| Native Name: | Partei der Humanisten |
| Abbreviation: | PdH |
| Chairperson: | Lasse Schäfer |
| General Secretary: | Dominic Ressel |
| Headquarters: | Beilsteiner Str. 21, 12681 Berlin |
| Membership Year: | 2022 |
| Membership: | 2,300 |
| Ideology: | Secular humanism Secular liberalism Social liberalism Civil libertarianism Progressivism |
| Position: | Centre-left[1] |
| Seats1 Title: | Bundestag |
| Seats2 Title: | State Parliaments |
| Seats3 Title: | European Parliament |
| Country: | Germany |
The Party of Humanists 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]
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. 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]
| Federal state party | Date of Founding | Chairman | Last state election participation | Last country-wide election participation | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baden-Württemberg | data-sort-value="2016-12-03" | 3 December 2016 | Mario Caraggiu[42] | data-sort-value="2021-03-14" | 2021 Baden-Württemberg state election | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election |
| Bavaria | data-sort-value="2017-02-11" | 11 February 2017 | Frederic Forkel | data-sort-value="2018-10-14" | 2018 Bavarian state election | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election |
| Berlin[43] | data-sort-value="2017-04-02" | 2 April 2017 | Barend Wolf | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 Berlin state election | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election |
| Brandenburg | 13 March 2021 | Tim Ewert | - | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election | ||
| Bremen[44] | data-sort-value="2018-06-09" | 9 June 2018 | Julia Kreitz | data-sort-value="2019-05-26" | 2019 Bremen state election | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election |
| Hamburg[45] | data-sort-value="2017-10-01" | 1 October 2017 | Michael Brandt | data-sort-value="2020-02-23" | 2020 Hamburg state election | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election |
| Hesse[46] | data-sort-value="2016-09-25" | 25 September 2016 | Dennis Wörner | data-sort-value="2018-10-28" | 2018 Hessian state election | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 24 May 2021 | Tom Kühnel | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state election | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election | |
| Lower Saxony[47] | data-sort-value="2017-11-25" | 25 November 2017 | Rainer Rößler | - | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election | |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | data-sort-value="2016-10-22" | 22 October 2016 | Leonard Niesik | - | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election | |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | data-sort-value="2018-04-15" | 15 April 2018 | Tristan Marsell | - | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election | |
| Saarland[48] | 20 November 2021 | Fabian Grünewald | - | data-sort-value="2019-05-26" | 2019 European Parliament election | ||
| Saxony | data-sort-value="2018-01-07" | 7 January 2018 | Jonas Lehn | data-sort-value="2021-09-01" | 2019 Saxony state election | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election |
| Saxony-Anhalt | data-sort-value="2017-10-01" | 31 March 2018 | Konstantin Zisiadis | data-sort-value="2021-06-06" | 2021 Saxony-Anhalt state election | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election |
| Schleswig-Holstein | data-sort-value="2018-10-20" | 20 October 2018 | Marvin Weidemeier | 2022 Schleswig-Holstein state election | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election | |
| Thuringia | 29 May 2021 | Anthony Ramstedt | - | data-sort-value="2021-09-26" | 2021 German federal election | ||