E. German Lawmakers Set Oct. 3 for Unity : Reunification: Vote in Parliament ends weeks of bitter debate. Fixing the date appears to remove the major stumbling block to re-joining the nation.

After weeks of bitter infighting, the East German Parliament early today set Oct. 3 as the date for German political unity.

The vote fixing the exact timing of unification appeared to remove the most problematic of the stumbling blocks remaining in a process that will re-join a Germany divided for 45 years.

“This is a truly historical event,” Parliament President Sabine Bergmann-Pohl said after the conclusion of the session.

Although observers warned that the unpredictable nature of the fledgling East German democracy still left open the chance for a reversal, the 294-62 vote was both decisive and backed by all major East German parties.

It followed a heated, often emotional marathon debate in the Parliament in East Berlin. The issue, initially thought to be routine, had mushroomed into one of the most bitter in the unity process and a major embarrassment for all concerned.

The date of Oct. 3 was a compromise that received the backing of both major East German parties--the Christian Democrats of Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere and the opposition Social Democrats, who left De Maiziere’s coalition last week. The small Liberal and German Socialist parties also backed the compromise.

The Social Democrats had wanted unity to occur on Sept. 15, and De Maiziere had preferred Oct. 14.

Because unification takes place through an East German “accession” to West Germany, the East German parliamentary vote decided the timing.

The Oct. 3 accession date was made conditional on three actions: fixing the legal conditions of unity; agreeing on its external aspects with the four victorious World War II Allies, and completing preparations for creating five new state governments in the territory that presently forms East Germany. None of these are believed to present significant problems.

Under terms of the accord, the East German government will cease to exist on Oct. 3, and the 400-member East German Volkskammer will select 144 of its members to join the West German Bundestag until all-German elections are held on Dec. 2.

Dieter Vogel, West Germany’s deputy government spokesman, indicated that the first session of the joint Parliament will most likely be held in the Berlin Reichstag but that subsequent sessions before the elections will be in Bonn.

The vote, which was completed shortly before 2 a.m. this morning, came amid mounting public anger in both Germanys to end an unseemly, confusing debate on the date of unity.

One suggestion for immediate unification and another for unity on Sept. 15 were rejected as the debate went into the early hours this morning.

Prime Minister De Maiziere acknowledged the public backlash during the start of the debate. He noted that his office had been deluged with telegrams and letters from citizens enraged that their elected representatives had devoted such time and political energy to the issue of the exact date for unification when virtually every aspect of East German national life needs urgent attention and the country’s economy has been gradually disintegrating.

The dispute over the date goes back to mid-June, when a motion put forth by East Germany’s small German Socialist Union party proposing immediate unification was sidetracked into a committee after a brief debate in which passage at one point seemed possible.

Since then, a series of dates has been proposed, discussed, then rejected in a manner that has at times descended into political farce.

“We have to finally agree on this,” De Maiziere said. “Many people have gotten the idea that discussions over dates are more important to us than the solution of crucial problems.”

As a West German television commentator put it Wednesday evening, “Whenever unity occurs, it will no longer take place in dignity.”

The parliamentary debate occurred on a day that a West German television straw poll found that 80% of the East German participants wanted unity immediately.

Leaders of the major parties in both Germanys have now concluded that swift unity is necessary to end the uncertainty that has prevented any of the large-scale West German investment needed to help revive East Germany’s inefficient, antiquated industry.

A lack of investment and the harsh winds of Western-style competition have crippled East Germany’s former centrally planned, state-run farm and industrial sectors, sending an average of 25,000 new workers each week into unemployment lines.