EAST GERMANY: Swelling Stream

The throb of unrest in East Germany can be accurately measured by the flow of refugees to the West. For about a year the number of East Germans seeking sanctuary was a fairly steady 6,500 a month. Last month the number abruptly rose to 8,500. West Berlin authorities expect the figure for April to top 10,000.

The refugees all have stories to tell. There is a serious farm crisis in East Germany. Meat, wheat, sugar and edible oils are now critically short, and in some localities there has been panic buying on the "free markets" (where prices are about six times the ration price). Some East Germans fear that the "pocketbook blockade" of West Berlin (TIME, April 11) is only the prelude to "some new deviltry." The East German government announced that it had arrested 521 U.S., British and West German "spies."

Conspicuous in the swelling stream of refugees are three groups who have special reasons for clearing out. Farmers fear increasing collectivization. Young men are alarmed at reports that the People's Police would soon be doubled in size, to counter West German rearmament. Teachers have their backs up because they were asked to plug "youth dedications"—a Communist substitute for church confirmations. Said one grammar-school teacher who fled his native Greifswald: "After all, to do harm to the church is to harm the only body in East Germany that effectively opposes the Communists."