German Parliaments Take 2 Key Steps Toward Unification

The East and West German parliaments today took two major steps toward unification by writing off the territory lost to Poland after World II and approving the economic merger of the two countries.

Both measures were milestones toward the political unification of Germany that West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl hopes to bring about Dec. 9, immediately after all-German elections.

Kohl, in a policy statement today to the Bundestag, the West German Parliament, said the loss of former German territory in Silesia, eastern Brandenburg, Pomerania and East and West Prussia, where millions of Germans used to live, must be accepted to assure international support for unification.

A joint resolution introduced in the East German Volkskammer in East Berlin and the Bonn Parliament said Germany will never question the present border on the Oder-Neisse rivers or make territorial claims on Poland.

The East German Parliament approved the resolution in the morning. Its Bonn counterpart was to pass it in the evening.

“Let no one be mistaken,” Kohl said, obviously addressing organizations of former residents of the lost territory who opposed the resolution. “Today we face an absolutely clear choice. Either we confirm the existing border or we gamble away the chance of German unity.”

The two parliaments met to pass the resolution and approve the East-West German treaty on economic, monetary and social union to take effect July 1, on the eve of the second two-plus-four talks in East Berlin.

The United States, the Soviet Union, Britain and France, who have residual rights in Germany as World War II victors, made German acceptance of the Polish border a condition for unification.