In the process of reunion, Article 23 of the Basic Law had been repealed, closing off the possibility that any further former parts of Germany might subsequently declare their accession to the Federal Republic; while Article 146 was amended to state explicitly that the territory of the newly unified republic then comprised the entirety of Germany as a whole; "This Basic Law, which since the achievement of the unity and freedom of Germany applies to the entire German people, shall cease to apply on the day on which a constitution freely adopted by the German people takes effect". This was confirmed in the 1990 rewording of the preamble; "Germans..have achieved the unity and freedom of Germany in free self-determination. This Basic Law thus applies to the entire German people."