Wandel durch Handel—“change through trade.” This pleasing rhyme not only sounded better in German; it also reflected reality. Trade among the postwar democracies in Western Europe, in the form of the increasingly integrated common market, really had produced peace and prosperity. After 1990, many hoped trade would also enrich the eastern half of the Continent and bring it closer, politically and culturally, to the western half. Wandel durch Handel became popular partly because it suited the world of commerce but also because it described the actual experience of ordinary people.
