hoping to speak with Krenz, who has stunned the world with rapid reforms--and a pledge of free elections--intended to appease pro-democracy protesters and end emigration to the West.

Work began late Friday at the Bernauer Strasse. East Germans used a hydraulic crane to dismantle the round top of the concrete wall. East German workers could be heard knocking on the wall.

Peter Zeisler, a West German police official at the scene, said: “It will be a pretty hole that will make it possible for people and cars to come through.”

On the Western side, dozens of firemen dismantled observation platforms from which West Berliners used to gaze across the wall. About 400 people watched, occasionally setting off fireworks.

“We are speechless,” said Helmut Keuchel, 48. “This is a fabulous and overwhelming experience.”

Several thousand people celebrated at the Brandenburg Gate, the great monument that, like the wall, was a symbol of Berlin’s division. Many danced on the wall, drank champagne, waved sparklers, set off fireworks and chanted: “The wall must go! The wall must go!”

East German border guards watched impassively as some in the crowd used picks and hammers to chip away pieces of the hated barrier for souvenirs.

Thousands of East Berliners poured across the Glienicker Bridge, on which some of the most famous spy trades took place, when it was opened in the early evening.

In West Berlin, thousands more streamed along the elegant Kurfuerstendamm shopping boulevard, some carrying candles, others toasting each other. Crowds of young girls could be seen rushing down the street toward stores. Bars offered free drinks to East Berliners.

Police in West Berlin said they gave up counting Friday when they reached 50,000 visitors.

Krenz told a rally of 150,000 people in East Berlin “the best of our people must be elected to Parliament.” He said reforms would make “a new revolution on German soil” that would produce a communist system “economically effective, politically democratic, and morally pure.”

“These are not empty promises,” he declared, addressing the skepticism of those who have questioned his sincerity.

Communist officials said Thursday that, for the first time since the Berlin Wall was built, citizens could travel freely to the West until a new travel law was drafted. On Friday, they made the open border permanent.

“It is permanent and will be the foundation of a new travel law,” Interior Minister Friedrich Dickel said on state television.

Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher of West Germany told 20,000 cheering people outside the West Berlin city hall the East Germans were cutting more holes in the wall and were expanding the Glienicker Bridge crossing. Bells--some called them freedom bells--rang in the background.

Kohl said: “The spirit of freedom now reigns all over Europe: Poland, Hungary, and now, East Germany. We claim this right for all people in Europe. We claim it for all Germans.”

President Bush said he would “seize every chance” to promote democracy in Eastern Europe and his meeting next month in Malta with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev will have “even more importance.”

Secretary of State James A. Baker III called the lifting of East German travel restrictions “the most dramatic event in East-West relations” since World War II, but added: “There’s a long way to go before there is true freedom and true political pluralism in East Germany.”

In Moscow, Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennady I. Gerasimov said opening East Germany’s borders would help stem emigration and end “stereotypes about the Iron Curtain.”

East Germans arrived in cars or taxis, on motorcycles, by foot for their first taste of the West. Most apparently planned to return home.

East German roads were clogged with cars heading for the border, but West German border officials said only about one-tenth of the visitors planned to stay. So far this year, more than 200,000 East Germans have gone to West Germany.

People thronged East German police stations, waiting for the travel passes officials said nearly everyone would be given. Thousands went through simply by getting a stamp at a border control point, and many crossed without special documents.

“We’ve just decided to leave our jobs for a little while, have a look around and then go back over,” said a young man who visited Herleshausen with four friends. “We don’t know what our boss will say about that. Perhaps he’s over here too.”

A young man drove to Herleshausen with his child for 15 minutes just to buy a West German newspaper.

“I’m going over to pick up some brake pads you can only get in the West,” said a motorcyclist who crossed at Helmstedt.

In Berlin, many East Germans just wanted to shop or see the sights. A group of East German workers took turns.

“Everybody wanted to go so we decided to do it in shifts,” one said. “We’re still fulfilling our quota of work.”

Usually dour East German border guards chatted with countrymen filing through border control points.

“You don’t have to work today?” one asked a young man at the Invalidenstrasse crossing in Berlin.

“No, I’ve got the day off,” was the reply.

The ruling Politburo fired four more officials and began an investigation of “gross mistakes” made by the leadership under Erich Honecker, the 77-year-old party boss dismissed Oct. 18. Honecker supervised the building of the wall 10 years before becoming party chief.