E. Germany Elects 2 Reformers : Parliament Shakes Up Leadership

EAST BERLIN — East Germany’s Parliament chose a leading reformer as premier today, and in a surprise move elected a moderate non-Communist as its speaker for the first time.

Hans Modrow, the new premier, replaces Willi Stoph, who resigned along with his 44-member Cabinet last Tuesday.

Modrow, 69, is a well-known reformer within the Communist Party, which has been headed by Egon Krenz since Oct. 18. Krenz himself has promised some reforms, including free elections.

Modrow, the only candidate for the post, is charged with forming a new government.

The vote came at the end of an extended session in which the Parliament, until now a simple rubber stamp for the ruling party’s policies, broke out into the open debate it had avoided for four decades.

Earlier, the body elected a non-Communist, Guenther Maleuda, as its new speaker in an unprecedented secret ballot. The ruling Communist Party did not propose a candidate for the post.

Maleuda was elected to replace Horst Sindermann, a Communist Party official who was sacked from the ruling Politburo last week.

Maleuda surprisingly defeated Manfred Gerlach, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party, who was one of the first politicians to call for broad political and economic reforms.

Maleuda, 58, is chairman of the Democratic Peasants Party, one of the four small parties that have been allied with the Communists for 40 years. During the political turmoil in recent weeks, the four parties have been cautiously exploring ways of becoming more independent.

The elections came after a weekend in which East Germans by the millions exercised their new freedom to travel, a right granted by the government to counter an exodus of emigres to the West.

East Berliners today began returning to their jobs after four days of frenzied celebrations at the newly opened Berlin Wall, and officials said fewer than 1% of those who crossed into the West during the weekend chose to stay in West Germany.

About 100,000 East German visitors still headed West today, West German authorities said. The flow of visitors was far slower than during the weekend, when more than 3 million people made the trip.

Today, more than 200,000 East Germans marched in Leipzig to demand free elections from a government that already has been pressured into granting them free travel.

The demonstrators, gathered in the city that has become the focus for protests against the East German leadership, demanded the Communist Party abolish its monopoly on power.

West German television newscasts estimated the number of protesters at between 200,000 and 300,000.

Also today, the Communist Party’s 163-member Central Committee set Dec. 15 for an emergency party congress, which would have the power to elect an entire new Central Committee and change party politics.

Meanwhile, French President Francois Mitterrand invited the leaders of the European Community countries to a special meeting Saturday in Paris to discuss the rapidly changing situation in Europe.