NID: EAST GERMANY: FRESH OPPOSITION SUPPORT FOR REUNIFICATION

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: The Collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe: A 30-Year Legacy
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06826805
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 26, 2019
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2019
• Publication Date: December 5, 1989

Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826805
CI I-I
EAST GERMANY: Fresh Opposition Support for Reunification
Growing signs of support for reunification by some East German
opposition movements suggest that issue may become more important
as free elections approach.
Yesterday, for the first time. an opposition party was formed with the
expressed goal of a unified Germany. The Reunification Party made
its debut at the usual weekly demonstration in Leipzig, where it led
calls for reunification among a crowd of some 200,000, according to
press reports.
The main opposition group, New Forum. has long opposed
reunification but is showing signs of cracks on this issue. A New
Forum spokesman yesterday announced that reunification would not
be part of its platform despite calls from the movement's Berlin
chapter for an early national referendum on the topic. The Potsdam
chapter also voiced support rot Germany's eventual reunification and
demilitarization. Another opposition group, Democratic Awakening,
has endorsed West German Chancellor Kohl's 10- oint roposal as a
framework for ending Germany's division.
Comment: Growing public support for a united Germany might
become a major issue at the roundtable talks set to start Thursday as
well as in the national election likely to be held next year. The issue
may increasingly divide the opposition, particularly New Forum, if
the national leadership continues to support an independent socialist
state. Support for closer intra-German tics is likely to grow among the
established non-Communist parties. Two of them�the Christian
Democrats and National Democrats�have used the idea of a limited
confederation to gain voters
East German leaders, including Premier Modrow, probably will
continue to reject early reunification as neither feasible nor desirable.
Movement toward at least confederation might snowball, however, if
political disarray grows and the economic crisis gets worse. Even
without a crisis, closer cooperation on a broad front is likely as West
German aid and investment pours in and Bo n's political influence
rises commensurately.
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TCS 2981/89
5 December 1989
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Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826805