East German Party Seeks Coalition : Europe: West Germany renews its offer of aid keyed to economic and political reforms.

The newly elected East German prime minister, Hans Modrow, opened talks with non-Communist Party leaders Tuesday in an effort to form what he called a “genuine coalition government.”

He and Communist leader Egon Krenz conferred with the heads of four small parties that have suddenly displayed independence after years of serving as Communist Party satellites.

In Bonn, West German officials again offered massive financial aid to East Germany--providing that the government introduces stringent economic and political reforms.

The East German regime is also considering opening up the Berlin Wall near the Brandenburg Gate, East Berlin’s best-known monument and symbol, according to the official news agency ADN.

But Modrow was quoted in Tuesday’s editions of the West German newspaper Bild as saying that while the Berlin Wall can remain open to travel, it must remain standing.

“In our country, there is little criminal activity . . . cases of AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) and drugs are virtually unknown. Our people are asking themselves why they shouldn’t just leave that as it is,” Bild quoted him as saying.

The number of people crossing the Berlin Wall on Tuesday was estimated at 180,000.

At the same time, West German Red Cross officials reported that the number of East German refugees approaching them about returning home has reached 10,000. Counseling services for potential returnees have been set up at West German relocation camps to advise East Germans whether they will be penalized if they go back.

In trying to form a coalition regime, Modrow sought out the leaders of the four small parties: the Democratic Farmers’ Party, the Christian Democratic Union, the Liberal Democratic Party and the National Democratic Party.

These smaller parties, which in the past rubber-stamped Communist orders, have seats in the Parliament and have been increasingly critical of government policies and the Communists.

Communists occupy 39 of the 43 Cabinet posts, and Modrow is expected to reduce the size of the Cabinet as well as make it more of a coalition. ADN gave no details of the meeting, and Modrow did not say whether the opposition would join his conception of a coalition government.

Guenter Schabowski, a prominent member of the Politburo, resigned as party chief for East Berlin, ADN reported. Political analysts say Schabowski, considered to be a leading reform-minded politician, may receive an important post in Modrow’s Cabinet.

He earlier had indicated he might surrender the city post because of a heavy workload. He remains in the Politburo and as the party’s propaganda chief. He was replaced as party chief for the capital by Hans Albrecht.

Meanwhile, the new, non-Communist Speaker of the East German Parliament said he will seek to change the first article of the country’s constitution, which defines the Communist Party’s leading role in society. The party has used the provision to justify its monopoly on power.

Guenther Maleuda told a meeting of his Democratic Farmers’ Party faction in Parliament that the Communist Party is to blame for East Germany’s economic, social and political problems.

The West German pledge of massive financial aid to help rebuild East Germany’s economy had been made before and was conditional on political and economic reforms that the Communists have so far rejected.

But West German Economics Minister Helmut Haussmann was more specific, offering a six-point plan that would include investments and joint ventures, as well as revamping the nation’s dilapidated communications and transport systems.

Haussmann did not specify a figure for the aid and said the plan would be useless if East Germany fails to carry out a “thorough change” in its centrally directed economy. East German authorities have rejected the idea of adopting a complete free-market system.

Haussmann compared his proposal to the Marshall Plan, brainchild of U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall, which sent more than $12 billion in U.S aid from 1948-51 to help war-devastated Europe return to prosperity.

In West Berlin, the rumors that a new border crossing would be punched through the Berlin Wall near the historic Brandenburg Gate drew about 200 West Berliners to a chilly vigil Tuesday night.

Police chiefs from both sides of the wall conferred by phone, and it was understood afterward that “nothing will happen tonight,” a West Berlin police spokesman said.

“We don’t know if and when it will go down,” he added.

Ten East German guards stood almost casually atop the wall, gazing down at the throngs of West Berliners and reporters, some of whom had staked out their spots with pup tents. Television lights cast a bright glow on the graffiti-covered western face of the wall.

Behind the barricade, floodlights illuminated the gate itself, which came to separate the city into Allied and Soviet zones after World War II, also severing Berlin’s busiest boulevard--Unter Den Linden. West German police kept the crowd about 20 feet back from the wall, which some Berliners danced atop last week.

People waited in line to climb the two viewing platforms erected by the West years ago to allow tourists a peak over the forbidden wall and the gate behind it.

Times staff writer Tamara Jones contributed to this story.

BACKGROUND

The Brandenburg Gate, the site where East Germany is considering creating a new opening in the Berlin Wall, has for decades served as a mocking reminder of Germany’s defeat in World War II. Lying in East Berlin just beyond the wall in the heart of the divided city, the monument, topped with a bronze statue of the Goddess of Victory in a chariot, was erected in 1788-91 to celebrate military victories and was named after the German state that later became Prussia. Modeled on the Propylaea, the entrance to the Acropolis in Athens, it was severely damaged in World War II and has been completely rebuilt.