The Party of Humanists () is a minor political party in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

that first participated in the 2017 federal election. It is considered left-of-centre and supports socially liberal and secular policies, such as a federal European state, openness towards technologies such as

stem cell research In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

and strict separation between state and religion. The party contested the 2017 and 2021 federal elections, the 2019 European elections and numerous state elections from 2018 onwards. It also contested the

2024 European Parliament election in Germany The 2024 European Parliament election in Germany (European Parliament constituency), Germany was held on 9 June 2024. It was the tenth parliamentary election since the 1979 European Parliament election, first direct elections in 1979, and the fi ...

History

In spring 2012, the

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

group "Initiative Humanismus" created the "Manifesto of the Initiative Humanismus", which was to serve as the basis for a humanist party. The Party of Humanists was founded on the basis of this document on 4 October 2014 in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. The provisional executive committee consisted of eight spokespersons for various subject areas. At the first ordinary federal party conference in March 2015, David Helmus was elected as the party's first chairman. Beka Kobaidze served as secretary general, while Ioana Hauke took over as treasurer. According to the chairman, the party had around 75 members in September of the same year. The Berlin regional association was founded on 2 April 2016. A few months later, the regional associations of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg were founded. Shortly afterwards, in February of the following year, the Bavarian state association was also founded. On 21 March 2017, the Party held a joint press conference along with the Pirate Party Germany, the Liberal Democrats, the New Liberals, the Transhuman Party Germany, and the youth organization of The Left to announce a "socialliberale proclamation" and better cooperation among the participating organizations. In the

2017 German federal election The 2017 German federal election was held in Germany on 24 September 2017 to elect the List of members of the 19th Bundestag, members of the 19th Bundestag. At stake were at least 598 seats in the Bundestag, as well as 111 Overhang seat, overhan ...

, the Humanist Party took part in an election for the first time, although it was initially only electable in

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. For this purpose, various teams were set up within the party, which now has around 600 members, for internal party organisation. In the election, the party received 5.991 second votes. After the federal election, the party received an influx of new members. As a result, state associations were founded in Hamburg and Lower Saxony in the same year, as well as state associations in Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Rhineland-Palatinate, Bremen and Schleswig-Holstein in 2018. In January 2019,

Steven Pinker Steven Arthur Pinker (born September 18, 1954) is a Canadian-American cognitive psychology, cognitive psychologist, psycholinguistics, psycholinguist, popular science author, and public intellectual. He is an advocate of evolutionary psycholo ...

was accepted onto the advisory board of the Humanist Party. One month later, in February 2019,

Michael Shermer Michael Brant Shermer (born September 8, 1954) is an American science writer, historian of science, executive director of The Skeptics Society, and founding publisher of '' Skeptic'' magazine, a publication focused on investigating pseudoscientif ...

, founder of the American

Skeptics Society The Skeptics Society is a nonprofit, member-supported organization devoted to promoting scientific skepticism and resisting the spread of pseudoscience, superstition, and irrational beliefs. The Skeptics Society was co-founded by Michael Sher ...

, also became a member of the advisory board. The Humanist Party was registered for the European elections on 15 March 2019, in which it took part with its lead candidate Robin Thiedmann. It achieved 0.2% of 62,604 votes, but missed out on a place in the European Parliament. In 2021, the last four state associations, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Thuringia and Saarland were founded. Shortly after the founding of the Brandenburg state association, the party celebrated its new size of 1800 members. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the first digital federal party conference was held on 29 January and 20 February 2022. In April 2023, 19-year-old Lasse Schäfer was elected as the new national chairman. This makes him the youngest party chairman in Germany.

Party platform

The underlying ideology is evolutionary humanism. The core themes of the Humanist Party are science and education, the right of self-determination of the individual, and

secularization In sociology, secularization () is a multilayered concept that generally denotes "a transition from a religious to a more worldly level." There are many types of secularization and most do not lead to atheism or irreligion, nor are they automatica ...

. For example, the party supports the liberal and self-responsible use of drugs, supports legal voluntary

euthanasia Euthanasia (from : + ) is the practice of intentionally ending life to eliminate pain and suffering. Different countries have different Legality of euthanasia, euthanasia laws. The British House of Lords Select committee (United Kingdom), se ...

and is against circumcision of children. The party also supports the implementation of

universal basic income Universal basic income (UBI) is a social welfare proposal in which all citizens of a given population regularly receive a minimum income in the form of an unconditional transfer payment, i.e., without a means test or need to perform Work (hu ...

