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German political party From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Party of Humanists (German: Partei der Humanisten) is a minor political party in Germany that first participated in the 2017 federal election.[2] 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 and strict separation between state and religion.[3] 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 elections.[4]
Party of Humanists Partei der Humanisten | |
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Abbreviation | PdH |
Chairperson | Lasse Schäfer |
General Secretary | Dominic Ressel |
Founded | 4 October 2014 |
Headquarters | Beilsteiner Str. 21, 12681 Berlin |
Membership (2022) | ![]() |
Ideology | Secular humanism Secular liberalism Social liberalism[1] Civil libertarianism Progressivism |
Political position | Centre-left[1] |
Colours |
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Bundestag | 0 / 630
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State Parliaments | 0 / 1,821
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European Parliament | 0 / 96
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Website | |
pdh | |
In spring 2012, the Facebook 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.[5][6] The provisional executive committee consisted of eight spokespersons for various subject areas.[7]
At the first ordinary federal party conference in March 2015, David Helmus was elected as the party's first chairman.[8] 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.[9]
The Berlin regional association was founded on 2 April 2016.[10] A few months later, the regional associations of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg were founded.[11][12] Shortly afterwards, in February of the following year, the Bavarian state association was also founded.[13]
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.[14][15][16][17][18]
In the 2017 German federal election, the Humanist Party took part in an election for the first time, although it was initially only electable in North Rhine-Westphalia. For this purpose, various teams were set up within the party, which now has around 600 members, for internal party organisation.[19] In the election, the party received 5.991 second votes.[20] 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.[21][22]
In January 2019, Steven Pinker was accepted onto the advisory board of the Humanist Party. One month later, in February 2019, Michael Shermer, founder of the American Skeptics Society, also became a member of the advisory board.[23][24]
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.[25] In 2021, the last four state associations, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Thuringia and Saarland were founded.[26][27] Shortly after the founding of the Brandenburg state association, the party celebrated its new size of 1800 members.[28] 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.[29]
The underlying ideology is evolutionary humanism.[30] The core themes of the Humanist Party are science and education, the right of self-determination of the individual, and secularization.[31] For example, the party supports the liberal and self-responsible use of drugs,[32] supports legal voluntary euthanasia[33][34] and is against circumcision of children.[35] The party also supports the implementation of universal basic income.[31] The party is considered left of the political centre.[1]
Currently, the Party of Humanists is the only party in Germany that specifically targets non-religious people, freethinkers, and atheists as voters.[36]
The current federal executive committee of the Party of Humanists consists of eleven members:[41]
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