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 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 philosopher 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 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 ...

politician

Wilhelm Liebknecht Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht (; 29 March 1826 – 7 August 1900) was a German socialist and one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). to oppose the power of the state churches in Germany. By 1885, the group had 5,000 members. In 1930, the German Freethinkers League ('Deutscher Freidenkerbund') was renamed as ''Deutscher Freidenker-Verband'' (German Freethinkers Association) and

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

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 ...

on January 17, 1944.Geschichte
freidenker.org

Post–World War II

Deutscher Freidenker-Verband

After the end of the

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 opposi ...

, 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.

References

External links