Germans Give Gorbachev Rousing Send-Off, Thanks : Europe: Kohl cites the Soviet leader’s role in unification. Crowds cheer him on the street.

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev concluded a two-day trip to Germany on Saturday, a visit that symbolized the new, post-unification relationship between the two countries.

Gorbachev and his wife, Raisa, left Germany for Moscow on Saturday evening. The Soviet delegation, which also included Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze, was seen off at the Frankfurt airport by Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher.

Before they left, thousands of people chanting, “Gorby, Gorby,” and waving Soviet flags, thronged the streets as Gorbachev toured several central German towns with Chancellor Helmut Kohl, crediting him with a major role in the process that led to German reunification Oct. 3.

Gorbachev’s arrival in Bonn on Friday coincided with the first anniversary of the Nov. 9, 1989, opening of the Berlin Wall while East Germany’s Stalinist system was crumbling.

“Many of these changes would not have been possible without your personal participation and your support--this is also the case for German unification, and I would like to thank you warmly for this,” Kohl told Gorbachev after the two talked privately Saturday evening at the chancellor’s Oggersheim residence.

Standing outside the villa in the central German state of Rhineland-Palatinate as he prepared to leave for home, Gorbachev told the Bonn leader that “It was a long and difficult path . . . to reach today’s stage and today’s historic agreements.”

Following extensive talks in Bonn, the two leaders Friday signed a cooperation treaty that formalizes the new bilateral relations, while their aides signed an economic treaty and a bilateral social agreement.

Although Gorbachev apparently did not make specific requests for German credits, the leaders talked at length about the Soviet economic reforms and a German role in them.

“We hope that your reform policy will be successful, and we will assist within our possibilities,” Kohl told his Soviet guest.

Before traveling to the Rhineland-Palatinate, Gorbachev met in Bonn on Saturday morning with liberal and opposition Social Democratic politicians.