40,000 East Germans Cheer as Kohl Backs ‘Revolution’

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, winning a more rousing welcome than he ever received at home, promised here Tuesday to support the “peaceful revolution” in East Germany.

In return, East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow, after his first meeting with the chancellor, declared that Berlin’s historic Brandenburg Gate will be opened by Christmas. Modrow also said East Germany will allow visa-free travel for West Germans into East Germany, beginning Sunday.

Kohl was wildly cheered by an estimated 40,000 people, who chanted, “Helmut, Helmut, unity, unity.” A banner across a blackened church tower proclaimed: “Helmut: With You to Unity.”

Demonstrators mostly carried the West German black, red and gold flag, which far outnumbered the few East German banners.

Kohl and Modrow, the reformist prime minister who was Communist party chief in Dresden before moving to Berlin, met Tuesday morning. Later, Kohl and his aides said Bonn will offer East Germany at least 10 billion Deutsche marks, or $5.8 billion, in credits to revive the deteriorating economy.

Kohl declared: “In this difficult situation for East Germany, we will not leave our countrymen in East Germany in the lurch.”

At a news conference, he attempted to walk a fine line between encouraging German reunification and being polite to his host, who opposes German unity. He said, “My aim remains--if history allows--the unity of the German nation.”

The chancellor said he will meet Modrow early next year and hopes to sign a treaty leading to cooperation in economic matters as well as in transport and social policy.

For his part, East Germany’s Modrow told the news conference: “The existence of East Germany is something we will not give up.

“We agree on our responsibility for peace in Europe. Our decision to build closer cooperation step by step is a point of departure that all our neighbors--ours and yours--can trust.”

He also revealed that all political prisoners in East Germany will be freed soon, perhaps by Christmas.

Modrow did not specify the date when the East Germans will open the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate, the city’s most famous symbol, but he indicated that it would be for pedestrian traffic only.

Later, Kohl placed a wreath at the ruins of the Church of Our Lady, bombed like most of Dresden during World War II.

To a crowd that cheered almost every line, Kohl, who called those at the gathering “my compatriots,” said events in East Germany represented the first peaceful revolution in German history.

But he added: “Self-determination makes sense for Germany only if we do not neglect the security rights of others. The house of Germany must be built under a European roof.”

Kohl ended his speech in the chilly dusk with the words: “God bless our German fatherland.”

During Kohl’s various appearances, some members of the crowd taunted one another, because many were for a reunited Germany, while others insist on keeping East Germany a separate and socialist state.

In East Berlin, anti-unity demonstrators marched through the city center chanting the slogan: “Never Again Germany.” They made a point of waving East German flags, which bear the Communist Party’s insignia.

Attending the meeting were both countries’ economics ministers, who are expected to begin drafting agreements under which West Germany will begin underwriting part of the East German economy. Bonn Economics Minister Helmut Haussmann and East German Foreign Trade Minister Gerhard Beil said they expect trade and investment to rise sharply next year.

On Tuesday, the Dresdener Bank, West Germany’s second-largest, revealed plans to open a branch office here in Dresden, where the company was founded more than 100 years ago.