"1989 certainly represents one of those moments. yet, when IPRA held its12th General Conference in August 1988, few of the participants imagined thatwithin the space of 13 months popular social movements would topple socialistregimes in Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and the German DemocraticRepublic.Nobody imagined the Berlin wall or the wire fence between Hungary and Austria being dismantled. Even fewer contemplated the overthrow of theCeaucescu regime in Rumania, pluralistic politics in Bulgaria, a single Germaneconomy or a reunited Germany."