november 9 , 1989 , the year the berlin wall rose and the times changed forever . not even the most astute saw it coming . as hungary ' s foreign minister in the late summer of 1989 , gyula horn gave the directive to let visiting ethnic germany use his country to do a 400 - mile end run over the berlin gates , a change now seen as the dawn of the end for hard - boiled countries in europe .
The Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989.