Eastern Visitors Flood W. Germany : East Germany: Traffic jams and packed subways, trains and buses are commonplace. In East Berlin, a new Cabinet is sworn in.

Hundreds of thousands of East Germans flooded into West Berlin and West Germany on Saturday in the second weekend exodus of visitors since the borders were thrown open by East Germany’s new reformist leaders.

As people streamed out of East Germany for the weekend, the new Cabinet of Prime Minister Hans Modrow was sworn in. Containing more than one-third non-Communist members, it is further evidence of the unprecedented changes in this Communist state in response to massive dissatisfaction among its citizens. The Communist Party has 16 seats in the new Cabinet, while 11 seats are held by four small parties formerly aligned with the Communists but now acting more independently.

At border crossings, lines of small autos stretched for miles as East Germans headed to the West for sightseeing, family visits and shopping.

Crowds swarmed into 56 special East German trains, and railways and subways were jammed to capacity. Some East Germans sat on railroad tracks when they found there was a shortage of trains. The Transport Ministry complained that some trains were being “recklessly stormed” because they were packed beyond capacity, the official East German news agency ADN reported. Officials said the situation was “barely under control.”

On the elevated train and subway lines between East and West Berlin, special guards tried to keep order and ensure that no one was injured in the crush of passengers. Some subway stations were closed because of overcrowding.

One of West Berlin’s famous bridges, the Glienecker--site of East-West spy swaps--was closed several times Saturday because officials feared that the weight of pedestrians from Potsdam threatened to collapse it.

In West Berlin and West Germany, banks remained open Saturday to hand out the “welcome money” of 100 marks (about $54).

The East Germany Interior Ministry said that more than 10 million travel visas have been issued since Nov. 9, when the frontier was opened. That would mean that more than half the population in this nation of 16.6 million has acted to take advantage of the relaxed travel rules.

But not everyone is leaving, and many of those staying are keeping up the pressure for reform. About 50,000 people gathered Saturday in the southern city of Leipzig in a demonstration urging more changes. The rally was organized by New Forum, the opposition movement that received official permission for the first time to mount a demonstration.

“I’ve had to wait 55 years to see so many happy East Germans,” one speaker told the crowd.

A man in the crowd told West German television that the East Germans can thank Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev for the new, unexpected reforms.

“It’s the first time we’ve trusted the Russians,” he said. “We have to say ‘thanks’ to Gorby.”

Meanwhile, the 500-member Volkskammer, or Parliament, voted almost unanimously to set up a commission to investigate charges of corruption and abuse of power by Communist officials.

Prosecutor-General Guenther Wendland told Parliament that investigations are under way into charges that the police behaved brutally in quelling demonstrations last month.

The Parliament also set up a commission to consider possible changes in the East German constitution, which now gives the Communist Party the leading role in ruling the country.

The new East German leader, Egon Krenz, in an interview with the American television Cable News Network, said he wanted to extend his “warm greetings to the American people.”

Krenz, 52, said he also wants to thank President Bush for sending him a congratulatory telegram and said he thinks relations between East Germany and the United States are “on better ground now.”