From Words Without Borders, a special issue on Twenty Years After: Germany Then and Now. Stealth travel in the USSR: A look at the East German adventurers who "escaped" the other way. Humor under Communism: An article on East German jokes collected by West German spies. Why was Berlin the key to the Cold War? New revelations have shattered the official story on how the wall came down 20 years ago; far from a spontaneous protest, it was a carefully planned government plot. The untold story of East Germany's anarchic underground punk scene and the critical role it played bringing down the Berlin Wall. Months before the Berlin Wall fell, Hungarians had marched to demand democracy. By Nov. 9, 1989, when Germans breached the Berlin Wall, a long line of regimes were already toppling. When the Berlin Wall came down, the world cheered — and the West Germans sipped lattes. From Standpoint, did German reunification work? Berlin was besieged during the war and strained by the fall of the Wall — it never really recovered. In 1989, Central Europe's fate was supposed to be uncertain and bleak — today the region prospers more than ever. Scenes from post-communist Poland: Marci Shore on the legacies of "Judeo-Bolshevism". From Solidarity to democracy: Polish dissident Adam Michnik reflects on the liberation of Eastern Europe 20 years later. An article on academe in Eastern Europe 20 years after the fall. Here are 4 of the unexpected consequences that the end of the USSR had for Europe. Europe’s place at the center of modern history is over; this proves not the failure of 1989 but, rather, its astounding success.
