The German Freethinkers League ('Deutscher Freidenkerbund') was an organization founded in the late 19th century by German
freethinkers
Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...
and
atheists
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...
with the main goal to oppose the power of the state churches in Germany. Its aim was to provide a public meeting-ground and forum for materialist and
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
thinkers in Germany. Renamed German Freethinkers Association (''Deutscher Freidenker-Verband'') in 1930, the organization was subsequently prohibited by the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
regime in 1933. At the time, the association had some 500,000 members. Reestablished at federal level in West Germany in 1951, the German Freethinkers Association consisted in 2004 of approximately 3000 members.
History
The organization was founded in 1881 by the
materialist
Materialism is a form of philosophical monism which holds matter to be the fundamental substance in nature, and all things, including mental states and consciousness, are results of material interactions. According to philosophical materialis ...
philosopher
A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
and
physician
A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...
Ludwig Büchner
Friedrich Karl Christian Ludwig Büchner (29 March 1824 – 30 April 1899) was a German philosopher, physiologist and physician who became one of the exponents of 19th-century scientific materialism.
Biography
Büchner was born at Darmstadt on ...
and the
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
Max Sievers
Max Georg Wilhelm Sievers (11 June 1887 in Berlin – 17 January 1944 in Brandenburg an der Havel) was chairman of the German Freethinkers League, writer and active communist.
Life
Politics
Max Sievers opposed the first world war and was an un ...
was elected chairman. The largest organization of its sort in Germany at the time, by 1933, the German Freethinkers League had a membership numbering some 500,000. The Association was closed down in the spring of 1933, when the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
regime outlawed all atheistic and
freethinking
Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an epistemological viewpoint which holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority, tradition, revelation, or dogma, and that beliefs should instead be reached by other methods ...
groups in Germany. Freethinkers Hall, the national headquarters of the League, was then converted to a bureau advising the public on church matters. Many freethinkers were active in the resistance. Max Sievers, the then chairman of the freethinkers' association, along with general secretary Hermann Graul, managed to leave Germany in April 1933. Sievers immigrated to the United States in 1939, returned however subsequently to Europe, and after being detained in France by the Gestapo in 1943, he was executed at
Brandenburg-Görden Prison
Brandenburg-Görden Prison is located on Anton-Saefkow-Allee in the Görden quarter of Brandenburg an der Havel. Erected between 1927 and 1935, it was built to be the most secure and modern prison in Europe. Both criminal and political prisoners we ...
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, numerous new groups formed. The first association at state level was the ''Deutscher Freidenker-Verband (DFV)'' in Hamburg. The founding date was intentionally set to December 24, 1945.
In 1951, the DFV was re-established at federal level in Braunschweig after the former General Secretary Hermann Graul had emigrated and returned from exile in 1949. The DFV has been a member of the
World Union of Freethinkers
In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...
(WUF) based in Paris since 1952.
Verband der Freidenker der DDR
In the GDR, the Association of Freethinkers was only founded on June 7, 1989 by 400 delegates at the Academy of Arts headquarters. Among other things,
Erich Honecker
Erich Ernst Paul Honecker (; 25 August 1912 – 29 May 1994) was a German communist politician who led the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1971 until shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989. He held the posts ...
was a member until the end of his life.
In 1991 the ''German Freethinkers Association (GDR)'' merged with the DFV in Braunschweig. Since then, the German Freethinkers Association has increasingly dealt with political issues and advocates justice, peace and social, humane and ecological action.
International Humanist and Ethical Union
Humanists International (known as the International Humanist and Ethical Union, or IHEU, from 1952–2019) is an international non-governmental organisation championing secularism and human rights, motivated by secular humanist values. Found ...