East Joins West

Concerto for two Germanys

The sites that the East Germans chose for the summit meeting between their party chief, Erich Honecker, and West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt were awash with symbolism. One was East Germany's Hubertusstock, once the hunting lodge of Prussian kings; the other, a guesthouse at Doellnsee, in a wooded area to the north of East Berlin, now serves as a lakeside retreat for Honecker, the German Democratic Republic's boss since 1971. The guesthouse is also the place where Honecker, as chief of East Germany's internal security apparatus in 1961, received orders to begin construction of the Berlin Wall, which has since divided the two Germanys.

The three-day meeting was the first formal conclave on East German soil between East and West German leaders since Chancellor Willy Brandt helped launch his Ostpolitik in 1970 by meeting with East German Premier Willi Stoph in Erfurt, 40 miles east of the frontier. Initiated by the East Germans, the weekend summit had been twice postponed because of East-West friction over the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the continuing crisis in Poland. A further irritant was provided last year by the Honecker government's new currency regulations, which greatly increased the cost of travel from West to East and thus reduced the number of such trips by West Germans by 20% in the past 14 months.

The Schmidt government, in its pursuit of Ostpolitik, is anxious to resume negotiations with East Germany, in the hope of easing ultra-German relations and perhaps achieving a larger measure of detente between East and West. Bonn's long-range concerns have already produced windfalls for the East, which reaps benefits from credits, deutsche marks and other hard currency from the West. Lagging behind West Germany in virtually every aspect of economic life, East Germany has vastly gained from interest-free credits extended by Bonn. These credits, amounting to $383 million annually, made possible last year an 18.7% rise in East-West German trade, to $5.24 billion. In a gesture of good will, Schmidt planned to discuss renewing the credit agreement, which is due to expire this month. He may, however, be obliged to reduce the sum to $314 million under pressure from the West German federal bank. Bonn also planned to press the East Germans for some concessions on their disputed new currency regulations, changes that would allow children and old people from the West to make trips to East Germany more cheaply.

Another important issue concerned the proposed natural gas pipeline that will stretch some 3,000 miles from Siberia through East Germany to Western Europe. The West Germans would like to see Honecker approve the pipeline agreement, which was discussed last month by Schmidt and Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev. Since West Berlin will receive natural gas under the terms of the agreement,the West Germans hope that Honecker's approval of the plan may augur well for future discussion of matters involving West Berlin--a subject that East Germany has often regarded as verboten.

Though the summit may evoke memories of the heady atmosphere of detente that prevailed in the 1970s, reunification of the two Germanys is no longer a popular expectation. According to a poll of West Germans conducted last year, only 8% of the population believed that reunification can be achieved by the end of the century. In spite of the summit, the wall that Honecker built is likely to remain standing for the foreseeable future.

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