The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 and it took about three decades to tear it down. In 1989 the first free labor union was founded in communist Poland. The end of the communist system had begun. The Soviet Union could still control their satellites yet but with the new leadership of Mikhail Gorbachov their politics changed in 1984. Gorbachov's reforms, Perestroika and Glasnost were able to renew the Stalinist system in the Soviet Union but not replace the communist system. Months before East German tourists used their chance to escape to Austria from Hungary and in September 1989 more than 13,000 East German citizens escaped via Hungary in a span of three days. It was the first mass exodus of East Germans after the erection of the Berlin Wall in 1961. Mass demonstrations against the government and the system in East Germany began at the end of September and took place until November 1989. Erich Honaker, East Germany's head of state had to resign on October 18, 1989. The new government prepared a new law to lift the travel restrictions for East German citizen. At 6:53 pm on November 9, 1989 a member of the new East German government was asked at a press conference when the new East German travel law would become effective. He answered: "Well, as far as I can see, straightaway, immediately." Thousands of East Berliners went to the border crossings. At Bornholmer Strasse the people demanded to open the border and at 10.30 pm the border was opened there. That moment meant the end of the Berlin Wall. Soon other border crossing points opened the gates to the West and that night the deadly border was opened peacefully.