Kohl Appeals for Healing of East Germany’s Wounds

West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, on the threshold of becoming the first leader of all Germany since 1945, appealed Thursday for an all-out effort to heal East Germany’s wounds.

Just 12 hours earlier, the East German Parliament chose Oct. 3 as the day that nation will cease to exist and will merge with West Germany. That means Kohl will become chancellor of all Germany on Oct. 3, until joint German elections are held on Dec. 2.

Kohl hopes to win those elections but is facing a tough challenge from Oskar Lafontaine, a candidate from the opposition Social Democrats.

There has been no single leader of all Germany since the World War II defeat of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich in 1945.

Parliament on Thursday ratified a treaty with East Germany that will make possible the first all-German elections since 1933. Government coalition partners and the opposition passed the measure easily, with a show of hands. East German lawmakers had approved the same treaty the previous day.

In a 40-minute speech to Parliament, Kohl praised his fellow Germans for persisting in their hopes of ending the division of their homeland.

“Today is a day of joy for all Germans,” Kohl said. Oct. 3, he added, “will be a great day in the history of our people. We are fulfilling a dream which many people among us had already abandoned.”

But Kohl warned his countrymen that overcoming East Germany’s considerable problems won’t be easy. Unemployment is skyrocketing in East Germany, crime is rising and many East Germans feel demoralized.

“We have a heavy responsibility,” he said. “Even though we have every right to rejoice we know we are standing before an extraordinary challenge--overcoming the old economic and social order” in what is now East Germany.

Kohl, clearly trying to bolster his standing among voters with elections 3 1/2 months away, had high praise for East Germans.

“With their courage, their levelheadedness and, above all, their love for freedom, they have given an example of how dictators can be peacefully overcome,” Kohl said, referring to last fall’s peaceful revolution that toppled 40 years of Stalinist rule.