Three greying men, one in a wheelchair, one leaning on a stick, shuffled on to a theatre stage normally occupied by high-kicking chorus girls to discuss old times — the good old days when the Berlin Wall came down and they were in charge of the world.

The 20 years since have taken their toll on Mikhail Gorbachev, George Bush Sr and Helmut Kohl, but this weekend they were determined to celebrate and be celebrated.

Margaret Thatcher, regarded by many as one of the key players in ending the Cold War, was not there.

It was not clear whether she had been invited, though she rarely makes public appearances these days. With the anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, Baroness Thatcher is either being dismissed as marginal and obstructive to Germany’s historically inevitable unification, or she is being edited out altogether.

As the Grand Old Men chatted about the past only Mr Gorbachev, once the leader of the Soviet Union, mentioned her in passing.

At the weekend France followed the British example and opened up its records on the days when the Wall came down, disclosing much about Lady Thatcher’s opposition to German unity.

“France and Great Britain should pull together today in the face of the German threat,” she told the French Ambassador to London in March 1990, according to a declassified diplomatic report.

“Kohl is capable of anything,” she said. “He has become another man. He doesn’t know himself any more. He sees himself as the master of events and is starting to act like it.”

Transcripts of conversations between Mr Kohl and George Bush Sr, held in Brussels on December 3, 1989, have also been released by the Bush Presidential Library.

The President warned the man who was then leader of West Germany that Mr Gorbachev was disturbed by the speed of change in Germany. Mr Kohl replied that Western Europe was behind him — only Britain is “rather reluctant”.

Bush: “That’s the understatement of the year.”

Kohl: “Thatcher says the European Parliament should have no power because Westminster cannot surrender a single bit of its sovereignty. Her ideas are pre-Churchillian. She thinks the postwar era isn’t over yet. She believes that history has been unjust. Germany is so rich and Britain has to fight for its survival. They won a war but lost an empire and their economy . . .”

On Saturday, speaking with great difficulty and slurring his speech, Mr Kohl said: “We Germans don’t have very much to be proud of, but I’ve got every reason to be proud, above all other things, of German unification.”

Now 79, he had a serious fall last year.

Mr Gorbachev, 78, called on the United States to launch its own perestroika, the economic and social restructuring which he tried to introduce in the Soviet Union.

He stressed that change had come from the people. “It is the people who were the heroes,” he said. “The three of us don’t want to take credit for the accomplishments of previous generations.”

Although he leant heavily on his cane and is, at 85, the oldest of the three statesmen, George Bush made the clearest speech.

He lavished praise on Mr Kohl and particularly on Mr Gorbachev. “Through it all he stood firm, which is why he’ll also stand tall when the history of our time is finally written.”

The unspoken consensus among the three was that Lady Thatcher was on the wrong side of history.

According to French diplomatic files, she was worried that a sudden change to post-war borders would destabilise the continent, undermine institutions such as Nato, and reduce Mr Gorbachev’s chances of survival in the Kremlin.

These concerns were shared initially by President Mitterrand of France, who died in 1996.

Towards the end of the meeting the audience of 1,800 spontaneously stood and belted out the German national anthem.

A tearful Mr Kohl raised clasped hands in thanks and was rolled off stage.

Lady Thatcher, one suspects, would have been a little uncomfortable.

Berlin ready to party like it's 1989

Angela Merkel has invited all EU leaders and Mikhail Gorbachev to a two-hour Festival of Freedom to celebrate the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9. The highlight will be the collapse of a 2km chain of more than 1,000 giant foam dominoes, symbolising the fall of communism Celebrations have already begun in Leipzig, which holds the annual Night of the Candles on October 9 to commemorate the pivotal evening of the peaceful revolution

Some of Berlin’s museums are holding special exhibitions to illustrate partition and reunification. These include Checkpoint Charlie, the former East-West Berlin border crossing

Eight pieces of the Wall have been transported to Los Angeles for the longest assembly of the barrier outside Germany

Sources: AFP, BBC, German Embassy, visitgermany

Times Recommends

• Heed the great stabiliser’s words
• How a voice for everyone led to stalemate
• Bakara market becomes a slaughterhouse