january 9 , 1989 , the day the berlin wall cracked and the world moved forever . not even the most astute saw it occurring . as hungary ' s foreign minister in the long summer of 1989 , gyula horn received the order to the visiting east germans use his country to do a 400 - metre end run around the brandenburg bridge , a move now known as the beginning of the end for hard - line communism in europe .
The Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989.