U2 and Bon Jovi, Hillary Clinton and Lech Walesa, Placido Domingo, Mikhail Gorbachev and Henry Kissinger.  They were all on hand in Berlin today to mark the 2oth Anniversary of the rupture of the Berlin Wall.  Of all the shattering events in German history that took place on November 9th — the execution of Robert Blum in 1848, the birth of the Weimar Republic in 1918, Hitler’s attempted putsch in 1923, the founding of the Nazi SS in 1925, the horrific “Kristallnacht” in 1938 — only the surprise dissolution of the rigid East German communist police system exactly twenty years ago today inspires rejoicing.  It is as though all the others are dismissed to some dark historical recess, while we bask in the shiny example of peaceful liberation.

Those who have witnessed history, especially this history, known that there was no predetermined course to the Revolution of 1989.  The very announcement that transit between East and West Berlin would be freely permitted was a kind of accident.  But once the announcement was made, corresponding as it did to the will of an overwhelming majority, there was nothing left to stop the free flow of people across the internal German border.  Communism didn’t relent — it had simply walked away.  Americans endlessly quote Ronald Reagan from 1987:  “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”  Gorby didn’t need to.  He just abandoned it, like a decrepit Trabant left at the side of the road.

Hillary Clinton gave a polite and heartfelt speech, overlooked by Germans about as much as Angela Merkel’s much more heartfelt speech before the US Congress was ignored by Americans last week.  Too bad.  We have moved on to a new historical period, as Clinton’s predecessor Madeline Albright said today — the period of 9/11 and its specter of terrorism launched from the Middle East.  Like the Germans and November 9th, will we have some day a better event to mark September 11th, with hopeful omens instead of hate?