Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 18, 1990 TAG: 9006180062
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: EAST BERLIN LENGTH: Medium
Also Sunday, East German Prime Minister Lothar de Maiziere and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl agreed to submit a resolution to their parliaments Thursday that would guarantee Poland's border with East Germany. The resolution could then be confirmed by a united German parliament as early as next spring.
For a few moments, however, it appeared as if East and West Germany might unite immediately. Meeting to commemorate a June 17, 1953, worker uprising that was violently suppressed by Soviet tanks, the parliament considered immediate unification under Article 23 of West Germany's basic law, which allows states to join simply by voting to accept West Germany's basic law.
Although the representatives gave the necessary two-thirds vote to put the proposal on the legislative agenda, they soon thought better of the idea.
"If we, today, would use Article 23 to join, then the Soviet Union would discover tonight that it has 400,000 soldiers on territory under jurisdiction of the [West German] basic law. One can't deal with the Soviets like that," said Richard Schroeder, chairman of the Social Democrats.
De Maiziere, who attended the commemorative session with Kohl and other West German officials, also spoke against the proposal, saying that external considerations such as security arrangements must be worked out before the German states can unite.
The proposal was then sent to a subcommittee for study.
Although East Germany decided not to attach itself to West Germany overnight, it did end its formal existence as a socialist state. Hailed in official propaganda over the decades as "the first socialist state on German soil," the word "socialism" was taken out of the country's constitution and replaced with "free, democratic and social." The right to private property also was guaranteed in a series of constitutional amendments that were approved by the necessary two-thirds majority.
To add bite to these changes, the Volkskammer, or parliament, passed a bill that is to privatize the remaining 7,500 state-owned businesses. Frustrated by the fact that only 500 of the 8,000 state businesses have become private voluntarily, the new law requires that the switch must be completed in less than two weeks - by July 1, the day East and West Germany are to unite their economic systems.
by CNB