Reunification of 2 Germanys Not a Topic, Krenz Says : East Bloc: He and Kohl plan to meet soon. Hundreds of thousands flood into West Berlin from across the wall.

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl declared Saturday that he will soon meet with new East German leader Egon Krenz, with Krenz insisting that reunification of divided Germany will “not be on the agenda.”

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of East Germans flooded into West Berlin, turning the city center into one enormous pedestrian mall.

And Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev sent a message to President Bush on Saturday declaring his support of the East German move to open its border with West Germany.

In Bonn, Kohl said he told Krenz during a telephone conversation Saturday that he welcomes the Communist regime’s decision Thursday to open the tightly guarded frontier. The two are expected to meet later this month or in early December.

In a TV interview, Krenz said of the coming meeting: “I made no secret of the fact that the question of reunification is not up for discussion at all.

“My concern as a representative of East Germany is to stress there are two sovereign German states that must get along well with each other, and I will do my best to make sure that this will work even better.”

In their talks, Kohl and Krenz are expected to discuss the West German chancellor’s offer to provide massive economic aid if the new Communist regime carries out promised free elections and other reforms.

Following his conversation with Krenz, Kohl told a news conference the two agreed to discuss how to improve conditions in East Germany “so that they can feel comfortable in their homeland and not want to leave.

“I expressly told (Krenz) that it is the goal of our policy that people are able to remain in their homelands,” Kohl said.

Kohl met Krenz’s ousted predecessor, Erich Honecker, in September, 1987.

After speaking with Krenz, Kohl flew to Warsaw to resume his official visit to Poland that was interrupted by last week’s startling turn of events.

All along the two nations’ border Saturday, lines of cars many miles long waited to cross directly into West Germany.

East German officials said Saturday that 1.6 million East Germans had been issued travel visas since Thursday. But West German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said that of the hundreds of thousands who had entered since about 9 p.m. Thursday, only about 5% said they wished to remain.

All day and evening Saturday, East Germans strolled the streets of West Berlin and West German cities, usually carrying plastic bags donated by supermarkets to haul what they could afford in the shops.

In West Berlin, the visitors were easily recognizable among the more formally dressed West Berliners taking their Saturday coffee-and-cakes because of their casual dress--invariably blue-gray jackets and stone-washed jeans and white sneakers.

The mood of thousands of family groups was lighthearted but quiet.

The main exception was an incident at the Brandenburg Gate that stands in East Berlin just beyond the wall.

There, young people from West Berlin climbed on the wall, which lies in East German territory, and taunted the guards with calls for total destruction of the barrier.

They smashed a hole in the concrete, and the guards responded with a burst of water cannon.

At the new Eberswald Street border crossing, East German crews using a crane worked all night to remove concrete wall sections. By early morning, they were busy putting the finishing touches on a ramp for cars and pedestrians to use.

Another construction crew was hard at work Saturday preparing the way for a major new crossing at Potsdamerplatz, once the busiest intersection in Europe until extinguished by war and the wall running across it.

On the West side, an asphalt road, still steaming, was being laid to connect with the Berlin network, and similar measures were being undertaken behind the wall--which itself will soon be breached.

An East German border guard at the Eberswald crossing told reporters Saturday morning: “It was a beautiful moment when the first people walked through. Now we are turning this into just a normal street.”

The gap in the wall was clearly marked because the graffiti on the West side abruptly ended--replaced by the bare, gray interior walls of the East Berlin side.

The last piece of graffiti read in English: “Mom, why is this wall here?”

An East German construction engineer, Peter Niekamp, who by virtue of membership in the Communist Party was able to visit relatives in San Francisco a week before that city’s earthquake, observed: “We’re having our own earthquake here, but it’s a good one.

“It is hard to imagine this happening a few weeks ago, really impossible.”

As he watched the mass of people swarm by, he said:

“We have some very big problems in our very small country, and I hope that all these people will come back.

After the East Germans moved through the new gap in the wall, they walked a block down the street, where they were greeted by an A&P; supermarket van. Willing helpers passed out plastic bags with a pound of coffee and a large bar of chocolate, precious items in East Germany.

Recipients were supposed to show East German identity cards, but nobody was checking.

Farther along the street, at a main intersection, East Germans stood in long lines outside several branch banks, specially opened on Saturday, to receive the traditional “welcome gift” of 100 marks (about $60) that the city hands out to German visitors from the East. They waited three to four hours.

“Some people feel ashamed about accepting this,” said a West Berliner who talked with some of the East Berliners. “But their own marks are worth only a tenth of the West mark, so they would have a hard time buying anything here, even a cheap meal.”

The famous Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra announced a free concert with conductor Daniel Barenboim, and the West German Opera here presented a free performance of “The Magic Flute.”

Another performance was held at the Friedrichstrasse crossing point. There, world-renowned Soviet-born cellist Mstislav Rostropovic gave an impromptu concert in front of a graffiti-covered section of the wall.

And on bustling Wuerttembergerische Strasse a 24-year-old visitor from Potsdam, East Germany, gave birth to a girl on the sidewalk, police reported.

Rides on the subways and elevated trains were free, as were city buses, which were implemented by tour coaches and buses from Hamburg city.

Inching up in the queue outside a bank off the main Kurfuerstendamm avenue, a family of four adults, all medical workers from Leipzig, were cheerful.

One, Annette Schultz, explained that they had taken one of several special trains from East Germany’s second-largest city at 2 a.m.. Saturday, arriving in Berlin at 7 a.m. and crossing the wall.

They were looking forward to a day of shopping--or at least window shopping--because the lack of goods is what has driven many people in the Leipzig, Karl Marx Stadt and Dresden area to flee, she said.

“The experience so far been beautiful; the city much cleaner than Leipzig with fine public transport.

“We will be going back tonight,” she said. “I don’t think many people will stay over here permanently. We would like to come back again soon.”

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