Democratic Awakening (East Germany) (1990: Two Germanies)

The Democratic Awakening (German: Demokratischer Aufbruch, DA) was an East German liberal democratic political party founded in 1989 during the democratization of East Germany. The party started as a pro-democracy group in East Germany, and participated in the first free election in the country since the Second World War. It collaborated with the Christian Democratic Union, a move that was not taken as easily by all the members in the party.

Over the 1990s, while the party continued its existence, the party began to divide itself between liberals, who seeked ties with the BFD, and conservatives, who wanted stronger ties with the CDU.

In 2001, the party choice to merge itself into the Christian Democratic Union, in a vote where the options was to merge with the CDU, the Association of Free Democrats, the National Democratic Party, or to not merge with neither of them.

The last leader of the DA was Thomas Welz. Another member of the DA was Angela Merkel, who later became leader of the Christian Democratic Union.