Humanistic Association of Germany

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Humanistic Association of Germany
(HVD)
logo
legal form registered association
founding 1993
Seat Berlin
purpose Promotion and implementation of practical humanism
Chair Erwin Kress (Board Spokesman)
Website hvd-bundesverband.de
Based in Berlin

The Humanist Association of Germany ( HVD ) is a registered association founded in 1993 to promote and disseminate a secular, humanistic worldview and to represent the interests of non-denominational people in Germany. The federal association consists of ten regional organizations that are represented in twelve federal states. He is a member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union , the European Humanist Federation and the Coordination Council of Secular Organizations in Germany .

Areas of activity

Practical humanism

With its daycare centers, social stations, advice centers, lifelong celebration offers, terminal care and mourning groups, the Humanist Association provides a wide range of services, but the areas of activity of the regional associations vary widely and are mainly concentrated on Berlin and the surrounding area.

Education, youth and social work

The state associations in Berlin-Brandenburg, Lower Saxony and Baden-Württemberg are responsible for two dozen day-care centers , including in the cities of Berlin, Braunschweig and Hanover, as well as institutions for open child and youth work and school stations , school clubs and children and youth centers.

The Humanist Association maintains and promotes its own youth association, the Young Humanists in Germany (JuHu Bund). The youth association consists of eight regional associations. Its aim is to work together while maintaining organizational independence, to represent their common interests in public and to promote the interests of young people. They organize leisure trips and summer camps, are involved in youth work and education as well as advising and organizing youth celebrations . Their activities are also very different from region to region.

In Berlin, the association also maintains family centers and social stations as well as outpatient and inpatient hospices, and it has been running a technical school for social education since 2012.

In addition, the association wants to set up a kind of “humanistic advice” in line with church pastoral care in the Bundeswehr.

Youth celebrations and celebrations at turning points in life

One field of activity is the organization of youth celebrations , a cultural program followed by a ceremony to symbolically mark the transition from youth to adulthood. The celebrations are offered as a non-religious alternative to confirmation or confirmation . In addition, the name celebration , the humanistic wedding celebration and, at the end of life, the secular funeral ceremony are offered for non-religious people . In 2014, 4042 young people took part in the youth celebrations of the Berlin-Brandenburg State Association and in 2018 a total of 6,400 young people took part in the youth celebrations of the Humanist Association and its regional associations in Berlin and Brandenburg.

Humanistic life studies

In Berlin, the association is responsible for humanistic life studies , a voluntary worldview lesson based on a humanistic view of life. The lessons are designed as an alternative to denominational religious instruction. It has been offered in West Berlin since 1982, throughout Berlin after German reunification and, since 2007, also at schools in Brandenburg. In Bavaria, a comparable subject as humanistic teaching at a primary school in Fürth has been approved as a regular subject since 2008. The members of the association are committed to the approval and introduction of the school subject in all federal states.

In relation to religious education as a regular compulsory subject in schools, the position of the association is that denominational religious education should also become a voluntary additional subject. The association calls for generally binding, compulsory ethics instruction in public schools. The Humanist Association in Berlin participated in the alliance that campaigned for the preservation of ethics instruction during the Pro Reli campaign . Philosophical instruction, whether by ideological associations of religious or non-religious people, should be voluntary and the content and form of the respective communities should be responsible.

Central office living will

The association maintains a central office for living wills founded in 1993 . Until the adoption of the legal regulation on living wills, she was represented in the working group of the Federal Ministry of Justice responsible for the draft law . It is non-profit and offers various models of living wills and a central depository office, advice on questions of self-determined and humane dying, provides care and support for surviving dependents or organizes lectures on the topic. In addition, further training is carried out for employees of public and private care facilities. The field of work also includes the political representation of interests in the area of human dying .

