After 1945
The party was practically banned by the Nazis in 1933. Former politicians of the DDP joined in 1945 and following years especially the new Free Democratic Party (1945/1948), as did the liberals from the German People's Party. First Federal President Theodor Heuss, a journalist and professor in history, was a DDP deputy in 1933. In the Soviet occupation zone the liberal leader was former DDP minister Wilhelm Külz.
Other DDP members went to the Christian Democrats, such as Ernst Lemmer, the former leader of the Young Democrats and Federal Minister in 1956-1965.
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