East Meets West as 4 German Parties Decide on Merger : Reunification: The combining of political organs anticipates an end to partition after elections planned for late this year.

The Free Democrats on Saturday merged with three centrist parties of East Germany to form the first party representing all of Germany. All-German elections are slated for Dec. 2.

At a special congress in Hanover, the FDP, political base of Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, was united with the East German Free Democrats, the Federation of Free Democrats and the German Forum Party.

The new party is called FDP-The Liberals. Outgoing West German FDP Chairman Otto Graf Lambsdorff, 63, was elected to head the combined all-German party.

In a declaration adopted at the congress, the new party declared that it aims “to fill German unity with a liberal spirit.”

The West German FDP is a junior partner in the Christian Democratic Union-led coalition of Chancellor Helmut Kohl.

Although the FDP seldom gained more than 7% of the votes in West German elections, it has played a crucial role in helping the majority party form a coalition. The FDP has been allied with both the Social Democratic Party and Kohl’s CDU.

The CDU and the opposition SPD also intend to merge with their East German sister parties in September.

The combined parties will face their first test on Oct. 14, when elections are held in the five states East Germany will form before it politically rejoins West Germany.

There is growing support in Bonn and East Berlin for having German unification take place on the day of the state elections.

The Christian Democratic Party, led by Kohl in West Germany and Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere in East Germany, both favor unification and all-German elections on Oct. 14.

The opposition Social Democrats, the second-largest party in both countries, want unification in September and elections in December, in the hope that a later elections date might railroad Kohl’s quest to head a united Germany and improve their election chances.

The Social Democrats favor unification as early as possible, but contend that Kohl wants early elections to avoid the political repercussions of a growing economic crisis in East Germany.