East Germany's ruling Politburo resigned Wednesday and the Communist Party replaced the aging leaders with reformers in a dramatic bid to gain control of a country convulsed by protests and the exodus of thousands of its people.
The action followed Tuesday's resignation of the entire Cabinet and another round of street demonstrations involving more than 100,000 people in four cities who demanded the right to choose their own government.East Germans skeptical about the government's promises of reforms continued to flee their homeland, with more than 50,000 people reaching West Germany since Saturday.
The entire 21-member Politburo resigned in a major leadership reshuffle, which opposition leaders and party members alike had been urging for days. It was new leader Egon Krenz's boldest move yet to get a grip on power.
The party's 163-member Central Committee then reaffirmed Krenz as party leader and voted in four new members to the Politburo, including Dresden party chief Hans Modrow, who have backed Soviet-style reforms.
Krenz and six other members who support his reforms were re-elected to the ruling body.
Modrow also was nominated for the post of premier, the state-run news agency ADN said. The Politburo is the country's most powerful decision-making body. The Central Committee approves leadership and major policy changes.
Wednesday's action reduces the number of Politburo members from 21 to 11. In addition to Krenz and Modrow, the Central Committee reelected to a Politburo seat Guenter Schabowski, who has also
become a leading reform advocate.
The Central Committee also voted to appoint Johannes Chemnitzer as a non-voting member of the Politburo. Chemnitzer was the first high-ranking East German politician to suggest discussing the need for the Berlin Wall.
In a brief dispatch, the official ADN news agency said Krenz "suggested" the Politburo resign "so that the responsibility for the current situation can be made clear."
Many members of the outgoing Politburo are in their 60s and 70s and are closely associated with Krenz's mentor, former hard-line leader Erich Honecker. The aging leadership had increasingly lost credibility, especially in the face of massive defections to the West.
Krenz, in office just three weeks, faces great difficulties as he tries to assert authority in a country that exploded in unrest a month ago as it marked the 40th anniversary of its founding as a Communist state.
Krenz has indicated no intention of releasing the Communists' grip on power. He is under growing pressure at home and abroad to follow the lead of discredited Communist rulers in Poland and Hungary and share power.
Before the Politburo action, Chancellor Helmut Kohl of West Germany urged East German Communists to surrender their monopoly on power, approve free elections and clear the way for economic reforms.
"With this condition, I am also ready to discuss a new dimension in our economic aid," Kohl told Parliament in Bonn. West Germany has several times offered East Berlin substantial new financial aid if wide-ranging reforms are embraced.
On Tuesday, more than 100,000 people rallied in at least four East German cities after the resignation of the Cabinet, a 44-member body that has little power and implements policy made by the Politburo.
About 5,000 East Berliners marched past the party building to demand free elections and shouted, "Egon we are the competitors," and "We are the people." The few police outside the party building did not intervene.
Border officials in West Germany said the number of refugees reaching Bavaria by way of Czechoslovakia since Saturday, when free exit through that country was first permitted, had reached more than 50,000. Czechoslovakia is the only country to which East Germans can travel freely.
The escape route opened Saturday created the first free passage to the West since the Berlin Wall went up in 1961. Authorities have said the route will remain open until a new travel law takes effect, possibly before Christmas.
Border police said 300 East Germans an hour were pouring into West Germany from Czechoslovakia at the main crossing point at Schirnding in Bavaria. Officials said 11,000 crossed in the 24 hours to 4 a.m. Wednesday, compared with about 9,000 the previous day.
So far this year, more than 190,000 East Germans - more than 1 percent of the population of 16.6 million - have moved to West Germany by emigrating legally, escaping or failing to return from approved trips abroad.
West Germany gives them automatic citizenship and help in starting new lives.