European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - April 15, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                About530of the archaic East German Traban cars still leave the Assembly lines daily at Zwickau East Germany and Are shipped by rail to distributors who reportedly Are having an increasingly difficult time unloading the Pokey autos. Crash course in unification by Mark Fritz associated press the Road is a roaring River of Mercedes Bow and porsche cars their Drivers casually negotiating the twisting Highway at speeds sometimes eclipsing 100 Mph. Chugging among them like slow moving Speed bumps shuddering with each passing blast of air from a finely tooled West German Auto Are the archaic Little cars of East Germany. The Little engines that  Are trying anyway making the autobahn a the Western world s fastest Highway system a just a Little slower. Quot it is too fast for us but it is not too fast for them because they have Good roads and Good cars a said East German Walter Keilholz 51, As he sat in his trabant at a rest Stop near Hannover West Germany. On a secondary Road just Over the Border near the East German City of Magdeburg a Silver Mercedes rattles Down a Teeth chattering Cobblestone Road then has to swerve sharply to avoid a Streetcar that suddenly swings into View. The unification of the Germany is More than just a merger of economies and governments. It will also involve melding two vastly different transportation systems that already Are getting a crash course a literally a in unification. Planners in both countries have drawn up astronomical estimates of what it will take to upgrade East Germany a antiquated system of roads and rails to accommodate the freight train of Western Commerce that suddenly is heading East. Some experts say it will take at least $235 billion to bring the system up to an acceptable level. Rainer hops a transportation expert with the German Institute for economic research a West Berlin think tank said the figure could reach $425 billion. West Germany already expects to spend about $117 million this year just to make Basic repairs to the Jam packed new Border Crossings and perhaps $600 million next year on the growing traffic crunch. In East Germany Long stretches of crucial roads Are made of Cobblestone and twist narrowly through tiny towns. Two thirds of the Bridges were built before 1905. And at least 5,580 Miles of Road Are crossed by rails a making them obsolete for the flood of traffic that has resulted now that East Germany has gone from isolated stalinist nation to burgeoning consumer Market and tourist attraction. Improving East German roads is important because Basic Central european transportation routes Are changing from North to South to East and West reflecting the new accessibility to the East bloc hops said. Quot transportation routes a air rail and roads a Are going Back to the old pre War period Quot he said. Insurance companies in West Germany already Are demanding that something be done to Deal with an abrupt Rise in traffic accidents. About 10,000 property damage accidents involving West German and East German vehicles have occurred since the beginning of the year compared to a previous average of 4,500 for the period the huk association for Auto insurers said in Bonn in Early april. The traffic crunch has provided an Apt metaphor for the merger of two nations at vastly different stages of economic evolution. The Pokey ladas Wartburg and trabant of the East bloc Are chugging along the autobahn and the bigger and faster cars of the West Are clattering Over narrow and cracked East German streets. From january through october Only about 13 million West German autos crossed into East Germany West German traffic minister Ulrich Klimke told the East German news service adn. But after the Borders were opened in november about 58 million motorists drove into the East in the next three months he said. There Are now 130 Border Crossings Between East and West compared to Only nine last october but Many of them need to be reconstructed to accommodate the deluge of vehicles he said. As Auto traffic already erases the Borders that will be officially lifted after reunification some motorists say the chaos could be eased if Drivers simply eased up on their accelerators. A in East Germany the roads Are bad and in West Germany the roads Are Good Quot East Berliner Gundula Pelz 44, said during a break from the autobahn near Hannover. Quot but in both the people drive too  f0rthe firs time complete&un01t a stars la 0c o h it it o o of it it la 0. E h it it q z it it it of 2 0 and stripes bookstores stars and stripes bookstores take advantage of this $8 discount it on Stephen King s the stand and Here is the Bleak new world of the Day after a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of Panicky survivors choose sides a or Are chosen. A world in which Good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail a and the worst nightmares of evil Are embodied in a Man with a lethal smile and unspeakable Powers Randall Flagg the dark Man. Stephen King s the stand is available for the discounted Price of $16.95 regular Price $24.95 at most stars and stripes bookstores. Stars and stripes bookstores Are Well stocked with paperbacks magazines and hardcover titles All discounted for you. Customer savings in fiscal 1990 already total More than $875,000. Stop in and save at a stars and stripes Bookstore today Cut it z this is the Way the world ends with a nanosecond of computer error in a defense department / Laboratory and a million casual contacts that f pm the links in a Chain letter of death. H a to m too o o o 30 m Cut stars and stripes bookstores stars and stripes bookstores sunday april 15, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 17