Humanistic Academies

The association maintains some “humanistic academies” as legally independent study and educational institutions. The federal academy as an umbrella organization and the only active state academy in Berlin-Brandenburg are associations of individuals and corporations. You have set yourself the goal of a scientific examination of fundamental questions of nature, humans and society under humanistic principles. The "Federal Academy" as an umbrella organization has been an educational institution recognized by the Federal Agency for Civic Education since 2009 . Regular cooperation partners include u. a. the Friedrich Ebert Foundation .

There is a state academy in Berlin that organizes scientific and educational events such as lectures, panel discussions, symposia, working groups and conferences and organizes and conducts offers for ideological, political and social education, training and further education in the spirit of humanism. The Humanist Academy Germany publishes the scientific journal humanismus aktuell . Since 2007, more than a dozen volumes of the Humanist Academy's series have been published.

Promotion of cultural and social projects

The Humanism Foundation Berlin supported the creation of outpatient and inpatient hospices in Berlin and the erection of a Giordano Bruno monument on Potsdamer Platz in 2008 as well as projects on the subject of children's rights . Among other things, it awards the Ossip K. Flechtheim Prize , endowed with 2,500 euros , which has been awarded to people who deserve in this respect since 2003 to promote education, tolerance and self-determination in our society.

Representation of interests in public

Both the federal association and the regional associations and individual members have expressed themselves in the past in the media and to the public on political issues that affect the interests of non-religious and non-religious people, such as questions about the relationship between state and religion, church labor law and discrimination based on creed, family and equality policy, as well as self-determination at the end of life, and they stand up for the interests of non-religious and non-denominational people on a national and international level. When the Catholic Curia Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller judged the public criticism as “targeted campaigns of discrediting against the Catholic Church in North America and also here in Europe” to the daily Die Welt and declared that he was “occasionally reminded of a pogrom mood today ", HVD Vice President Helmut Fink condemned the statements as" an outrageous distortion of facts at the expense of the victims of actual pogroms ". At the end of March 2016, the President of the Humanist Association, Frieder Otto Wolf, criticized the Easter sermon by Bishop Heinz Josef Algermissen as a “Catholic hate sermon, which not only lacks any empirical basis and which the large part of the population without Christian faith both in the area of ​​the diocese and in defamed all of Germany. ”In the sermon, Algermissen had claimed that people without the Christian faith were a“ major security risk ”and would“ walk over dead bodies ”.

In the context of representing the interests of non-denominational and non-religious people on a European and international level, the association is active within the framework of the European Humanist Federation (EHF) and the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU). This includes both the financing of the work of representatives of the EHF and IHEU in relation to the institutions of the European Union , for example within the framework of the regular dialogue with the EU institutions provided for in accordance with Article 17 UAEU , or the commitment to human rights, freedom of expression or the separation from state and religious authorities in the institutions of the United Nations as well as the continuous exchange of current developments.

Care of worldview and tradition

The members are active in maintaining their humanistic worldview and the humanistic practice based on it, but also the traditions associated with it. In addition to offering non-religious ceremonies such as youth celebrations , the implementation of humanistic approaches in social and cultural work, this also includes dealing with new scientific findings and current debates in philosophy as well as developing our own culture of encounters and celebrations, for example through events and regular meetings. Preservation of tradition is also realized through the collection and archiving of documents from the history of secular humanism on a national and international level. The updating or publication of corresponding writings and texts is also part of maintaining a worldview. These mostly voluntary activities are supported by the work of the Humanistic Academies and by cooperation with other institutions.

In 2013 the association took part in the Vorhof der Völker organized by the Roman Catholic Church in Berlin , a series of events as part of the interreligious dialogue.

The association wants to achieve legal recognition of the international humanistic holiday in Germany.

Concept and goals

The aim is to create an organized non-religious alternative to the Christian churches or other religious and ideological communities based on a secular, humanistic worldview. One of the concerns of the members is not only to maintain a non-religious, ethically based outlook on life, but also to implement it in practical service offers and to make it a matter of course in the public perception.

