After Tiemo Kracht studied the political ramifications of East and West German reunification, he came to Penn State from West Germany to examine the Strategic Defense Initiative.

Acquaintance and fellow graduate from West Germany's Kiel University, Jens Drews, studies East European politics three floors above Kracht's Burrowes Building cubicle.

One November afternoon, as the two worked at the University, the Berlin Wall came apart.

And both were angry they were in the United States.

"I was a little disappointed that I am in America in these exciting days," Kracht said last month from behind his desk, littered with books, manuscripts and papers on SDI. "I had tears in my eyes because I have always fought politically for the unification of Germany."

The two University graduate students left for Berlin during winter break and returned recently to talk about their experiences.

Kracht, a 25-year-old native of Schleiswig-Holstein in northernmost West Germany, founded an organization to aid East German opposition parties for their nationwide elections in May.

Drews, who is from Keil, West Germany, toured East and West Berlin and attended a rally for his left-of-center Social Democrats.

Since age 14, Kracht has been a member of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, the pro-unification party of West German Chancelor Helmut Kohl. He was actively promoting political involvement among German youths by holding lectures, educational workshops and slide shows on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Kracht spent the first two weeks of January with friends starting the "Initiative Group German Unity," an organization to channel election supplies and money to groups opposing the current government.

Kracht said the National Front coalition of East German Prime Minister Hans Modrow has an unfair upper hand in the election process because most of the country's media is government controlled.

"Our main purpose is the political and material support of the Democratic opposition in East Germany," Kracht said. "There was an immediate support for our initiative and we collected much money and materials."

After an aggressive campaign to solicit the support of West German businesses, entrepreneurs and lawyers, Kracht and friends loaded their cars with about $50,000 worth of donated copy machines, stationary and money and headed for Mecklenburg, an East German state that borders Schleiswig-Holstein.

"We took private cars because you can't trust the postal system in the East. It is still controlled by the communists," Kracht said.

Kracht's Initiative Group supports the opposition movements New Forum, Domocratic Outgrowth and the Christian Social Union. Unlike the National Front, these groups are in favor of a market-based economy, a democratic federal system and eventual German unification, Kracht said.

Kracht said his group will not help East Germany's CDU because of its support of Modrow's interim government and former close ties to deposed leader Eric Honeker's Socialist Unity Party.

Drews, who spent seven days in Berlin, participated in a rally held by East Germany's Social Democratic Party to celebrate their emergence from communist domination. West Berlin Mayor Walter Momper, among others, spoke to the crowd of about 30,000, Drews said.

Drews cautioned last month against rash campaigning that could complicate fledgling democracy in East Germany.

"These things are too crucial to make them partisan issues," he said. "For the good of all parties involved, everyone should realize the process is a sensitive one. Nobody knows where it's is going to end."

While Drew's party had opposed reunification altogether, the Social Democrats recently reversed their stance from "absolutely not" to a cautious "maybe over time" stance, said the party's West Berlin spokesman Peter Stadtmulle.

Drews said he found the general opinion of East and West Germans in favor of uniting the nations.

"The feeling is going towards the unity of both Germanys," Drews said. "But it remains to be seen what form the unity will take."

Kracht said he was struck by the energy and cooperation of the people preparing for the May 6 elections.

"Wives, children and everybody had a duty," he said of crowded, busy campaign bureaus. "That's what we call in Germany a peaceful revolution, a revolution by words and not by guns."