A damping device for the damping of the opening movement of a movable furniture part comprises: a fixed base unit with a furniture body of a piece of furniture; a movable base unit having the movable furniture part; and a damping unit comprising a first and a second damping component which are movable relative to one another when performing a damping function, of which the first damping component is arranged on the one base unit and as it approaches the movable base unit an impact takes place in the final position of said base unit between the second damping component and the other base unit, thereby triggering the damping function the first damping component is movably mounted on the allocated base unit such that on impact it can be displaced from a standby position into a working position supported by a stop in which the damping function can be performed.