Almost everything appeared like routine at the German Democratic Republic’s (GDR) ruling party’s Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) press center at Berlin, Mohrenstrasse on the evening of November 9, 1989.Indifferently, Gunter Schabowski (1929-2015), Secretary of Information for the party, made new announcements regarding the powers’ latest decisions.For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Contrary to what he tried to display, the past months had been anything but routine. Faced with empty coffers, waves of people fleeing the GDR through allied neighboring countries and shaken by mass protests of angry fellow citizens who demanded reforms that even the feared state security Stasi seemed unable to quell the wind of change was in the air.Pressure on the ruling party had become immense.Change did not seem evident this evening until Schabowski made a revolutionary announcement: citizens of the GDR would be allowed to travel abroad legally;