German Freethinkers Association
| German Freethinkers Association (DFV) |
|
|---|---|
| legal form | registered association |
| purpose | Representing non-religious people |
| Seat | Dortmund |
| founding | 1951
|
| place | Federal Republic of Germany |
| president | Klaus Hartmann |
| Members | approx. 3,000 |
| Organization type | Federal Association |
| Website | www.freidenker.org |
The German Freethinkers Association e. V. ( DFV ) is a world view community of a part of German free thinkers and a member of the world union of free thinkers based in Paris . According to its statutes, its members promote and disseminate “a non-religious, rationally based worldview that is based on a way of thinking free of prejudices, dogmas and taboos and is based on scientifically founded knowledge.” They feel “committed to active humanity” (statutes of the DFV). The DFV sees itself as independent of religion and as a representative of non-religious people and represents ethical principles such as freedom , equality , tolerance and renunciation of violence . The predecessor associations came from the tradition of the cremation associations and were close to the labor movement .
history
The German Freethinkers Association , founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1881 , brings together those within the free-religious and free-spirited movement that emerged in the 19th century who explicitly see themselves as atheists. The founding members included Ludwig Büchner and Wilhelm Liebknecht . In Hamburg in the spring of 1882 was the Social Democratic Freethinkers Society , at a time when the law against dangerous activities of the Social Democrats , known as the Socialist Law was still in force. Finally, in 1906, Ernst Haeckel founded the German Monist Association as a new freethinker-oriented organization , which has an emphatically philosophical and scientific educational character. After the World Freethinkers Congress in Rome in 1904, some Social Democrats in Berlin formed the Association of Freethinkers for Cremation . In September 1908, the was in Eisenach Central Association of German freethinkers was established and in 1911 the Central Association of Proletarian Freethinkers , and from 1922 Community Proletarian Freethinkers called. The freethinkers' associations formed in 1905 and 1908 both saw themselves as socialist organizations connected to the labor movement and thus set themselves apart from the bourgeois atheists.
In 1907 several “liberal associations” came together in the Weimar cartel . The German Freethinker Association, the Monist Association, the German Society for Ethical Culture (founded in 1892), the Association for Secular Schools and Moral Education , the German Association for Maternity Protection and Sexual Reform of the women's rights activist Helene Stöcker and a few other smaller associations took part in this. The Federation of Free Religious Congregations in Germany refused to join for religious reasons, but was close to the Weimar cartel. The aims of the Weimar cartel were the "free development of intellectual life and defense against all oppression", the separation of school and church and the complete secularization of the state (see separation of state and church and laicism ).
Oppression and resistance
Of the Nazis all freethinkers organizations were banned in Germany since 1933 without distinction. Many freethinkers were active in the resistance , the then chairman of the Freethinkers Association Max Sievers was executed on January 17, 1944.
New beginning
After the end of the Second World War, numerous new groups formed. The first association at state level was the German Freethinkers Association (DFV) in Hamburg . The date of establishment was intentionally set for December 24, 1945.
In 1951 the DFV was re-established at the federal level in Braunschweig after the emigrated former Secretary General Hermann Graul returned from exile. The DFV has been a member of the World Union of Freethinkers, based in Paris, since 1952.
The GDR Freethinkers were only founded on June 7, 1989 by 400 delegates at the headquarters of the Academy of the Arts; the corresponding establishment was suggested by the Ministry for State Security and prepared in the SED Politburo . Among other things, Erich Honecker 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 grappled with political issues and advocates justice, peace and social, humane and ecological action.
The German Freethinkers Association (Landesverband Berlin) is a member of the anti-fascist committee against war and social robbery .
Secular rites
The German Freethinkers Association offers guidance and support in the design of alternative secular ceremonies and rites for birth , growing up, marriage and burial such as B. at the name consecration (also: welcome celebration or name celebration ), the school leaving ceremony (later youth consecration or youth celebration), covenant celebration and celebratory cremations .
Publications
The German Freidenker Association publishes the Freidenker magazine four times a year , in 2016 in its 75th year, as well as some special editions. The magazine has between 50 and 65 pages in DIN A5 format. The tables of contents and individual articles are available on the Internet from issue 1/2007. The magazine is also devoted to political issues. In October 2012, Sahra Wagenknecht published an article and essays on the euro crisis . In September 2015, articles on TTIP , CETA and ecological topics were published, including an essay by Eva Bulling-Schröter with the title “Less whale deaths through more fishing vessels?”.
literature
- Deutscher Freidenkerverband (Ed.): Freidenker Bibliography . Duisburg, 1977
- Jochen-Christoph Kaiser: Labor Movement and Organized Criticism of Religion: Proletarian Freethinker Associations in the Empire and Weimar Republic . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1981.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Current affairs The extended arm of a ruling party - 15 years ago the GDR freethinkers were founded , Andreas Fincke EKD EZW
- ^ Statutes of the DFV
- ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from October 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.kpd-online.de/index.php/aktuell/inland/247-gemeinsame-erklaerung-jt-1-u-2-weltkrieg
- ↑ http://www.okv-ev.de/Dokumente/uebrige%20Vereine/Aufruf%20zum%208_Mai%202014.pdf
- ↑ http://www.trend.infopartisan.net/trd7811/t597811.html
- ^ Association body of the DFV
- ↑ Freethinkers 1-2007: "Internationalism and Rule"
- ↑ Freethinker 3-2012: "ESM - No rescue from crises and wars"
- ↑ Freethinker 3-2015: "TTIP - CETA - Economic NATO"
