Germany Best of European Union With BMWs of Reunification

Twenty-five years ago, Leipzig was the center of protests that exploded across communist East Germany and ultimately brought down the hard-line regime of Erich Honecker and then the Berlin Wall.

Back then, the few people who owned cars mainly drove Trabants running on a stinking mix of gasoline and oil. There were strip mines on the edges of the city. The airport was a third-rate East Bloc hub served by Soviet Aeroflot and the not-at-all-lamented East German national airline, Interflug.