Kohl Tries to Ease E. German Fears, Pushes Vote

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl on Friday urged East Germans to take part in their national elections Sunday and sought to ease their fears about what unification may bring.

Kohl issued a statement aimed at reassuring East Germans concerned about the effects of Western-style economic measures that are expected to be introduced as a post-election step toward unification.

“Nobody,” he said, “should have to fear for the safety of their home or of provisions for old age, illness or unemployment. A united state will also be a social community.”

As campaigning continued in the East, Kohl urged all eligible East Germans to vote in what will be for the voters the first free national elections since Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933.

The East German election commission had called for campaigning to be suspended after Friday night to give the voters a day to make up their minds. But there was no sign of any general compliance.

The Communists plan a rally today in East Berlin, as does the conservative three-party coalition called the Alliance of Germany that is supported by Kohl and his Christian Democrats in the West. Former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt is scheduled to be campaigning in three cities on behalf of the Social Democrats.

Kohl has campaigned as actively as many of the East German candidates themselves in an effort to strengthen the conservative forces. His presence, along with the support of the rich Christian Democratic parties in West Germany, seems to have been effective. In the last few days, the conservative alliance has risen sharply in opinion polls.

Leftist East German parties charge that Kohl and his Christian Democrats have interfered in the election and attempted to intimidate voters.

“Clearly West Germany can do without its chancellor, otherwise he wouldn’t be over here campaigning every second day,” reform Communist Party leader Gregor Gysi told a rally of about 20,000 people on East Berlin’s Alexanderplatz on Friday.

Gysi charged that Kohl wants to annex East Germany under the West German constitution “because he simply wants to take us over without rights.”

Many East Germans have expressed fear that unification with the much wealthier West Germany will subject them to unfamiliar economic pressures for which they have not had time to prepare.

It was to these people that Kohl addressed himself Friday. He said there must be a speedy improvement of the East Germany economy and that it “must be accompanied by social compensation.”

“At the end,” he said, “we must have a solution which takes into account the justified interests of everyone affected.”

National elections are to take place in West Germany in December, and Kohl is expected to have strong competition. If conservative candidates do well in Sunday’s East German elections, it is thought that this could be helpful in Kohl’s campaign for reelection--and in his ambition to be chancellor of a unified Germany.

On his campaign forays into the east, Kohl has on some occasions been received more warmly than at home, where he has been criticized for equivocating on the Polish border issue. For weeks he refused to take a firm stand on this, but he finally urged that the governments in both Bonn and East Berlin come out clearly in favor of the present border.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler praised East Germany for inviting representatives from the United States and the other 34 signers of the Helsinki agreement on human rights and political issues to observe the elections.