Secularism in the SPD

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The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) was considered a secular party until the 1950s . Beginning with the increased orientation towards the Catholic electorate and especially with the adoption of the Godesberg Program in 1959, the SPD relativized its basic secular attitude and opened up to religious groups. Attempts to establish a secular working group fail because of resistance from the party leadership. Unlike Christians, Muslims or Jewish comrades, they are not allowed to form their own official working group in the party.

19th century

The workers' movement of early socialism, which was organized in craft federations up to around the revolution of 1848/1849, was open to the religious and saw the teaching of Christ in contradiction to the major churches. Ludwig Feuerbach , on the other hand, saw religion as the work of man and criticized it by historical materialism as part of the ideological superstructure of bourgeois society. The Gotha founding program of the Socialist Workers' Party in Germany in 1875 called for the "declaration of religion to be a private matter" as one of the foundations of the state. Nonetheless, in his speech in Cologne on November 19, 1876, August Bebel , member of the Reichstag , demanded that all citizens should be allowed to exercise their religious convictions to the fullest extent possible.

Programmatic change

In the Heidelberg program of 1925, a strict separation of church and state was advocated. There it says:

“The public institutions for education, training, education and research are secular. Any influence under public law by the church, religious and ideological communities on these institutions must be combated. Separation of state and church, separation of school and church, secular elementary schools, vocational schools and universities. No expenditure from public funds for church and religious purposes. "

During this time, many leading social democrats were also non-denominational . B. Reich President Friedrich Ebert (and his wife, Louise Ebert , popular as the “First Lady” of the Weimar Republic ), the Reich Chancellors Gustav Bauer and Hermann Müller and the SPD chairman and Reichstag member Otto Wels . Around half of the SPD members of the German constitutional assembly were either non-denominational or free religious , and 11 out of 30 in the Parliamentary Council .

During the 1950s there was an increasing rapprochement between social democrats and Christian churches. In the Godesberg program of 1959, the SPD moved away from the previous official secularity and instead advocated “respect for people's religious decisions”. So it says:

“Democratic socialism, which in Europe is rooted in Christian ethics, humanism and classical philosophy, does not want to proclaim ultimate truths - not out of lack of understanding and not out of indifference to world views or religious truths, but out of respect for the beliefs of the People whose content neither a political party nor the state have to decide. "

In particular on "Religion and Church" it says:

“Only mutual tolerance, which respects fellow human beings with equal dignity in those who believe and think differently, offers a solid basis for human and politically fruitful coexistence. Socialism is not a substitute for religion. The Social Democratic Party respects the churches and religious communities, their special mandate and their independence. She affirms her protection under public law. It is always ready to cooperate with the churches and religious communities in the sense of a free partnership. She welcomes the fact that people out of their religious ties affirm an obligation to act socially and to take responsibility in society. Freedom of thought, belief and conscience and freedom of preaching are to be ensured. A religious or ideological proclamation must not be misused for party politics or for anti-democratic purposes. "

As a result, the SPD succeeded in gaining more voters among Catholics. In 1982 the historian Kurt Klotzbach nevertheless stated the "fact that there are still serious objective obstacles to understanding (...) which, for example, in the liberal-laicist basic character of social democracy, in their awareness of approaching this world as the 'hope of the world', and especially the cultural and school policy SPD program, conversely, were based on the overarching secular-transcendental validity claim of the Catholic Church ”.

Secular working groups

In the SPD there has been an association of Christians since the 1970s and, since 2007, of Jews, both of which were recognized as working groups in 2008 as the Christian Working Group in the SPD and the Working Group of Jewish Social Democrats .

When Federal President Christian Wulff said in a speech on October 3, 2010 on the Day of German Unity that Christianity, Judaism and Islam are part of Germany, he sparked a discussion about religious values ​​and secularism. The general secretary of the FDP Christian Lindner reminded of the priority of “secular laws” over religious commandments. At the same time, a group of members of the SPD, among them the former member of the Bundestag Ingrid Matthäus-Maier and the Bundestag member Rolf Schwanitz , announced the establishment of a secular working group. This announcement was sharply criticized by the chairman of the Catholic German Bishops' Conference Robert Zollitsch . The chairman of the SPD Sigmar Gabriel granted official recognition little chance.

