Party of Humanists Partei der Humanisten | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Abbreviation | PdH |
| Chairperson | Felicitas Klings[1] |
| General Secretary | Sascha Klughardt[1] |
| Founded | 4 October 2014; 11 years ago (2014-10-04) |
| Headquarters | Beilsteiner Str. 21, 12681Berlin |
| Membership(September 2024) |  2,350+[2] |
| Ideology | Secular humanism Secular liberalism Social liberalism[3] Civil libertarianism Progressivism |
| Political position | Centre-left[3] |
| Colours |
|
| Bundestag | 0 / 630 |
| State Parliaments | 0 / 1,821 |
| European Parliament | 0 / 96 |
| Website | |
| pdh | |
TheParty of Humanists (German:Partei der Humanisten) is aminorpolitical party in Germany that first participated in the2017 federal election.[4] It is considered left-of-centre and supports socially liberal and secular policies, such as afederal European state, openness towards technologies such asstem cell research and strict separation between state and religion.[5] The party contested the 2017 and 2021 federal elections, the 2019 European elections and numerous state elections from 2018 onwards. It also contested the2024 European Parliament election in Germany.[6]
In spring 2012, theFacebook 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 inBerlin.[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 thePirate Party Germany, theLiberal Democrats, theNew Liberals, theTranshuman Party Germany, and the youth organization ofThe Left to announce a "social-liberal proclamation" and better cooperation among the participating organizations.[16][17][18][19][20]
In the2017 German federal election, the Humanist Party took part in an election for the first time, although it was initially only electable inNorth 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 AmericanSkeptics 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 isevolutionary humanism.[32] The core themes of the Humanist Party are science and education, the right of self-determination of the individual, andsecularization.[33] For example, the party supports theliberal and self-responsible use of drugs,[34] supports legal voluntaryeuthanasia[35][36] and is against circumcision of children.[37] The party also supports the implementation ofuniversal basic income.[33] The party is considered left of thepolitical centre.[3]
Currently, the Party of Humanists is the only party inGermany that specifically targetsnon-religious people,freethinkers, andatheists as voters.[38]
Since 15 July 2024, the party's leadership has consisted of:[1]
The party's federal executive board is made up of:[1]
| Election | Leader | Constituency | Party list | Seats | +/– | Government | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Votes | % | Votes | % | |||||
| 2017 | Felix Bölter | N/a | 5,991 | 0.01 (#28) | 0 / 709 | New | Extra-parliamentary | |
| 2021 | Alexander Mucha | 12,672 | 0.03 (#19) | 47,526 | 0.10 (#19) | 0 / 735 |  0 | Extra-parliamentary |
| 2025 | Felicitas Klings | 1,873 | 0.00 (#23) | 14,446 | 0.03 (#20) | 0 / 630 | 0 | Extra-parliamentary |
| Election | List leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | EP Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Robin Thiedmann | 62,604 | 0.17 (#26) | 0 / 96 | New | – |
| 2024 | Sascha Boelcke | 82,275 | 0.21 (#23) | 0 / 96 | 0 |
Die Partei der Humanisten ist im politischen Links- und Sozialliberalen Spektrum anzusiedeln.
