New E. German Party Leader Proposed

EAST BERLIN--East Germany's embattled Communists today proposed Gregor Gysi, a 41-year-old reformist lawyer who has worked for the opposition, for the post of party chair, a party spokesperson said.

His name was put forward during a meeting that could be the Communists' last as the nation's ruling party.

Party spokesperson Brigitte Zimmermann, briefing reporters on a closed door-session of the party's emergency congress, said Gysi was the only candidate for the post.

Gysi has spoken out for sweeping political and economic reform and acted as lawyer for the opposition group, New Forum. He has served on the interim party leadership and heads a committee investigating corruption allegations against the ousted leadership.

Zimmermann also said that the delegates had decided not to dissolve the party but to change its name.

The formal election of the board and its chair was expected later in the day.

About 3000 delegates attended the emergency congress that began yesterday. The historic emergency congress, held in an East Berlin sports hall, began debating the party's proposed new program that calls for free elections and broad cooperation with opposition groups.

The congress was to elect a new leadership and reportedly planned to consider changing the Communists' name to the Socialist Party of Germany and scrapping the leadership hierarchy of a general-secretary, a Central Committee and a Politburo.

The East German Communists have lost much of their control over society in recent weeks and have granted historic concessions to the opposition, including opening the Berlin Wall and other borders, in a desperate effort to shed their Stalinist legacy and remain in power.

They moved the critical session ahead one week, worried that their slipping control of national affairs was contributing to an atmosphere of instability. The congress, shown live on national TV, will continue through tomorrow.

East German Premier Hans Modrow delivered the keynote speech to the congress and echoed other calls for Communist Party unity.

"Let us not allow the party to be broken, to go under, but let's make it clean and strong," Modrow said as the 3000 delegates applauded.

Modrow, one of the few Communists to enjoy popularity, also ruled out reunification of the two Germanys.

"Reunification is not on the agenda," he said as the delegates broke into long applause.

Herbert Kroker, chair of the party's 25-member interim leadership committee, opened the congress by telling the delegates they were dealing not only with the fate of the party but also with the fate of East Germany.

If the party split, Kroker said, "we would also destroy the hope for a free and cohesive society that we and the others want."

The Socialist Unity Party, as the Communist are officially known, was created in 1946 through the forced merger of the German Communist Party and the Social Democrats.

Party leader Walter Ulbrich ruled until 1971, when he was replaced by Erich Honecker.

As hundreds of thousands of East Germans began taking to the streets in October to demand free elections and other democratic reforms, the hard-line Honecker was forced to resign on October 18.

He was replaced by Egon Krenz, who opened the Berlin Wall and gave the East Germans the freedom to travel they had not enjoyed since the wall was built in 1961.

The party has lost nearly all of its authority and public trust and more than 10 percent of its two million members have turned in their cards in recent weeks.

The party issued a broad new platform Thursday, aiming for an "alternative democratic socialism" to recover some role in the East German power structure.