If This Wall Could Talk

“To millions the Berlin Wall—which as of today has been down for longer than it was up—was above all a symbol … but it was also the cause of countless private tragedies. It severed families. It destroyed opportunities. 173 East Germans were killed trying to cross it. One, 18-year-old Peter Fechter, was shot in 1962 while trying to scale the wall and left to bleed to death in the no-man’s-land, West German soldiers throwing him bandages in vain.” The Berlin Wall has now been down longer than it was up. (And we’re still struggling to learn its lessons.)