Two Germanys Face to Face

BARRING a last-minute hitch, a special train will speed eastward from Bonn one night this week on what could prove to be the most historic journey in postwar German history. The express will halt briefly at the small town of Gerstungen on the border between West and East Germany. There an East German engine and crew will take over to pull the train the remaining 40 miles to the ancient city of Erfurt. The next morning, when West German Chancellor Willy Brandt steps from his sleeping car at the Erfurt station, he will be greeted by Willi Stoph, the Premier of the German Democratic Republic.

For the first time since the two rival states were founded in 1949, the heads of government of the two Germanys will meet face to face. They will talk until evening, probably in the Erfurter Hof, a hotel near the station.

Minimum of Pomp. It is unlikely that a single meeting will produce a sensational breakthrough in the tense and frigid relations between the two German states. But it is highly significant that the meeting is being held at all. Only last week, the East Germans seemed ready to torpedo the Willy-Willi meeting by insisting on impossible demands, most notably that Brandt travel to East Berlin without setting foot in West Berlin, the city he served as mayor for almost a decade. Refusing to take nein for an answer, Brandt suggested a meeting in any other city. To Bonn's amazement, the East German regime proposed Erfurt as the site.

In addition, the East Germans reversed their earlier demands and agreed to a minimum of pomp. Brandt will not be required to inspect an East German honor guard or to listen to the playing of the two national anthems. Perhaps most important of all, the East Germans accepted Bonn's proposal for a second summit, to be held after Erfurt somewhere in West Germany.

Sudden Switch. The crucial factor in East Germany's sudden switch was in all likelihood the influence of the Soviets, who are also engaged in negotiations with Bonn. Concerned that a deadlock between the two Germanys would hamper progress on other fronts, the Soviets apparently prevailed upon East German Party Boss Walter Ulbricht to give his go-ahead to the Brandt-Stoph summit. When the meeting was finally scheduled, the Soviet embassy in Bonn issued a terse statement that left no doubt about Moscow's attitude. Said the Russians: "We welcome it."

The East Germans want West Germany to grant them full diplomatic recognition so that their part of Germany may take its place as a full-fledged sovereign nation in the world community. Brandt is willing to grant de jure recognition to East Germany--but with two important reservations. In accord with his formula of two German "states" within one "nation," he maintains that the Federal Republic will never regard the German Democratic Republic as a foreign country. He also holds that Germans of both countries will always share a common citizenship. Moreover, before he will consider granting diplomatic recognition to East Germany, Brandt insists that progress be made in normalizing relations between the two states in such areas as travel, communications and cultural contacts.

Limited Progress. The mere fact that the Erfurt summit is being held represents a victory for Brandt's Ostpolitik, which aims at overcoming the obstacles that divide Europe. Last week there were also limited signs of progress in West German negotiations in Warsaw and Moscow. In the second round of negotiations between the Poles and West Germans, the two sides reportedly exchanged drafts of parts of a proposed treaty that 1) would end Bonn's claim to former German territories east of the Oder and Neisse rivers, and 2) might offer emigration opportunities to people of German descent living in the area.

In Moscow, West German State Secretary Egon Bahr had three sessions with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, bringing to 30 hours the time the two men have spent together since Jan. 30. The talks are totally shrouded in secrecy. Nevertheless, some diplomats in Moscow suspect that the two sides may be nearing agreement on a joint draft of a renunciation-of-force treaty. Such an agreement would undoubtedly open the way for the West German financial aid and technical know-how that the Soviets so badly need to help their troubled economy.

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