At a press conference held by the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands — SED), Günter Schabowski, Information Secretary in the Central Committee of the SED, announces that citizens from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) will be able to make personal trips abroad without conditions, effective immediately. This unexpected statement, in which Schabowski also confirms that travel from the GDR will be possible at all checkpoints to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and to West Berlin, leads to the fall of the Berlin Wall during the night of 9 to 10 November 1989.