Genscher Urges ‘Marshall Plan’ for East Germany : Reunification: Bonn’s foreign minister sees his nation providing aid as the United States did for Europe after World War II.

On the eve of East Germany’s first free election, West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher called Saturday for an ambitious “Marshall Plan” to aid the formerly Communist part of Germany.

Genscher said the prosperous West Germans must now contribute to building up the dilapidated East German economy just as the United States aided West Germany and Western Europe in the immediate postwar years, assuring the remarkable recovery.

In the past few weeks, Chancellor Helmut Kohl has been loath to spell out the kind of financial aid necessary to restore the deteriorating industrial plant and economic infrastructure of East Germany.

Instead, he has put off making any specific promise of economic assistance until after today’s election, a position that has been criticized by the opposition Social Democrats as well as many in East Germany.

Genscher, a leader of the Free Democratic Party--the junior member of the Bonn governing coalition--seemed again to be out in front of Kohl with his proposal for a German-style Marshall Plan.

Speaking to a political meeting in Hanover, Genscher declared: “Now a German Marshall Plan for East Germany is called for. The billions we in the past spent on making the German division less painful we must now reroute for the completion of German unity.”

The billions alluded to by Genscher came in the form of under-the-table payments by Bonn to the East German government to gain the release of political prisoners, as well as subsidies given to the Communists to improve road, rail and power networks.

At the same time, West German Economics Minister Helmut Haussmann was quoted Saturday as saying that economic and monetary union between the Germanys could be achieved in a few months.

Haussmann told the newspaper Berliner Zeitung that it is imperative to rely on the West German mark as soon as possible in East Germany to forestall the deepening drain on the East German economy caused by emigration to the Federal Republic.

Genscher also referred to burgeoning fears of a united Germany widely expressed in Europe, declaring: “We know that the peoples of Europe ask the question: ‘What do the Germans want?’ We Germans want nothing else than to live in freedom, democracy, unity and in peace with our neighbors.

“We recognize the legitimate security interests of all our neighbors.

“In self-won freedom, the Germans in East Germany vote not only on their own but also on our future because we are one people.”

In remarks to the Bild newspaper, President Richard von Weizsaecker said Sunday’s election would bring a freely elected government to East Germany.

“It is only then that the road to unity can be entered by democratically legitimate forces on both sides,” said the president. “So this Sunday is of absolutely decisive significance for a sound road to unity for the Germans.”