At the stroke of midnight on Oct. 3, a mammoth black, red and gold flag rose in front of the floodlit Reichstag in Berlin, signifying that 41 years after its division, there was again one Germany. "We want to serve peace in a united Europe and the world," proclaimed President Richard von Weizsacker.
The dissolution of communist East Germany and its voluntary merger with the Federal Republic was a political event with no modern precedent. It was also a mighty spectacle as millions of Germans celebrated with beer and wine in places with evocative names like Unter den Linden and the...
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