According to its own statements, the association therefore focuses on the concept of practical humanism . The implementation of practical humanism aims to support “people in all individual phases of life - from pregnancy, through bringing up children, youth and educational work, to social work, care for the elderly and terminal care”. The HVD thus links a humanistic and non-religious worldview with its implementation in educational, social and other services. In this way it differs from organizations based on a purely ideal connection or just theoretical-conceptual work.

Accordingly, the association positions itself as a ideological community and organization of non-religious people alongside other ideological communities, to which it also counts the religious communities. The maintenance of philosophical and cultural understandings of humanism is therefore seen as a further central task of the association, as is the dissemination of the corresponding ideas.

In terms of religious policy, the association advocates the model of cooperative secularity. Building on the self-image as a ideological community, the aim is to achieve an equal treatment of the interests of non-denominational people in relation to the rights of religious communities, such as the right to operate ideological schools and to teach humanistic life skills in public schools or the inclusion of non-religious people in the Interstate broadcasting treaties and the public culture of remembrance, commemoration and mourning.

In relation to yet other rights of individual religious communities such as the privileging of the Christian churches through financing on the basis of so-called historical state services or the state collection of church taxes , their equal treatment with ideological communities is represented by the abolition of privileges (seen as such by the Humanist Association). The association demands the replacement of these historical state services prescribed by the Basic Law by “a renewal of the legal and contractual bases that regulate the financial relationships between the state and the religious communities within it”, so that “financial services by the state to the churches are transparent and understandable for majorities become."

The Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauungsfragen confirms that the Humanist Association is doing considerable work, especially social work, in relation to other organizations, namely the freethinkers who are described as outdated and rather lethargic . The “new” freethinkers gathered in the association have accordingly moved away from traditional secularism and no longer demand a radical separation between state and religion (or worldview), but claim the state's support for religious communities in some cases for themselves.

organization structure

The HVD describes itself as a non-partisan, federal and democratic organization. According to data from the Religious Studies Media and Information Service , the federal association organized around 21,000 members in 2014, 7,800 of them in Berlin and Brandenburg. However, given the form of data collection by REMID, this number is likely to be questionable, as it is based on a self-disclosure. After the former member organization Humanist Association left the HVD, the number of members is only a maximum of 18,000, with the majority being allocated to the Berlin state organization.

The federal association should support the interests and rights of the member associations or "directly represent the interests and legal representation of members and other confessional affiliates" if there is no regional association in a federal state. In areas in which regional associations or regional communities exist, the interests and rights of the respective member associations, members and other denominations are directly represented by them.

The highest body of the federal association is the Federal Delegate Assembly (BDV). It makes decisions and elects, controls and relieves the bodies of the Federal Association. The BDV is to be convened every three years. The Federal Main Committee is the highest permanent body between the BDV, which ensures communication between the member associations and controls the Presidium of the Federal Association. The members of the Presidium of the Federal Association are elected by the BDV with a simple majority and consist of at least six people. There have been eight federal delegate assemblies since the association was founded.

In February 2011, Frieder Otto Wolf was elected President of the Federal Association and re-elected in June 2014. At that time the Presidium consisted of a total of nine members. On September 19, 2017, the IX. Federal Delegate Assembly of the HVD created a new Presidium with thirteen members. The sixth and last president of the HVD Federal Association was Florian Zimmermann, previously responsible for international affairs, refugee policy and small regional associations in the Federal Association Presidium. Zimmermann was not reappointed to the changed board.

There are ten regional associations in twelve federal states. In Berlin and Brandenburg is the common association Berlin-Brandenburg. The member associations in Baden-Württemberg , Berlin-Brandenburg, Hesse , Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia are recognized as corporations under public law . Other regional associations in Bremen , Hamburg , Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , Rhineland-Palatinate , Saxony and Thuringia are non-profit associations. The regional associations form the federal association, which is also recognized as a non-profit organization.

history

Today's association was founded on January 14, 1993 in Berlin through the merger of free-thinking , free-religious and humanist-oriented associations.

