Apparently Compares Gorbachev and Goebbels : Kohl Embarrassed by Public Relations Gaffe

BONN —  Controversy has erupted over a comment by Chancellor Helmut Kohl in which he seemed to compare the public relations efforts of Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to those of Nazi propaganda chief Josef Goebbels.

The Soviet ambassador asked the government Thursday to explain Kohl’s remark, and Friday the opposition Social Democratic Party demanded a retraction.

Kohl, in an interview published in this week’s Newsweek, was quoted as saying: “He (Gorbachev) is a modern Communist leader who understands public relations. Goebbels, one of those responsible for the crimes of the Hitler Era, was an expert in public relations, too.”

No Comparison Intended

Herbert Schmuelling, a government spokesman, said Friday that Kohl “neither compared the two persons nor intended to make such a comparison.”

Instead, Schmuelling told a regularly scheduled news conference, Kohl sought to “make it clear that the impact of public relations efforts does not necessarily say anything about the quality of the politics in question.”

Soviet Ambassador Yuli A. Kvitsinsky visited Schmuelling on Thursday and requested an explanation, West German officials said. Schmuelling’s comments Friday were conveyed to the Soviet Embassy as a response, they said.

Returning From U.S.

Kohl, en route back to Bonn after a four-day visit to the United States, was not available for comment.

Social Democratic parliamentary leader Hans-Jochen Vogel called on Kohl to retract his comments, or, if the chancellor was misquoted, to say so. Vogel said that the incident could affect West German-Soviet relations and that it reflected on Kohl’s qualifications as chancellor.

The anti-Establishment Greens Party called on Kohl to resign. It has done so before, citing other issues.

Schmuelling said that Newsweek had inserted the phrase, attributed to Kohl, that described Goebbels as “one of those responsible for the crimes of the Hitler Era.”

But Newsweek Editor Maynard Parker, who participated in the interview, said that the phrase was inserted at the request of the West German government press office. Parker, who spoke Friday by telephone from New York, said that the change was made when the press office reviewed the transcript before publication.