EUROPE TEN YEARS LATER... (cover story)

This article examines how Europe has changed following the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. The wall was the stark symbol of the 20th century, of the horrors of its world wars and the clash of its ideologies. As of November 1999, Berlin is once again the capital of a united Germany. The wall was demolished, as have the barbed wire and the guard towers. And exactly where the checkpoint once stood, a new building is about to rise: Berlin Checkpoint Charlie Plaza, an ultra-modern eight-story office tower that promises future tenants the latest in high-speed data connections. The fall of the Berlin Wall not only heralded the extraordinary collapse of the Communist order from the Elbe to the Urals, a system that once seemed both monolithic and eternal. It also symbolized an epochal turning point for the West--and Western Europe in particular. The result is much more vibrant and pluralistic Continent--one in which the state is no longer the final arbiter of society. The driving forces are technology and business, rather than ideology and geopolitics.