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With the end of the Cold War, military tensions around the world eased and open hostilities appeared to give way to dialogue and reconciliation. Suddenly the realisation of human destiny that modernity had promised appeared within grasp. In re-unified Germany, people even began to imagine a pan-European democracy that would allow individuals to shape their own futures as well participate in an enlarged European State. Acting like a bridge between the Old and New Europe, Berliners began to think at last that their City had redeemed itself by lifting the terrible burden of history and opening the gates to a new transnational era in the life of the Global City.