Party of Humanists

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.^[7][8] The provisional executive committee consisted of eight spokespersons for various subject areas.^[9]

At the first ordinary federal party conference in March 2015, David Helmus was elected as the party's first chairman.^[10] 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.^[11]

The Berlin regional association was founded on 2 April 2016.^[12] A few months later, the regional associations of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg were founded.^[13][14] Shortly afterwards, in February of the following year, the Bavarian state association was also founded.^[15]

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.^{[16][17][18][19][20]}

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.^[21] In the election, the party received 5.991 second votes.^[22] 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.^[23][24]

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.^[25][26]

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.^[27] In 2021, the last four state associations, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Thuringia and Saarland were founded.^[28][29] Shortly after the founding of the Brandenburg state association, the party celebrated its new size of 1800 members.^[30] 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.^[31]

The underlying ideology is evolutionary humanism.^[32] The core themes of the Humanist Party are science and education, the right of self-determination of the individual, and secularization.^[33] For example, the party supports the liberal and self-responsible use of drugs,^[34] supports legal voluntary euthanasia^[35][36] and is against circumcision of children.^[37] The party also supports the implementation of universal basic income.^[33] The party is considered left of the political centre.^[3]

Currently, the Party of Humanists is the only party in Germany that specifically targets non-religious people, freethinkers, and atheists as voters.^[38]

• Compulsory health insurance should only cover evidence based medicine, not pseudomedicine such as homeopathy
• Legalization of active euthanasia 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^[39]
• Openness towards new technology and impartial assessment of the harms benefits, e. g. with respect to genome editing^[40] and stem cell research
• Reduction of antibiotic use in livestock farming in order to avoid emerging resistances
• Funding for in-vitro-meat research

• Founding of a united European Federal Republic. Today's national states shall be converted into strong sovereign regions.^[41]
• Rejection of a compulsory military service year for young adults
• Establishing a united European military

• Simplification of the tax system by eliminating exemptions as well as cutback on unnecessary subsidies
• Deregulation of shop opening hours on Sundays
• Trialing and implementation of universal basic income

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

• Legalization of surrogate motherhood
• Legalization of sex work, modeling after New Zealand
• Legalization of abortion regardless of gestation age, modeling after Canadian abortion laws

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

 

• Complete separation of church and state
• Introduction of unified ethics education instead of compulsory religious education in schools^[42]
• Removing references to god from the constitution and other laws
• Prohibition of medically not-indicated religious circumcision in children unable to consent

 

Since 15 July 2024, the party's leadership has consisted of:^[1]

• Felicitas Klings (Party Leader)
• Sascha Klughardt (General Secretary)
• Narek Avetisyan (Treasurer)

The party's federal executive board is made up of:^[1]

• Ole Teschke
• Dominic vice
• Josephine Keller
• Andreas Stirner
• Daniel Keye
• Dr. Jochen Sieck
• Manuel Cran
• Ricardo Reitz

• 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)