Democratic Awakening
The Democratic Awakening (DA ) was an opposition political grouping in the GDR, which in October 1989, in the turn, was constituted. The official founding as a party took place at the congress on 16-17. December in Leipzig. The DA was until August 4, 1990.
History
Precursor of DA was an initiative group was founded in East Berlin in August 1989 with a predominantly religious representatives, including the prominent pastor Rainer Eppelmann and Friedrich Schorlemmer and the lawyer Wolfgang Schnur. Other founding members were Rudi -Karl Pahnke and Thomas Welz. The full name of the proposed political union was Democratic Awakening - social - ecological (DA). The founding member of precious Bert funnel was charged with developing a program line to draft a statute.
A second meeting was scheduled in October, but the dynamics of the political upheavals in autumn 1989 forced an earlier action. As on September 9, the collection movement had founded New Forum, judges went on September 14 during a trip to visit the Federal Republic of Germany to the public. On 26 September, he presented the Democratic uprising in the GDR, in Erfurt, in public before. Two days later, the first meeting took place Augustinian monastery in Erfurt. The meeting on 1 October, was attended by, among others, Günter Nooke and Daniela Dahn, took place in the Berlin apartment of Ehrhart Neubert place and was seriously hampered by the state security, numerous members and interested parties were locked out. The State Security had the phone the apartment temporarily blocked the line but then released again to listen to it can. Participants will use this to inform West German stations that still reported during the meeting about it. In the evening programmatic texts were handed over to the mirror and declared the establishment of the DA. In his program, the DA initially sought a compromise between the idea of democratic socialism and liberal ideas and called for reforms in the GDR system.
Regular Democratic Awakening was founded on a second meeting on 29 October 1989, over a hundred representatives in Berlin Queen Elizabeth Hospital and provided with a statute, which established communication and management structure. It was decided that the DA should be converted into a political party until May 1990. As president Wolfgang Schnur was chosen.
In December 1989, a programmatic reorientation. A draft of a working group to Christoph Kähler formed the basis of the program, which was adopted at the congress on 16 and 17 December in Leipzig. Socialism ideas disappeared from consideration, while the orientation of the market economy prevailed quickly. The German unit was formulated as a goal, but this was highly controversial within the party. With the " Leipziger program " was the Democratic Awakening in the ranks of the newly founded and overall still very politically left ideology appended opposition movements relatively far to the right. Leftist members as Friedrich Schorlemmer and Daniela Dahn then left the party. Angela Merkel was press officer, Oswald Wutzke Secretary General of the party.
18 December 1989 to 12 March 1990, the Democratic Awakening was one with two seats on the Central Round Table. Participants were Wolfgang Schnur and Rainer Eppelmann.
In February 1990, the DA was an electoral alliance, the "Alliance for Germany " with the German Social Union and the CDU. Wolfgang Schnur predicted to be the future Prime Minister of the GDR. About four days before the parliamentary elections Wolfgang Schnur as a longtime informer (IM ) of the Ministry for State Security ( Stasi) was unmasked among other things, a report by the magazine Der Spiegel. He had the State Security informed from the beginning of every step of the DA as well as long-standing dissidents, whom he had represented by counsel denounced. String broke down and told his resignation on 14 March 1990. For the Democratic Awakening the discovery had a catastrophic loss of credibility. Successor as party leader and top candidate was Rainer Eppelmann.
The alliance won the election to the People's Chamber; However, it was the DA with 0.9 % and four seats by far the weakest partner of the electoral alliance. Rainer Eppelmann, who was previously in February 1990 as Minister without Portfolio in the Second Transitional Government of Hans Modrow, was born on 12 April 1990 Minister for Disarmament and Defense in the East German government freely elected.
On August 4, 1990, the DA merged with the CDU in the German Democratic Republic, with which it already in the People's Chamber formed a parliamentary group since the 18th of March. This united again two months later, on 1 and 2 October 1990, the West German CDU.