Der Morgen was a daily newspaper published in the GDR. Der Morgen was the central organ of the Liberal Democratic Party of Germany

Liberal Democratic Party of Germany

The Liberal Democratic Party of Germany ) was a political party in East Germany. Like the other allied parties of the SED in the National Front it had 52 representatives in the Volkskammer.-Foundation:...

. It was published from August 3, 1945 on, six times a week. The premises of the first issue declared as its goal to become ‘’trumpet of the liberal democratic bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie

In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...

’’.

During the Wende, it was the first newspaper in the GDR to renounce the dominance of the SED

Socialist Unity Party of Germany

The Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...

 and to tolerate contributions and letters from readers, which treated critically the GDR system of the time. In February, 1990 Der Morgen became the first GDR newspaper which covered the Stalinist purges in Germany.

In July, 1990 the newspaper was taken over by Axel-springer-Verlag. From that time on, the editorial board included journalists from both East and West Germany, most of them had come from Der Spiegel

Der Spiegel

Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe's largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of more than one million.-Overview:...

or Tageszeitung. Under its new editor-in-chief, Der Morgen adjusted itself a new profile, and wrote a series of articles on the finances of PDS and the previous links of various politicians with Stasi

Stasi

The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security The Ministry for State Security (German: Ministerium für Staatssicherheit (MfS), commonly known as the Stasi (abbreviation , literally State Security), was the official state security service of East Germany. The MfS was headquartered...

. The editors Jan von Flocken, Erwin Jurtschitsch and Michael Klonovsky were awarded Wächterpreis der Tagespresse for their courageous ‘’uncovering and handling the human rights

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 violations by the GDR justice’’.

In Autumn, 1990 Der Morgen merged with the newspaper of the NDPD (another former ‘’blockpartei’’), Berliner Allgemeine. Although Der Morgen was appreciated by the critics for its style of journalism and had been given guarantees by the its new owners, already less than a year later, the Springer syndicate closed it on June 11, 1991. This decision was urged by Springer manager Erhard van Straaten, who disapproved the liberal stance of the editorial staff of the newspaper. Der Morgen had also become a competitor of the conservative-leaning Die Welt

Die Welt

Die Welt is a German national daily newspaper published by the Axel Springer AG company.It was founded in Hamburg in 1946 by the British occupying forces, aiming to provide a "quality newspaper" modelled on The Times...

of the same syndicate.