Word: ands
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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The formal election of the board and its chair was expected later in the day.
About 3000 delegates attended the emergency congress that began yesterday. The historic emergency congress, held in an East Berlin sports hall, began debating the party's proposed new program that calls for free elections and broad cooperation with opposition groups.
The congress was to elect a new leadership and reportedly planned to consider changing the Communists' name to the Socialist Party of Germany and scrapping the leadership hierarchy of a general-secretary, a Central Committee and a Politburo.
The East German Communists have lost much of their control over society in recent weeks and have granted historic concessions to the opposition, including opening the Berlin Wall and other borders, in a desperate effort to shed their Stalinist legacy and remain in power.
East German Premier Hans Modrow delivered the keynote speech to the congress and echoed other calls for Communist Party unity.