Humanistic elementary school in Fürth

The member organization, which has existed since 1848 and was renamed HVD Bayern in the course of the establishment of the umbrella association, left the federal association in 2019 after it had renamed itself to the Humanist Association (HV). The HV is now also working outside of Bavaria. With the Humanist Association, the HVD loses half of the daycare centers under its mission statement and other institutions for child and youth work, the humanistic elementary school in Fürth , which opened in 2008 and is attended by around 100 students, a state academy and the Secular Humanism Foundation .

Chairwoman of the federal association

Organizations

The alliance for sexual self-determination was initiated in 2013 from circles around the HVD . He is a founding member of the Coordinating Council of Secular Organizations .

In March 2014, the Humanist Association also initiated the founding of an alliance of eight secular organizations against the criminalization of assisted suicide, which was then still unpunished. On November 6, 2015, a Bundestag majority of 360 members voted in favor of a ban on commercial assisted suicide.

Together with its regional associations, the HVD is the sponsor of a humanistic aid organization in Germany . The relief organization supports projects to improve the living conditions of the injured, sick, disabled, dying and in other ways affected by emergencies and disasters.

The Humanist Press Service was created in 2006 on the initiative of the HVD and the Giordano Bruno Foundation (gbs). Membership was terminated in 2009 following a change in the statutes. The research group Weltanschauungen in Germany (fowid) was initiated in January 2005 by the Giordano Bruno Foundation and in March 2006 was jointly sponsored by gbs and HVD under the umbrella of the Humanist Working Group. In November 2007, fowid became part of the Humanist Press Service.

