Ulbricht's Prisoners

East Germany's Communist rulers suffer the pangs of isolation. Despite the country's impressive economic performance, it is denied diplomatic recognition by most Western nations; and even among its Communist neighbors. East Germany's hard-line views are sometimes ignored. But Party Boss Walter Ulbricht and his lieutenants have some effective ways of getting a response from other countries. One of them: using prisoners as bait.

The East Germans began handing out prison sentences to American and other Western students in September. That was shortly after the Soviets signed the Treaty of Moscow, which angered Ulbricht by failing to insist on West German recognition of East Germany as a totally independent and fully sovereign state. Last week, a closed court in East Berlin sentenced two more students to long terms.

Silenced Spokesman. Frank King. 24, a Detroit medical student, was given two years in prison. Michael Woodridge. 25, King's British cousin, was sentenced to 15 months' confinement. Though neither man was known as a far-rightist in his home country, both were arrested in East Berlin last summer for pasting up propaganda posters bearing Nazi swastikas. They joined three other Americans in East Berlin's grim Hohenschoenhausen prison: Jack Strickland, 28, who was sentenced two months ago to four years for alleged border violations and supposedly trying to slip East Germans out of their walled-in country; Lyle Jenkins, 30, who drew 2 1/2 years on similar charges; and Mark Huessy, 21. who is serving the longest term of all. Six weeks ago. Huessy drew a seven-year term for slandering the Communist regime.

The son of a University of Vermont professor of psychiatry, Huessy was writing a paper on Communist Playwright

Bertolt Brecht and living with an East Berlin family. According to his father, young Huessy was "positively impressed" with the regime, but he also clung to his faith in the U.S. Shortly before his arrest, he wrote to his parents: "How can I explain to these people that even though I agree with all their criticism of the American system, the Viet Nam War and racism, that there is still something about America which gives it more potential than any system I know?"

Last January, less than a week before he was scheduled to return home. Huessy was arrested in East Berlin. Eight months later, he was charged on three counts: espionage, trying to help East Germans escape, and provocative criticism of the state. Acquitted on the two more serious charges, he was convicted on the state criticism charge. His alleged slander was that the Communist regime would collapse if Moscow decided to pull its 20 divisions out of East Germany.

"Better Climate. American diplomats have been quietly pressing for the release of Huessy and the other captive Americans since last summer by denying visas to East Germans who want to visit the U.S. U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Rush has raised the Huessy issue during the four-power Berlin talks.

Pyotr Abrasimov. the Soviet Ambassador to East Germany, has told Rush on those occasions that the East Germans sentenced Huessy to the unusually long term because they regard him as an especially dangerous provocateur. Even so, Abrasimov hinted, Huessy and the others might be sprung quickly if the U.S. would issue a visa to East German Foreign Minister Otto Winzer to attend the United Nations' 25th anniversary session in Manhattan. Abrasimov also proposed a trade of prisoners, and supplied a list of Communist agents now held by the U.S.

There are rumors that a swap may in fact be in the works. Wolfgang Vogel. the East Berlin lawyer who was instrumental in the exchange of U-2 Pilot Francis Gary Powers for Soviet Master Spy Rudolf Abel, is active in the case. So is Manhattan Lawyer Maxwell Rabb, secretary to the Cabinet during the Eisenhower Administration who has negotiated the release of seven Americans from East Germany since 1965. If the Soviets are determined to bring about a better climate in Berlin, Moscow may try to pressure the East Germans to free the students. But there is also the possibility that the East Germans might defy the Kremlin and hold on to the prisoners a while longer as a sign that they thoroughly disapprove of any such Soviet efforts.

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