OF ALL places, it was in divided Berlin in divided Germany in divided Europe that the cold war erupted into an east-west street party. Cautiously in Poland and Hungary, now jubilantly in East Germany, people power has taken on communist power and pulled off some famous victories—not least, the breaching of that dreary symbol of Europe’s division, the Berlin Wall. If Europe’s 1989 revolution can continue on its peaceful path, it will change more than the rotting communist edifice of Eastern Europe. The entire structure of postwar Europe will be transformed as well.

So far, the changes sweeping Eastern Europe have not gone the way of the doomed revelries of Tiananmen Square. Whether this progress can continue towards democracy and prosperity depends upon a whole cascade of uncertainties. First of these is what happens in Germany, the place where the Warsaw pact holds together or unravels.

(Source: http://www.economist.com/node/14838488?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/beyondthewall)