See also

Publications

Web links

Commons : Humanistic Association of Germany  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Donate | Humanistic Association of Germany - Federal Association. Retrieved October 21, 2017 .
  2. ↑ HVD: About us .
  3. ^ Humanistic day care centers in Berlin
  4. ↑ Day care centers in the Humanist Association of Lower Saxony ( Memento of the original from June 25, 2013 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.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.humanisten.de
  5. ↑ Bollmannsruh Children's and Recreation Center
  6. ↑ Jenny Roberts helps ensure that there is no boredom after school either , report of the Berliner Woche, accessed on February 3, 2016
  7. ↑ HVD: about the young humanists .
  8. ↑ Young Humanists in Germany eV
  9. ↑ Young humanists in the Humanist Association Germany, Landesverband Berlin-Brandenburg eV
  10. ↑ Web presence of the Young Humanists Hanover
  11. ↑ Overview of the areas of activity of the HVD Berlin-Brandenburg
  12. ↑ Homepage of the humanistic college for social education
  13. ↑ bild.de: Humanistic Association opens technical school , report from February 4, 2012
  14. ^ Bundeswehr: Humanistic Association wants to provide pastoral care , broadcast by Deutschlandradio Kultur on March 31, 2016
  15. ↑ Youth consecration is more popular than confirmation. Accessed December 1, 2018 (German).
  16. ↑ humanistische.de: Finally grown up - youth celebrations started in Berlin
  17. ↑ EZW -tex, edition 216, p. 34, Reinhard Hempelmann (ed.), Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauungsfragen, Berlin 2011
  18. ^ Website on Humanistic Education , accessed on January 29, 2019
  19. ↑ Humanists for life science lessons throughout Germany , press release from July 1, 2014
  20. ↑ HVD: Positions
  21. ^ Website of the HVD central office living will
  22. ↑ Self-description of the tasks
  23. ↑ WDR report : Living will: How can the patient's will be enforced? , accessed June 28, 2013
  24. ↑ Focus.de: Central Register , accessed on June 28, 2013
  25. ^ Paritätischer Bund Berlin: Living will online
  26. ↑ Bundesgerichtshof .de: Opinion on the creation of a new criminal offense in the Criminal Code (§ 217 StGB-E) ( Memento from July 23, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  27. ↑ patientenverfuichtung.de: Alternative draft to the draft law of the Federal Ministry of Justice on "commercial suicide assistance" ( Memento of the original from April 3, 2014 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. / @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.patientenverfuichtung.de
  28. ↑ ekbo.de: Humanistic Association calls for legal bases for euthanasia ( memento from January 21, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), epd report from May 30, 2011
  29. ↑ Self-description of the Humanist Academy Germany ( Memento of the original from May 29, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / humanistische-akademie-deutschland.de
  30. ↑ Federal Agency for Civic Education: Recognized educational institutions ( Memento from December 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  31. ↑ Humanistic values ​​in the immigration society , meeting of October 27, 2016
  32. ^ Democracy as a way of life , conference on October 13, 2017
  33. ^ At the end of life far from home - death and dying in a migration society , report on the conference on 9/10. February 2012, accessed March 19, 2018
  34. ↑ Humanist Academy Germany: Publications ( Memento of the original from September 19, 2013 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.humanistische-akademie-deutschland.de
  35. ↑ Humanist Academy Germany: Series of publications ( Memento of the original from January 23, 2013 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / humanistische-akademie-deutschland.de
  36. ^ Website on the Giordano Bruno monument at Potsdamer Platz
  37. ^ Humanism Foundation Berlin: Funding areas
  38. ↑ a b From politics and contemporary history : Is religion inviolable? , Statement by Frieder Otto Wolf in June 2013, accessed on July 2, 2013
  39. ↑ Der Tagesspiegel : Ethics instead of indoctrination , comment by Bruno Osuch on the dispute over Pro Reli in June 2008
  40. ↑ Der Tagesspiegel : Berlin is not Pope! , Comment by Bruno Osuch in June 2011
  41. ↑ HVD Federal Association: Press releases
  42. ↑ HVD Berlin-Brandenburg: HVD suggests administration fee for church entry ( memento from September 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), press release from May 15, 2013
  43. ↑ HVD: Symbol of disrespect by Federal Minister Aigner , press release of March 11, 2013
  44. ↑ HVD: The churches' bundles of privileges are no longer tenable , press release of September 27, 2011
  45. ^ Domradio : Humanistic Association: Concordat privileges the Church in Brandenburg , report of January 28, 2004
  46. ↑ Interior Minister Friedrich must completely dispel allegations , press release from May 29, 2013
  47. ↑ HVD: Don't let family support be played off against equality , press release from February 26, 2013
  48. ↑ Catholic dogmas must not undermine the duty of a doctor , press release of January 17, 2013