On May 9, 2011, the members of the group submitted their application for recognition as a working group to the party executive, which unanimously rejected it. Gabriel justified the rejection in January 2012 with the positions in the party program of the SPD and in the Basic Law. The working group is supported by the historian Thomas Stamm-Kuhlmann , who wrote that “the values ​​that the Basic Law represents can also be achieved and justified in other ways than Christian paths”. On the other hand, the Protestant theologian Rolf Schieder agrees with the attitude of the party executive and accuses the laicists of wanting to "suppress the religious from public life in general".

On June 25, 2012, the Heidelberg district association recognized a working group “Laicists in the SPD”.

In a letter dated 5 March 2019 addressed to the "Speaker * inner circle secular socialists", for the attention of the Hamburg citizenry member Gerhard Lein , forbade Secretary Lars Klingbeil them even publicly as "social democrats" to occur. Why the secular comrades were denied the party-internal recognition that they have been striving for for years, a party spokeswoman had no answer to the “ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ”.

Humanist Initiatives

The “Discussion group of humanists and non-denominationalists in the Bavaria-SPD (HuK)”, founded by SPD laicists, was recognized on May 29, 2011 by the state board of the Bavarian SPD.

On November 14, 2014, several SPD MPs and other party members called for the approval and recognition of a working group for humanists and non-denominationalists in the SPD . In an interview with the party organ Vorwärts , the initiator Michael Bauer said the approach was “completely parallel to the existing religious AKs. The focus is on humanistic or secular values, i.e. people's ideological convictions. ”SPD General Secretary Yasmin Fahimi said of the initiative in an interview published in June 2015 that the initiators were approached and that they wanted to hold talks. "It goes without saying that humanists and atheists have a firm place in the SPD, because they have helped shape the party from the start," continued Fahimi. She was confident "that we will find a good form in the end, how we can strengthen the humanistic tradition in the SPD".

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b R. Hering: The Churches as Keys to Political Power ?, 2011
  2. ^ The Heidelberg Program , according to Marxists.org
  3. ↑ See “ List of denominations of the heads of government in Germany ”; for Louise Ebert “Reform Education and Protestant Schools in the 20th Century”, page 72 ; for Otto Wels "Reichstag handbooks, 1912, 13. L.per." ; for the National Assembly “Reichstag handbooks, 1919” (possibly plus MPs who did not provide any information); for the Parliamentary Council www.parlamentarischerrat.de (possibly plus MPs whose denomination is not noted).
  4. ^ Kurt Klotzbach : The way to the state party. Program, practical policy and organization of the German social democracy 1945–1965 , 1982, Dietz, p. 581
  5. ↑ Christian Lindner: A republican offensive ( memento of the original from October 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. , FAZ , October 18, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.christian-lindner.de
  6. ↑ Miriam Hollstein and Philipp Neumann: SPD politicians against reference to God in the Basic Law , Welt , October 18, 2010
  7. ↑ Sigmar Gabriel: January 14, 2012 , Facebook
  8. ^ Annette Rollmann: No place for laicists in the SPD , Deutschlandfunk , March 26, 2012
  9. ↑ Marc Mudrak: AK Laizistinnen recognized in Heidelberg ( Memento of the original from October 6, 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. , Laicist Sozis , July 3, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.laizistische-sozis.eu
  10. ↑ Atheists are not allowed to found a working group , FAZ , March 19, 2019
  11. ↑ HuK: Discussion group of humanists and non-denominational women in the Bavaria SPD (HuK) , blog of the HuK , January 27, 2014
  12. ^ "Social democracy must make its pluralism clear", press release of November 14, 2014 , accessed on August 26, 2015
  13. ↑ “We're all about dialogue” , interview from the June / July issue of Vorwärts , accessed on August 26, 2015
  14. ↑ "I do not consider a debate on values ​​necessary" , interview with Yasmin Fahimi in this side - Das humanistische Magazin , issue no. 111.