Chancellor Gerhard Schröder made a final plea for a fresh mandate to "renew Germany without social division" as tomorrow's general election heads for an uncertain outcome.
Polling institutes said the race was too close to call in their final surveys last night, with just one agency predicting a new government led by the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU).
"September 18th will decide whether we hold our course of strengthening Germany without throwing away our social cohesion," said Mr Schröder to a huge crowd on Gendarmen-Markt square in central Berlin. "It is about whether this Germany can act as a positive medium-sized power to search for peaceful solutions to world conflicts."
The German leader attacked his CDU rival Angela Merkel, who initially backed the US position ahead of the Iraq war. "It is not just a question of wanting peace. It is about holding your position against outside pressure," he said.
Dr Merkel went on a final attack last night as well, accusing finance minister Hans Eichel of hiding an alleged "poison list" of cutbacks worth €120 billion to be announced after the election.
Mr Eichel has denied authorising the list and said it was formulated and leaked by a CDU-leaning civil servant, but Dr Merkel has said her first act in office will be to order an inquiry.
Despite the tight race, Dr Merkel is on course to become the country's first woman chancellor, but she cannot be sure what government she will head.
The CDU's preferred coalition with the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) has 49-51 per cent of the vote, according to the last polls, while the ruling SPD and its Green Party coalition partners have 42 per cent.
Combined with the new Left party, their share of the vote rises to 49 per cent.
But none of the other parties wants to have anything to do with the Left party, an electoral alliance of reformed communists and breakaway SPD left-wingers.
If the CDU-FDP falls short of a parliamentary majority, Dr Merkel may face a so-called "grand coalition" with the SPD.
She has rejected that option, as have other political leaders, warning that it would lead to stagnation and stall the economic and social reforms.
The race is so tight that all parties have abandoned tradition to campaign right into polling day tomorrow.
Mr Schröder called tomorrow's snap election a year early after the unpopularity of the government's reforms led to heavy state election defeats.
He ran a short and heated campaign, defending his economic reforms and pleading for more time to let them show results.
Dr Merkel argued that another round of serious reforms is needed to break the vicious circle of 10 per cent unemployment and 1 per cent economic growth.
She has promised a 100-day economic programme if elected, cutting income and corporate taxes as well as non-wage costs, and loosening labour laws to make it easier for German companies to hire - and fire - employees.
Germany stands at a crossroads this weekend: to tough it out with Mr Schröder and hope his reforms kick in or to accept greater economic liberalisation and further cutbacks under Dr Merkel. The divided polls reflect public opinion.
Back in Berlin, the crowd cheered when Nobel Prize winner Günther Grass took to the stage to thank Mr Schröder for keeping German soldiers out of the "massacre" in Iraq.
"Everything's not lost. The undecideds will fall in when they realise only the SPD stands up for the little man," said party supporter Axel Weinberg.
"The CDU will win, less for Dr Merkel but because of frustration and because people are prepared to accept deeper cuts," said Elmar Goedde (32), a CDU voter.
"I fear Schröder will get in again despite everything," said one elderly Bavarian lady. "He's just like that."
