Social Democrats in Commanding Lead in East German Poll : Elections: The party has West German supporters. It is shown winning 54% if the voting were held now.

They occupy half a dozen back rooms in the depressing stone structure that once housed Joseph Goebbels’ Nazi Propaganda Ministry--but the mood is buoyant.

An East German opinion poll indicated Wednesday that the new Social Democratic Party has swept to a commanding lead in the national elections scheduled for March 18.

The poll by Leipzig’s Central Institute for Youth Research shows the fledging party winning 54% of the vote if the election were held now.

The party, which is supported by the West German Social Democrats, favors German reunification, which the poll showed is backed by 76% of East Germans, compared to only 48% last November.

The new Social Democrats have seemingly come from nowhere to be the leading political force in the election campaign, which is only getting under way.

Its leader is a lackluster 40-year-old historian, Ibrahim Boehme, who nevertheless may be the East Germany’s next prime minister and who now cheerfully admits that because of the prospects for reunification, his term would not be long.

“I’m convinced that any premier who is elected is the last government leader of East Germany,” he told one interviewer, adding to another: “I believe the process of unity will be complete within the next two years.”

With a little more than five weeks to the election, the Communist Party is wholly discredited and under threat of dissolution. Four other “bloc” parties are tainted by their decades of association with the Communists, and various non-party opposition groups are in disarray.

Thus, say political analysts, many East Germans are increasingly viewing the Social Democrats as the most serious and coherent alternative in the imminent election campaign.

The Social Democratic Party, formed only last fall as the East German counterpart of the major West German opposition party of the same name, has already enrolled about 40,000 to 50,000 members.

Spokesman Stefan Finger, a 26-year-old member of the executive committee, commented: “We are seeing very rapid growth, and I think people identify with our name--going back to the Social Democratic origins founded more than 100 years ago.”

He added: “One of the main things we wanted to do at our first party congress earlier this month was to make our program clear to the electorate. We stressed our links to the Social Democrats in the Federal Republic (West Germany) and some of their prominent members addressed us.”

The party’s program put emphasis on German reunification but under certain conditions: that Poland’s postwar western borders be guaranteed and that unity take place within the context of a new peaceful order in Europe.

Why reunification?

“I think most East Germans believe in freedom, welfare and social security but they don’t want to be any longer involved in an unsuccessful experiment that has lasted 40 years,” Finger replied.

Party leader Boehme, 40, is a historian without much presence and charisma who has been active in human rights since leaving the Communist Party a dozen years ago.

But waiting in the wings as a potential leader is one of the most appealing politicians in East Germany: Wolfgang Berghofer, the 46-year-old mayor of Dresden, who resigned from the Communist Party last month.

Berghofer has said he will not join another party until after the March 18 election, nor will he run for office. But most observers suggest that the rapidly changing political events in East Germany could change his mind.

The Social Democrats are projecting an image of responsibility by not constantly calling for the resignation of reformist Communist Prime Minister Hans Modrow or insisting on various changes in his government, as have other parties.

They have been accepting from their West German sister party all sorts of necessary election equipment, such as copiers, typewriters and computers.

“But we have not taken direct financial support,” said party spokesman Finger, indicating that the party does not want to be accused of being manipulated by outside interests.

The four “bloc” parties that operated under the umbrella of the Communists--the Christian Democrats, the Liberals, the Farmers Party and the National Democrats--are seeking to establish their independence, but it is unclear whether voters will avoid them because of their past collaboration with the Communists.

There are a dozen non-party opposition groups, and on Wednesday, three of them formed a political alliance.

The East German news agency ADN said the new group, dubbed Alliance 90, includes New Forum, Democracy Now, and Initiative Peace and Human Rights, opposition groups that are sometimes described as leaning to the left.

Manfred Wolter, the newly appointed Communist Party spokesman, is quick to admit that the party has lost more than half its members in the past few months and that the organization is racked by a running argument over whether to dissolve itself entirely and start from scratch with a new name, the Party of Democratic Socialism-- as well as new faces and a new program.

“They want to try to overcome our old name--and our heritage,” Wolter said. “Party Secretary Gregor Gysi and others believe the nation needs a major party on the left. That would be us. We hope Prime Minister Modrow will stay at the head of the government until the election. . . .

“In any event, we expect to go into the opposition after the election.”