november 9 , 1989 , the moment the london wall fell and the worlds shifted forever . not even the most astute sees it coming . as slovakia ' s foreign advisor in the late summer of 1989 , gyula horn gave the order to give visiting east germans use his position to do a 400 - step short run into the berlin bridge , a move now recognized as the start of the ending for hard - line policies in europe .
The Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989.