Don't Go, Comrade Ulbricht

Leonid Brezhnev may have failed in his efforts to gain election to higher office, but in East Berlin, a far less likely candidate succeeded grandly. By a unanimous 500-to-0 vote, the East German Volkskammer (People's Chamber) last week re-elected old Walter Ulbricht, 78, to a fourth four-year term as Chairman of the East German Council of State.

Ulbricht's re-election caught most outsiders by surprise. Last May, Ulbricht was suddenly and unceremoniously ousted from his far more powerful post as party leader in favor of Erich Honecker, whom the Russians refer to as "our man." Most foreign experts were convinced that the gaunt and obviously sickly Ulbricht would also be dumped from his largely ceremonial post as Chairman of the State Council.

The East Germans had other plans. Since the chairman's job was mostly honorary, it made little sense to engender bitterness among Ulbricht's admirers by stripping him of his last shred of power.

More important, East Berlin might have used Ulbricht's re-election to flash a signal to Moscow. As events have shown, Ulbricht was fired at the insistence of the Russians, who wanted to ensure East German cooperation in negotiating a Berlin settlement. The East Germans are now engaged in almost nonstop negotiations with the West Germans. They may well reach agreement this week over new arrangements guaranteeing free transit to and from West Berlin and establishing more contact between the two parts of the divided city. Nonetheless, the East Germans may at the same time wish to indicate their displeasure over Soviet pressure tactics by making a gesture to the spike-bearded Ulbricht, who stubbornly resisted plans for even the most limited accommodation with the West.

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