. The party is considered left of the

political centre Centrism is the range of political ideologies that exist between left-wing politics and right-wing politics on the left–right political spectrum. It is associated with moderate politics, including people who strongly support moderate policie ...

. Currently, the Party of Humanists is the only party in

that specifically targets

non-religious Irreligion is the absence or rejection of religious beliefs or practices. It encompasses a wide range of viewpoints drawn from various philosophical and intellectual perspectives, including atheism, agnosticism, religious skepticism, ration ...

people,

freethinkers Freethought (sometimes spelled free thought) is an unorthodox attitude or belief. A freethinker holds that beliefs should not be formed on the basis of authority Authority is commonly understood as the legitimate power of a person or ...

, 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 ...

as voters.

Programme

Health and science

* Compulsory health insurance should only cover evidence based medicine, not pseudomedicine such as

homeopathy Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths or homeopathic physicians, believe that a substance that ...

* Legalization of active

under specific circumstances * Legalization of all drugs, but only for adults and with more prevention measures such as education, drug-checking, regulated production and sale * Openness towards new technology and impartial assessment of the harms benefits, e. g. with respect to

genome editing Genome editing, or genome engineering, or gene editing, is a type of genetic engineering in which DNA is inserted, deleted, modified or replaced in the genome of a living organism. Unlike early genetic engineering techniques that randomly insert ge ...

and

stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...

research * Reduction of antibiotic use in livestock farming in order to avoid emerging resistances * Funding for in-vitro-meat research

EU and military

* Founding of a united European Federal Republic. Today's national states shall be converted into strong sovereign regions. * Rejection of a compulsory military service year for young adults * Establishing a united European military

Economy

* Simplification of the

tax A tax is a mandatory financial charge or levy imposed on an individual or legal entity by a governmental organization to support government spending and public expenditures collectively or to regulate and reduce negative externalities. Tax co ...

system by eliminating exemptions as well as cutback on unnecessary

subsidies A subsidy, subvention or government incentive is a type of government expenditure for individuals and households, as well as businesses with the aim of stabilizing the economy. It ensures that individuals and households are viable by having acce ...

* Deregulation of shop opening hours on Sundays * Trialing and implementation of

Climate

* Stopping the nuclear energy phase-out in Germany and utilization of new reactor types to combat

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

Social topics

* Legalization of surrogate motherhood * Legalization of

sex work Sex work is "the exchange of sexual services, performances, or products for material compensation. It includes activities of direct physical contact between buyers and sellers as well as indirect sexual stimulation". Sex work only refers to volun ...

, modeling after New Zealand * Legalization of abortion regardless of gestation age, modeling after Canadian abortion laws

Freedom of speech and the Internet

* Repeal of upload-filters and protection of net-neutrality

Religion

* Complete

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and Jurisprudence, jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the State (polity), state. Conceptually, the term refers to ...

* Introduction of unified ethics education instead of compulsory religious education in schools * Removing references to god from the constitution and other laws * Prohibition of medically not-indicated religious circumcision in children unable to consent

Leadership

Since 15 July 2024, the party's leadership has consisted of: * Felicitas Klings (Party Leader) * Sascha Klughardt (General Secretary) * Narek Avetisyan (Treasurer)

Federal executive board

The party's federal executive board is made up of: * Ole Teschke * Dominic Vice * Josephine Keller * Andreas Stirner * Daniel Keye * Dr. Jochen Sieck * Manuel Cran * Ricardo Reitz

Federal state parties

Election results

Federal parliament (''Bundestag'')

European Parliament

References

External links

Offizielle Website der Partei der Humanisten
(Official website of the Party ''German'')
Leitbild der Partei der Humanisten
(Mission Statement of the Party ''German, English, Esperanto'')
Grundsatzprogramm der Partei der Humanisten
(Principle program of the Party ''German'') {{Parties of Germany Liberal parties in Germany 2014 establishments in Germany Political parties established in 2014 Euthanasia in Germany Centre-left parties Centre-left parties in Europe Humanist Party Irreligion in Germany Pro-European political parties in Germany Progressive parties Secular humanism Secularism in Germany Social liberal parties Universal basic income in Germany Political parties supporting universal basic income