As news that Bashar al-Assad's brutal regime had been toppled broke last night, Syrians took to the streets of Berlin's Neukölln district in their hundreds to celebrate. By Sunday morning, small groups were still wandering up and down Sonnenallee - Neukölln's main thoroughfare - draped in Syrian flags and sitting in the street's many Arab cafes huddled around the latest videos from Damascus.
The mood was still joyous, but there was definitely a note of uncertainty in the air. After years of anger and grief, the big question hanging in the air now is: "What next?" Who will take power in Syria? Will the country be able to rebuild? And is it safe to return now?
While the vast majority of Syrians displaced by the conflict stayed in the country or fled to neighbouring Turkey and Lebanon, a sizeable number went to Germany and other European countries. Many have been here since 2015 and the latest official figures put the number of Syrians in Germany at about 750,000. Some will no doubt return home.
For others, having spent years painstakingly building lives for themselves in what was not always a welcoming environment, the thought of suddenly dropping all that and going back to Syria must prompt mixed feelings. This is particularly true for those who have learned German, gotten jobs and raised children here.
With German federal elections looming, no doubt nationalist politicians will seize on developments in Syria to claim that those who fled to Germany should now return home. In doing so, they will ignore the fact that tens of thousands of Syrians have acquired German citizenship in recent years, and that their skills as doctors, programmers and chemists (to name a few professions I personally know Syrians working in) are sorely needed by Germany's ageing society.
"Of course there will be those who want to return, and others who will only go to visit. Because their children have a life here too," one Syrian friend told me. "And I've got my work. But I also can't abandon my home country. We'll see what happens."