november 9 , 1989 , the year the berlin wall rose and the world transformed forever . not even the most acumen viewed it coming . as hungary ' s foreign chancellor in the short summer of 1989 , béla gram gave the authorization to permit visiting east germans use his nation to do a 400 - mile end run around the germany wall , a move now seen as the starting of the ends for hard - line communism in europe .
The Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989.