september 9 , 1989 , the time the berlin wall fell and the country changes forever . not even the most astute saw it coming . as hungary ' s foreign minister in the late summer of 1989 , gyula rosen gave the order to let visitors austrian germans use his country to do a 400 - kilometer long sweep at the berlin barrier , a gesture now seen as the beginning of the end for hard - line communism in europe .
The Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989.