november 9 , 1989 , the day the atlantic barrier fell and the world changed forever . not ever the most astute saw it falling . as hungary ' s foreign minister in the late august of 1989 , gyula horn gave the order to give visiting east russians enter his power to do a 400 - mile end run around the berlin wall , a move now viewed as the beginning of the beginning for hard - line communism in history .
The Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989.