Goodby to the Old Crowd

Egon Krenz had hoped to ride the wave of political change that is sweeping over East Germany. Instead, he has become another of its victims. Less than seven weeks after taking over as Communist Party chief Krenz is out, forced to resign along with the entire 10-member ruling Politburo and the 163-member Central Committee. Never before in the history of international communism has a ruling group had power snatched from its hands so completely, so suddenly or so humiliatingly. A party leadership that only a few months ago held absolute sway over 16 million people today finds itself disgraced, dishonored and openly mocked.

East Germany’s government is now in the hands of a 25-member committee of reformers led by Prime Minister Hans Modrow. The Communist Party has not disbanded--it plans a congress on Dec. 15 to name new leaders--but its claim to political legitimacy is punctured, while its assertions of political virtue stand revealed as a sham. The party’s guaranteed “leading role” in political life, which gave it a virtual monopoly on power for 40 years, was taken away by Parliament last Friday. If the party is to survive as an institution--and each passing day makes that ever more doubtful--it will have to do so in open competition with other political claimants.

And what was it that finally toppled the Communist leadership, clearing the way for new faces and new ideas? In a word, corruption. Even as the people of East Germany were forced year after year and decade after decade to sacrifice and struggle for the common good, members of the party hierarchy were leading lives of unearned luxury and privilege. Rank-and-file party members seem particularly appalled by the revelations of high-living and stories of stolen funds deposited in secret Swiss bank accounts, all recently exposed in Parliament and broadcast on East German television. So far, three former Politburo members have been arrested on corruption charges. Others--among them former leader Erich Honicker, a party member for 60 years--have been purged. That list will undoubtedly grow.

What began in East Germany as low-key political protest has now reached a stage of virtual revolution. The Old Guard that held power for so long has been forced to step down, so thoroughly discredited that it did not even try to fight to hang on. It seems ironic to recall now the conventional wisdom of just months ago, that hard-line East Germany would be among the last of the Communist Bloc states to change and liberalize. Change is taking place with breathtaking rapidity, and the end is nowhere in sight.