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In a series culminating today, on the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, we asked our contributors to look back at their thoughts on that fateful day, and to reflect on whether history fulfilled the dreams that sprang from the rubble near Checkpoint Charlie

The Berlin Wall fell 20 years ago. This week the last of the Soviet emperors, Mikhail Gorbachev, 78, commemorated the event in the London Guardian. Considering that it used to be his wall, it was a somewhat ironic exercise. Mr. Gorbachev got around the dilemma by referring to the Berlin Wall as "one of the shameful symbols of the Cold War"� "” which is rather like referring to the gate at Auschwitz as one of the shameful symbols of World War II.

In fact, the eerie ruins at Auschwitz symbolize...