TURMOIL IN THE EAST BLOC : W. German Right Extols Unification : Europe: Rightist party plans a wing in East Germany to exploit nationalist feelings in the May election.

The far-right Republicans party of West Germany is exploiting the sensitive issue of German reunification in a way that has the centrist parties worried.

The Republicans’ latest move, under the direction of former SS Sgt. Franz Schoenhuber, is the announcement of the formation of an East German wing of the party, to put up candidates in the free elections scheduled for May 6.

The Republicans say they plan to capitalize on the East Germans’ desire for reunification of the two Germanys, as shown repeatedly by demonstrations in Leipzig and other East German cities.

Political specialists in Bonn and East Berlin say that because the main opposition groups in East Germany have not yet organized as political parties, the Republicans could have a strong appeal to nationalist feelings.

“We want an active German policy with the aim of reunification,” party leader Schoenhuber says. “We want free . . . elections for East Germany and then a plebiscite on reunification.”

The issue could develop political momentum on both sides of the border, the analysts say, because the Republicans are exploiting both sides of the issue.

They are calling for reunification and at the same time urging East Germans to stay in their country and not join the hundreds of thousands who have fled to the West. This position is supported by many West Germans, who fear that the newcomers will take needed jobs and housing.

The Republicans party could prove to be the natural political home for the new arrivals, who might reject the West German opposition Social Democrats because, as political analyst Angelika Wolle, has put it, “Socialism has become a dirty word for them.”

The Christian Democrats as well as the Social Democrats are worried about losing votes to the Republicans in next December’s elections. The Republicans party has its roots in the rural areas of Bavaria, where their values are widely shared: patriotism, hard work, family, law and order, tougher immigration laws, national assertiveness.

In Bavaria, the Republicans have cut into the right-wing vote that has usually gone to the Christian Democrats. In local elections this year, the Republicans also showed strength in other parts of West Germany, including northern cities, where they made gains among working-class people who had customarily voted for Social Democratic candidates.

The Republicans polled more than 7% nationally in last June’s elections for the European Parliament. Schoenhuber himself won a seat in the European Parliament.

The Republicans also worry the liberal Free Democrats, who normally get only 7% to 8% of the vote. A minimum of 5% is needed if a party is to be represented in the national Parliament, so the Free Democrats cannot afford to have their strength eroded.

Many West German political commentators are concerned about the possibility that the Republicans will move even further to the right. The party’s rallies raise disturbing memories of the rise of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Party in the 1920s.

“For a long time,” a political specialist remarked the other day, “the news media ignored Schoenhuber, but since he started winning elections, the media has not only discovered him but turned him into a demon.”

Schoenhuber, however, complains that lately the media have ignored the Republicans or written them off as right-wing fanatics.

“I say intelligent things,” he says, “but the German media doesn’t bother to put the intelligent things in their stories.”

Schoenhuber, 66, is a former television journalist who makes no apology for his service with the SS, which began as Hitler’s bodyguard but grew to the point that it included armored divisions and provided guards for concentration camps.

At his rallies, drinking beer and eating sausage, he comes across not as a demon but as an affable politician who is on to a good thing.

“Look around,” he told a visitor at a recent rally in Furth-im-Wald, in Bavaria. “These are the people who work for our party. They are our core. Do they look and act like extremists? Like neo-Nazis?

“Certainly we are on the right wing of the political spectrum. But that has nothing to do with Nazism or fascism. Hitler brought a great catastrophe for our country and the whole world. He was a criminal idiot. But we do say yes to patriotism, and no more mea culpas; the time for apologizing is past. I was a patriotic young German soldier. I am still patriotic, and that is the appeal of the Republicans.”

Schoenhuber has been concentrating in the past few months on organization--he wants to create a party structure independent of his own personality--and has been out of the political limelight. He re-emerged with the announcement of the party’s involvement in East Germany.

“We have a definite future,” he said, “because our members are young--70% of them 30 or younger. We are the youngest party in Germany, and many of our members are civil servants, in the police, the armed forces, government offices.”

Schoenhuber denies that being on the far right makes him automatically suspect as anti-Semitic.

“How could I be?” he said. “My first wife was a Hungarian Jew, and my daughter living in the United States is half-Jewish. Racism of any kind is deadly and unacceptable.”

Political observers say the Republicans could look to get the votes of people who feel passed over by the economic boom and think their jobs and social benefits are jeopardized by the influx of refugees.

“Generally speaking,” Schoenhuber said, “we are the party of the poorer people.”

Other political parties embrace the virtues of West Germany’s ties with the Western Alliance, but the Republicans emphasize “Germany first.”

“I feel proud to be German,” Schoenhuber said. “We are the only party in favor of immediate reunification. I’m convinced that time and events are working for us.”