Gorbachev Sees United Germany : Europe: He warns that reunification must be strictly monitored. East German leader Modrow says the question is now how and when the two countries will be joined.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev on Tuesday accepted the likelihood of German reunification but warned that it should be a carefully controlled process that does not undermine world peace.

“This issue was not unexpected, and in principle no one puts it in doubt,” Gorbachev said before a meeting here with East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow. “However, the development of events in the world, in the German Democratic Republic and in the Soviet Union, requires a profound assessment and an analytical approach to the solution of the issue, which is an important aspect of European and world politics.”

Gorbachev’s remarks, both before and during the meeting with Modrow, were cautionary in tone, emphasizing the need for a managed process so that the security of Germany’s neighbors is not impaired.

But in a shift with historic implications, the Soviet leader was clearly speaking of a reunited Germany and how it would come about, no longer treating the question as a matter that should be left to the future for resolution.

“Time itself is having an impact on the process, giving dynamism to it,” Gorbachev told journalists accompanying Modrow, according to an account by the official Soviet news agency Tass. “It is essential to act responsibly and not seek the solution to this important issue in the streets.”

Modrow, addressing a news conference later, said that although he prefers a confederation joining East and West Germany rather than their full re-integration, the question has already become how and when the two states will be brought together.

Noting that he and Gorbachev had discussed a stage-by-stage approach, Modrow said: “As for the unification of the two German states, the prospect lies before us. But it is difficult to set time limits because it must be supported by the European people. . . .

“We discussed the development of the right to self-determination of the German people, the question of uniting both German states in the framework of European interests and under the conditions of historic, social and economic realities,” Modrow continued.

“This assumes that the process goes in stages, that it contributes to European stability and that it meets the interests of both German states.”

In Berlin, East German Communists for the first time endorsed reunification with West Germany as a long-term goal while Europe’s divisions are overcome.

The Communists are in the process of reforming their party, and Andre Brie and Jochen Willerding, two leading Communist ideologists, presented an election platform that envisions a united, free and demilitarized Germany in response to growing demands within East and West Germany alike for reunification.

But Brie said that German unity “must not occur as fast as possible, but as slowly as is required.” He contended that two German states must remain for some time to ensure European stability.

Modrow, a reformist Communist who took office in East Germany’s dramatic political upheaval last fall, said he favors a process that would draw East and West Germany closer together through a “community of treaties” and then into a confederation.

He sees value, he said, in preserving the different society that was created in East Germany under socialism, even with all its current problems--but this too is a matter for “democratic resolution.”

Modrow emphasized the need to keep German reunification within the context of improving European security and cooperation so that Germany’s neighbors do not feel threatened by a country so politically and economically powerful.

“The fanning of nationalism could lead to uncontrollable developments and create fear about our neighbors,” Modrow said, referring to the recent appearance in East Germany of far-right and even neo-Nazi groups among those calling for reunification.

Modrow also stressed that a reunited Germany, whatever form it took, would have to be based on the union of the present two German states and not on prewar Germany, some of whose territory lies now in Poland. West Germany has been reluctant to recognize the border between East Germany and Poland.

Not a Plot

Expressing Soviet “understanding for the legitimate interests of Germans in the German Democratic Republic and in the Federal Republic of Germany to deepen their mutual contacts and cooperation,” Gorbachev acknowledged that reunification is not--at least in today’s circumstances--an ultra-right plot against socialism.

The Soviet Union historically has opposed German reunification, insisting that the two German states developed as a result of World War II and that any change in their status would threaten the stability of Europe. In recent months, Soviet officials have argued that many other issues, such as the division of Europe into military alliances, has to be resolved first.

Gorbachev, speaking at a news conference with French President Francois Mitterrand last month in Kiev, declared that “history should decide the future of this continent” when asked about German reunification.

“I do not think this is a topical question today,” Gorbachev added at the time. “A different approach may create a situation that would complicate the entire European process, including the relations between the two German states.”

In Bonn, the opposition Social Democrats hailed Gorbachev’s shift as a major breakthrough in the reunification process.

Egon Bahr, the Social Democrats’ expert on Eastern Europe, said, “It is no longer a question of if, but when, how and what form a unified German state might take. There are no longer any differences between our views and those of the Soviet general secretary on confederation or a community of treaties.”

Moscow’s Conditions

According to the official Tass account of the Gorbachev-Modrow discussion, Gorbachev appeared to set out Moscow’s basic conditions for reunification: the preservation of European stability and the enhancement of its security; the concurrence of Germany’s neighbors, and the involvement of the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain and France, which as the victorious powers assumed responsibility after World War II for the future of Germany.

“There are two states, there are the obligations of the four powers, and there is the European security process,” Gorbachev said, “and all should be combined in common interests without detriment to any side.”

The Soviet Union under Gorbachev has honored its commitment to the independence of its allies in Eastern Europe in reforming their political system--even to the point of ousting the Communist Party from power. But East Germany always has been regarded as different by Moscow.

As a state, East Germany is defined only by its adherence to socialism, unlike Poland or Hungary or Czechoslovakia with their national identities, and that state has been seen by the Soviet Union as essential to its postwar security. With its determination that any future European war will not be fought on Russian soil, Moscow has stationed 380,000 troops in East Germany.

In discussing German reunification, Soviet officials have asked repeatedly whether the new Germany would be armed, what kind of political system it would have and who would lead it.

In an analysis of the complex political situation in East Germany, the Communist Party newspaper Pravda reported Tuesday that the future of the German nation “and the possibility of unification of the two German states” has become a major question.

The agreements between the East German Communists, their allies and the opposition on Monday to form a “national unity” government pending elections on March 18 was almost an announcement “from a fortress under siege,” Pravda’s correspondent, Mai Podklyuchnikov, wrote from Berlin.

In this context, German reunification seems to many in East Germany the best available solution to their country’s serious problems, Podklyuchnikov said, and sentiment for it there is growing.