2 DISRUPT KOHL SPEECH HERE

W. GERMAN CHIEF CALM DURING PROTEST

Two young men shocked guests at an Oktoberfest celebration last night when they leaped onto a Washington hotel stage where West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was speaking and unfurled a large banner that read "Solidarity with Nicaragua."

While security agents removed one of the men, the second shouted "Freiheit," the German word for freedom, before he was taken away. Both men had been close enough to touch the German leader, a witness said.

Kohl's wife, Hannelore, who was standing behind her husband in the ballroom of the J.W. Marriott Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW, looked shaken, but Kohl appeared unflustered. "To his credit, he never lost his cool," said Time magazine Bonn bureau chief William A. McWhirter, who was in the audience.

According to McWhirter, Kohl paused briefly to watch as the men were removed, then told the audience: "This is the kind of freedom that you can only see in a wonderful land like this. I would like to see what would have happened to them at an East German affair."

The two men were interviewed briefly by U.S. Secret Service officials and released, a Secret Service spokeswoman said last night. Both men were carrying West German passports, but had identification listing Washington, D.C., addresses. The spokeswoman declined to release the names or addresses of the men, but said they were in their early twenties.

The men rushed to the small stage about five minutes into Kohl's welcoming speech, McWhirter said.

The party was being given by the West German government for the benefit of the local German community.

Guests included members of the West German military, West German Embassy staff and members of the Kohl travel party.

It was not known how the two young men gained access to the ballroom.

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