With a sudden surge, the members of East Germany's Volkskammer (People's Chamber) sprang to their feet. As the country's Communist ruler, spike-bearded Walter Ulbricht, 73, looked on, the 434 Deputies thus signaled their unanimous approval of a new law that aims at making the division of Germany a spiritual as well as a physical reality. Into East Germany's law books last week went a statute giving the 17 million people under Ulbricht's rule a new citizenship in "the first peace-loving, democratic, socialist German state."
Until now, even though West Germany and East Germany issued separate passports to their citizens, the...