The Revolution Came From the People.

"Hello, boys," cries Ursula Schubert, 39, waving to a pair of green- uniformed border guards in Posseck, East Germany. Without bothering to show a passport or other identification, Schubert, with two of her children in tow, strolls past the smiling guards and across a blacktop that covers part of what was once the "death zone" between the two Germanys. "I'm off to pick up the newspapers," she explains, gesturing toward the West German border post 200 yards away.

There are few formalities at the Posseck crossing these days. Traveling from East to West has become so commonplace that nobody, not even...