  49. ↑ Self-determination at the end of life must remain possible , press release from April 6, 2012
  50. ↑ Politics must protect human dignity and autonomy , press release from February 22, 2012
  51. ↑ HVD: EU treaties do not only apply to religious communities , press release from June 10, 2013
  52. ↑ Clear criticism of the EKD cultural representative Petra Bahr , press release from June 27, 2012
  53. ↑ Deutschlandradio : Vatican smells “pogrom mood” , report from February 2, 2013
  54. ↑ stern.de: Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller: The repeat offender , report from February 3, 2013
  55. ↑ Who pays for the Catholic hate sermon? , Press release of March 29, 2016, accessed on April 13, 2016
  56. ↑ Bishop Algermissen polarized: Unbelievers a security risk? , Report from Osthessen News on April 8, 2016, accessed on April 13, 2016
  57. ^ EHF website: Dialogue with European institutions
  58. ^ Diesseits.de: European humanists met the Lithuanian ambassador , report of October 4, 2013, accessed on October 6, 2013.
  59. ^ IHEU website: New global report on discrimination against the non-religious ( Memento of March 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on July 3, 2013
  60. ↑ Speeches and addresses ( memento of September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ), presentation of the series of events at the German Bishops' Conference , accessed on August 18, 2015
  61. ↑ diesseits.de: No school-free on World Humanist Day: complaint dismissed , report of April 17, 2013
  62. ↑ HVD: Federal Main Committee met in Potsdam , report on humanismus.de from June 24, 2013
  63. ↑ Lower Saxony: Humanists warn against discrimination against non-denominationalists , report on diesseits.de from July 23, 2014
  64. ^ Discussion on humanism at the HVD, accessed January 6, 2009
  65. ↑ There is no state church , interview with Frieder Otto Wolf in this side - Das humanistische Magazin No. 114, 1/2016
  66. ↑ Reform of the state church law is urgently required , interview on the religious-political congress of Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen on January 17, 2015 , accessed on July 30, 2015
  67. ↑ Religious policy in clear imbalance , press release from February 28, 2015, accessed on July 30, 2015
  68. ↑ Press release of March 25, 2014 , accessed April 5, 2014
  69. ↑ HVD: Legal Policy .
  70. ↑ HVD: Equal treatment of non-denominationalists (PDF; 14 kB).
  71. ↑ HVD: The churches' bundles of privileges are no longer tenable .
  72. ↑ Press release of October 15, 2013 , accessed on www.humanismus.de on April 5, 2014.
  73. ↑ State services: HVD presents key points for the political debate , press release of May 5, 2014, accessed on May 5, 2014.
  74. ↑ Reinhard Hempelmann (ed.): Dialogue and debate with atheists and humanists , EZW-Texte 216, Berlin 2011
  75. ↑ a b HVD: Articles of Association .
  76. ↑ http://www.remid.de/statistik
  77. ↑ Statistical yearbook for Berlin 2014. Retrieved on October 22, 2015. (PDF; 3409 kB)
  78. ↑ [Annual report 2018 https://humanistische.de/sites/humanistische.de/files/humanistische-kindestagesstaetten-berlin-brandenburg/docs/2019/07/jahresbericht_2018_des_humanistische_verbandes_berlin-brandenburg_kdoer.pdf Annual report of the HVD BB 2018]
  79. ↑ " Seizing the historic opportunity" , message from July 1, 2014, accessed on July 26, 2014.
  80. ↑ HVD: Presidium .
  81. ↑ http://www.humanismus.de/aktuelles/bundesverband-verendunget-neues-selbstverstaendnis
  82. ↑ Communication from the HVD Federal Association , accessed on July 7, 2020
  83. ↑ https://www.katholisch.de/aktuelles/aktuelle-artikel/humanistischer-verband-ist-kirchen-gleichständig
  84. ^ List of members in the federal association
  85. ↑ representation of the Association Development: 20 years Humanist Association Germany: Milestones of practical humanism of two decades n , accessed on July 2, 2013
  86. ↑ The HVD Bavaria becomes a humanistic association .
  87. ^ Humanistic Association: Regional Offices .
  88. ^ Humanistic day care centers in Bavaria
  89. ↑ Juhu towers in Nuremberg
  90. ^ An education campus on Waldstrasse. In: nordbayern.de. Retrieved March 18, 2019 .
  91. ^ Foundation of Secular Humanism ( Memento of October 7, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  92. ↑ http://www.humanismus.de/aktuelles/bundesverband-verendunget-neues-selbstverstaendnis
  93. ^ Communication from the HVD Federal Association; Zimmermann was not reappointed to the changed board , accessed on July 7, 2020
  94. ↑ assisted suicide: Associations oppose euthanasia Gröhes plans , report by Spiegel Online on March 12, 2014
  95. ↑ Website: Alliance for Self-Determination Until the End of Life ( Memento from April 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  96. ↑ Bundestag votes for a ban on commercial assisted suicide , report of the Deutsches Ärzteblatt from November 6, 2015, accessed on April 13, 2016
  97. ↑ Humanist aid organization on the website of the Humanist Association. Retrieved August 25, 2020.
  98. ↑ Sponsor an Indian Dalit village! , Humanistic press service
  99. ↑ this side - the humanistic online magazine.