TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/120489/12048900.039

Text File | 1992-09-23 | 5.5 KB | 111 lines

                                                                                EAST-WEST, Page 29

Of Turncoats and Scapegoats


In East Germany pent-up anger leads to retribution

By Frederick Painton


    East Germany's gentle revolution turned a little nasty last
week. The euphoria that had accompanied the crumbling of the
Berlin Wall was followed by a wave of bitterness against the
hard-line Communist leadership, under the now ousted Erich
Honecker, that had stifled East German lives for two
generations. Some of the anger also sprang from the realization,
following the opening of borders to West Germany, that the East
German economy was in worse shape than the citizenry had
realized.

    In hundreds of meetings across the country, including
Communist Party gatherings, people poured out their disgust,
demanding that their former leaders be investigated and, if
necessary, tried and punished. Inevitably, perhaps, the time for
retribution had come. During one of the almost nightly mass
rallies in Leipzig, the mood was summed up by a young speaker
who condemned the regime, shouting "You treated us like a herd
of cattle!"

    Similarly, at a meeting of the opposition group New Forum
in Potsdam's Erloser Church, an overflow crowd of 5,000 booed,
whistled and stamped their feet when party theoretician Otto
Reinhold, until recently one of the East German guardians of
Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy, proclaimed his conversion to reform
by saying that the constitutionally enshrined leading role of
the Socialist Unity Party (S.E.D.) was a thing of the past. From
the audience a voice shouted, "Wendehals!" (turncoat),
unleashing an uproar in the audience.

    Wendehals literally means turn neck, the name of a rare
bird that can twist its head 180 degrees; the word has been
adopted by East Germans to refer to the thousands of Communist
Party officials, from Egon Krenz, the current party leader, down
to district secretaries, who overnight began to sound as if they
had joined the pro-democracy movement. A favorite target is
Gunter Mittag, the recently sacked Politburo member in charge
of the economy. Described by the newly outspoken East German
press as arrogant and autocratic, Mittag is being held
responsible for wrecking the economy and cooking the figures to
such an extent that reformers cannot find accurate economic data
with which to work. Prime Minister Hans Modrow, the moderate
former Dresden party chief who himself was investigated in June
by Mittag and his minions, welcomed parliament's decision to
probe abuses of power under Honecker. Said he: "An example must
be set."

    Krenz, almost pleading for credibility, faced an uphill
struggle as popular demands for a reckoning grew. In East
Berlin a government television team entered the so-called
"forbidden city" of Wandlitz, situated on a lake outside Berlin,
to show the public how the elite, including Krenz, had lived in
luxury, enjoying servants, limousines and imported Western
delicacies -- a life-style totally removed from the generally
spartan existence of most East Germans. The compound is
surrounded by a wall; no photographs of it have been published
until now. Krenz moved from Wandlitz to a small apartment in
East Berlin a few weeks ago.

    At an open meeting in the East Berlin headquarters of the
S.E.D.'s central committee, party member Friedrich Dreke, 39,
charged that the leadership had enriched itself at the expense
of the people and had run a "foreign currency mafia" with
illegal sources of income. Declared Dreke: "What we need is a
complete change of command in the party apparatus right up to
the post of General Secretary."

    Krenz made it clear that he would fight to hold on to his
job. "I am here to stay," he told factory workers near East
Berlin. "I didn't take over just to push for change for a few
weeks." Krenz said he was ready for an "unsparing investigation"
of the party's mistakes and transgressions. He and the
beleaguered Politburo also took a first step toward some form
of power-sharing by proposing round-table talks on reform with
non-Communist parties and legal opposition groups; the agenda
would include changing the constitution, which currently gives
the Communists the monopoly of power.

    In fact, each concession by Krenz seems to have created a
fresh threat to his political survival. The opening of the
borders to the West, for example, permitted a torrential outflow
of East German marks, carried out by citizens who at last could
use them, even at absurdly low rates, to buy something -- in the
West. Fretted Prime Minister Modrow: "East Germany must not
become a nation of speculators." The government's bewilderment
underlined the problems encountered by a Communist leadership,
albeit a reform-minded one, in coming face to face with the
complexities of capitalism. Within a matter of days, the East
German currency -- officially at parity with the deutsche mark
-- fell to one-twentieth of its denominated value. One result
is that foreigners as well as East Germans with access to hard
currencies can buy up low-cost East German marks to purchase
goods in East Germany that are subsidized at artificially low
prices.

    To halt speculation, Modrow announced strict customs
controls on the borders with the West. But East Germany's
monetary crisis is likely to worsen, thereby increasing
dependence on the deutsche mark -- and West Germany. Bonn, in
the meantime, is withholding its promised assistance until it
is convinced that East Berlin will introduce concrete and
irrevocable reforms.