About 8,000 East Germans swarmed into Czechoslovakia after East Berlin lifted a travel ban, and many reached the West German Embassy in Prague, seeking to follow thousands of countrymen to the West.
The resumption of what has been a historic exodus came as East Germany's new Communist leader, Egon Krenz, arrived in Warsaw Thursday for meetings with Poland's Communist Party leaders and the new Solidarity prime minister.Krenz said it was a "great pleasure" for him to meet Prime Minister Tadeusz Mazowiecki, the East bloc's first non-Communist head of government. The two men shook hands warmly for the benefit of photographers.
"I hope we will have not only good, neighborly relations but friendship as well," Krenz said. "We have had good traditions, and I think we can continue those."
Meanwhile, pro-reform demonstrations continued across East Germany on Wednesday. The state-run ADN news agency said 20,000 people marched in Neubrandenburg and tens of thousands protested in Frankfurt-on-the-Oder.
The demonstrators have been urging reforms that include free elections, a multiparty political system and an end to press censorship.
But, during a lively 90-minute sparring match with reporters before leaving Moscow, Krenz also said he is a Communist first and a German second and that the Berlin Wall will not come down. He scorned promoters of German unification for living in a "world of illusions."
Krenz hailed Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev Wednesday for "making socialism more attractive" and said the two men "managed to reach total agreement" at a three-hour meeting despite Krenz's record as a hard-liner and the Soviet leader's position as the East Bloc's No. 1 reformer.
Krenz alternated between bellicose restatements of the unyielding positions for which he is known and deft accommodations to the fast-changing communist world.
Restrictions on travel to Czechoslovakia were imposed Oct. 3 by Erich Honecker, whom Krenz has since replaced, in an attempt to thwart an exodus of young skilled workers fed up with decades of rigid Communist rule.
Krenz rescinded the ban as he began steering East Germany on what he termed "a new course" of tolerance and openness that has included dialogue with the leading banned opposition group, New Forum.
More than 70,000 East Germans have fled to West Germany since August through Hungary or after seeking refuge in West German embassies in Warsaw and Prague.
ADN said at least 8,000 East Germans crossed the border into Czechoslovakia as East German authorities renewed visa-free travel to the neighboring country. West Germany's ZDF television network said Thursday morning that nearly 1,000 East Germans had massed at Bonn's embassy in Prague. ZDF added that more than 1,000 East Germans were still in Warsaw waiting for passage to West.
Krenz has said he wants political and economic changes but has not indicated how far he is willing to go. He has, however, announced an amnesty for people who fled to the West illegally or were caught trying to escape.
Additionally, a prominent East German lawyer reportedly said Wednesday that the government has begun freeing some political prisoners.
The West German newspaper Die Welt quoted East German government attorney Wolfgang Vogel as saying his country already has begun freeing political prisoners after pledg-ing amnesty last week.
Vogel said the released prisoners could choose to stay in East Germany or apply for emigration to the West, Die Welt reported.
According to West German estimates, there are about 1,800 political prisoners in East German jails.