“We welcome and gladly participate in initiatives that present humanism to people in our country in an independent and convincing way as a modern, enlightened and ideological attitude and value-based practice. This requires us to refrain from presenting our own content as a mere counter-reflection.” This was stated by the President of the Humanist Association of Germany (HVD), Frieder Otto Wolf, on the occasion of a series of events announced for the Katholikentag 2014 in Regensburg. The series of events planned between May 28 and June 1, 2014, aims to present “the German-wide scene of non-religious, non-denominational, secular humanists and freethinkers, skeptics, agnostics and atheists”. The series of events is financed and organized by the “Bund für Geistesfreiheit Bayern”. This initiative, which is directly related to the Katholikentag, is rejected by the Humanist Association of Germany. One of the reasons for this is that the initiative does not comply with the agreements reached by the representatives of the organizations gathered in the Coordinating Council of Secular Organizations on holding events that are intended to represent the presence and offerings of non-religious people in Germany. “We are of the opinion that a non-religious and enlightened worldview must be able to stand for itself,” Frieder Otto Wolf continues. “Humanist ideas and alternatives naturally form a contrast to the offers and activities of denominational communities.” In view of the advancing secularization of society and ideological pluralization, content-related profiling, such as that sought by the Bavarian Association for Freedom of Thought at the Catholic Congress in Regensburg, is neither contemporary nor trend-setting. “Even today, millions of people in Germany can no longer relate to the guidance offered by the Catholic Church. This means that non-religious people who want to take a practical stand for humanism and enlightenment can no longer see themselves primarily as the opposition. We are therefore primarily aimed at non-denominational people who are not or do not wish to become members of a religious community. Humanism, as we represent it in our projects, must therefore also be a matter of course. We are therefore not of the opinion that counter-events to the Catholic Day in Regensburg can adequately represent the presence of non-denominational and humanists in the Federal Republic of Germany.” As a Germany-wide organization, the HVD is represented in thirteen federal states. In Bavaria, it supports numerous projects in the educational, cultural and social sectors. Among the more than 20 institutions of the HVD Bayern are the Humanist Primary School Fürth with 100 pupils and the turmdersinne in Nuremberg, which is visited by 30,000 people every year. The HVD Bayern has its own humanist youth work and is the provider of the youth celebration. Through its diverse projects and offerings, the HVD today directly represents the interests of more than 500,000 people nationwide.
In addition, the members of the association are committed to opposing attacks by denominational groups or church organizations that threaten or endanger the individual’s right to self-determination or other human and fundamental rights. For this reason, they act as supporters of initiatives based on human and fundamental rights at civil society or political level. In the past, the Humanist Association was the initiator of the Alliance for Sexual Self-Determination, the Alliance for Self-Determination until the End of Life and has been a partner in the Berlin alliance “Pro Ethik” since 2008.
