The members of the Humanist Association of Germany make tangible the valuable and important contributions that can be made to value-oriented social work in a non-religious context. Silke Krebs, Minister in the Baden-Württemberg State Ministry, explained this in her speech last Saturday evening at the Humanist Center Stuttgart.
Although the state government sees itself as a partner of the churches, the large and growing number of non-religious people must not be ignored, the minister continued in her speech at the anniversary of the federal association. She expressed her delight that an organization like the Humanist Association of Germany exists. Its members, in all their diversity, represent a common world view: humanism.
Silke Krebs also reminded the audience that the state government wants a strong and diverse civil society. A central task here is to make it clear in public discourse that values can also be developed and lived without a religious orientation.
The Young Humanists in particular offer development opportunities, orientation and discussion spaces for non-religious people, and the first humanist daycare center in Stuttgart is also “an important and exciting contribution to diversity in Baden-Württemberg.”
In his speech, Frieder Otto Wolf, President of the Federal Association, emphasized that 20 years after the founding of the Federal Association, practical humanism can be found in the wide range of offers throughout Germany: “This ranges from name celebrations, humanist daycare centers, cultural and educational offers, humanist life science lessons at schools, living wills to a hospice initiative such as the Stuttgart Humanists have set up.”
Today, Germany is committed to its own diversity and people no longer allow themselves to be persuaded “that culture or morals are only possible on a religious or even Christian basis.” The association was not only embedded in this development, it actively contributed to it.
“Over the past 20 years, many people in various federal states have been committed to building up and expanding our association. They have developed a wide range of practical humanist activities on a common basis. I would like to thank them all on the occasion of this anniversary of our association’s founding. I would like to do this expressly and wholeheartedly,” says Frieder Otto Wolf.
The satisfaction of seeing what could be achieved again despite the National Socialist persecution of the association’s free-religious, free-thinking and humanist predecessors should only strengthen the drive of its members to further expand the offerings of practical humanism. Because today there are reasons to hope that “in the long term, we will succeed in becoming an important factor in public, political and social cultural development in Germany.”
More on the anniversary of the federal association
1. diesseits.de: 20 years of the Humanist Association of Germany
2nd gallery on the net: Pictures from the ceremony in Stuttgart
3. online chronicle: milestones from two decades
