German Freethinkers League

The German Freethinkers League ('Deutscher Freidenkerbund') was an organization founded in the late 19th century by German freethinkers and atheists with the main goal to oppose the power of the state churches in Germany.[1] Its aim was to provide a public meeting-ground and forum for materialist and atheist thinkers in Germany. Renamed German Freethinkers Association (Deutscher Freidenker-Verband) in 1930, the organization was subsequently prohibited by the Nazi 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.[2]

History

The organization was founded in 1881 by the materialist philosopher and physician Ludwig Büchner and the socialist politician Wilhelm Liebknecht[3] to oppose the power of the state churches in Germany.[1] By 1885, the group had 5,000 members.[3]

In 1930, the German Freethinkers League ('Deutscher Freidenkerbund') was renamed as Deutscher Freidenker-Verband (German Freethinkers Association) and Max Sievers 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.[4] The Association was closed down in the spring of 1933, when the Nazi regime outlawed all atheistic and freethinking groups in Germany. Freethinkers Hall, the national headquarters of the League, was then converted to a bureau advising the public on church matters.[4] 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 on January 17, 1944.[5]

Deutscher Freidenker-Verband

After the end of the Second World War, 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 (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 was a member until the end of his life.[2]

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.

See also

References
  1. Hanne May (2006). Religiosität in der säkularisierten Welt. VS Verlag fnr Sozialw. ISBN 3-8100-4039-8.
  2. "Der verlängerte Arm einer herrschenden Partei - Vor 15 Jahren wurden die DDR-Freidenker gegründet". Evangelische Zentralstelle für Weltanschauungsfragen - Materialdienst…. 2015-09-16. Archived from the original on 2015-09-16.
  3. Royle, Edward (1980). Radicals, Secularists, and republicans: popular freethought in Britain, 1866-1915. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 78. ISBN 0-7190-0783-6.
  4. "Atheist Hall Converted: Berlin Churches Establish Bureau to Win Back Worshipers". The New York Times. May 14, 1933. p. 2. Retrieved September 18, 2010.
  5. Geschichte, freidenker.org
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