Dear Humanists, today marks the twentieth anniversary of the founding of the Humanist Association of Germany. In January 1993, representatives of modern practical humanism in Germany came together in Berlin to give their own values and ideals a new common home in a Germany-wide organization. Their goals and plans were based on great hopes and ideas in a time of upheaval, in which the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany made it conceivable to overcome the historical rupture that the bans and persecution of the Hitler regime and later a state socialist dictatorship in the East German states had inflicted on earlier humanist organizations decades earlier. A historical rupture that has not yet been completely overcome and which continues to have a negative impact on many humanist-minded people in our united country to this day. And yet two decades of working and thinking in our association of committed humanists lie behind us this year. We are now facing a generational change, after many of the founders have already retired and some have already left us. When I look at organized humanism in our country today, three insights immediately come to mind. The first insight is that it was not as easy as some of the association’s founders had perhaps imagined – but that today there are once again good reasons for the hope that was cherished back then of being able to develop humanistic offerings for all situations in life and for all groups of people everywhere in Germany, i.e. to be able to organize a real people’s humanism. For there are not only still good reasons for the firm conviction that our ideas and our conceptions of the conditions for a peaceful and free society, for a contented and self-determined life in solidarity and responsibility, which does not fall back on religious faith or dogma, can be put into practice and are sustainable in the future, but there are also proven experiences in many areas. In recent years, I have experienced for myself and (like many others of us) have been able to play a part in creating a future for humanism as a world view and for our association as a community based on this world view in Germany. New associations of Humanists have joined our federal association during this time, a new state association in Baden-Württemberg will join us in this anniversary year and in future we will also be able to rely on a state association in Saxony-Anhalt again, older and traditional state and regional associations have also developed further, so that they can now look to the future with confidence and optimism. The Nuremberg association has developed into the HVD Bavaria, the Berlin association has formed a large HVD Berlin-Brandenburg with regional associations in Brandenburg. Today we have the opportunity to express our thanks for all the work that has led to this. Based on the experience of these 20 years, I believe that our humanism only has a future if it remains practical in its organized form and becomes practical on an even broader scale.
For we can state with good courage that wherever our modern humanism has been combined with practical offers for shaping and coping with life, our organized humanism has become a relevant factor in the public sphere as well as in the everyday lives of members and interested parties. The other insight is that humanist attitudes in our societies and internationally are just as unlikely today as they were in the past to gain acceptance or even spread without further action. Philosophers and scientists may have recognized in us humans the potential to be extraordinarily intelligent, empathetic and friendly beings, more inclined to reason and empathy than to irrationalism, clinging to dangerous myths and rabid egoism. However, the unforeseen problems of social change in Germany over the past 20 years and the current diverse and serious crises in our globalized world have shown that in order to promote the positive potential of thoughtful and reliable cooperation between all people who can and want to work towards the goals and ideals of our humanism. Our association offers an excellent, substantively important and growing framework for this. A forum within which ideological self-understanding is possible and a community that makes joint practice possible. We should always keep this in mind: It is up to us whether we obstruct each other, hold back hesitantly or take the necessary initiatives together and courageously. But there is also a third insight that I would like to remind you of today: the insight that we do not have a claim to sole representation and do not need it. If others organize themselves in order to promote certain humanist theses more effectively or to work on certain fields of humanist practice with their own initiatives, then we can take a relaxed view of this. The demand for humanist theories and initiatives is still growing faster than the supply. When contexts emerge outside our association that can contribute independent humanist offerings, this strengthens the presence of humanist offerings in our society and also makes our practical work easier. This makes our work easier: we can concentrate on broadening the range of our practical humanism and qualifying it more comprehensively. I would like to draw one conclusion today: The challenges have not become any smaller, but many opportunities have largely improved. We are also finally set up organizationally and conceptually in such a way that we can successfully take advantage of these opportunities. Last but not least, the Internet offers us new and enriching opportunities to communicate ideas, provide information and cooperate without replacing direct contact and communication.
At this point, I would like to remind you of the words of my wise predecessor Horst Groschopp, who referred to the ideological mission of our practical humanism: “If people do not experience us as active humanists, they cannot experience our world view at all.” Further opportunities for our organized practical humanism also lie in the growing ideological plurality in our society throughout Germany, which offers us completely new possibilities for our humanist practice in many areas, especially in new fields or fields that have been abandoned by the churches. We must not ignore these opportunities or allow ourselves to be distracted from taking them seriously. Finally, I would like to emphasize one last thought. Many people today still tend to believe that the principles of peaceful and fair coexistence based on humanistic ideas will, in time, evolve into something higher or better, like a cultural evolution. Others, on the other hand, believe that such issues are simply none of their business. Both are succumbing to illusions that we should push back and overcome: Humanist ideas will not prevail on their own, they will not do so without our actions – and no one should imagine that the humanization of all areas of social coexistence has no meaning in itself. It may also be true that the major Christian churches in Germany, under whose oppressive influence some of our own traditions and positions had to find their historical starting point and still have to do so in many regions of the world today, will continue to lose followers in the future and that their dogmas will fade: “It is common sense, the education of the times, the light and the truth that you blasphemed and that are now crushing you,” the politician and enlightener Robert Blum was convinced long before this anniversary year. But just as our federal association has grown over the past two decades in response to the good insight that humanists from the south of our country should not ignore the concerns and interests of humanists on the North Sea and vice versa, we must not close our minds to the realization that a humane life can no longer be lived today without taking into account the global and European dimensions of economic and cultural development. When drawing up our plans for the future, we can no longer look only to our immediate surroundings or at most to the whole of Germany, but we should also think of the humanists in the many countries in which the ideals of humanism and enlightenment are even less realized than in this country. We know that we can also find support for these goals among religious people. And we also know that enlightenment and the “humanization” of social conditions are an essential prerequisite for overcoming the major crises facing humanity today. Here we must and can also win over religious people as allies.
Our question therefore no longer needs to be whether the 21st century will be religious or unbelieving, but whether humanity and our community, which also sees its neighbor from afar, has the will and the means to continue to assert a future for itself and thus find a “humanistic home” for humanity. And the question is quite simply what we, as practical humanists, can contribute to this. Frieder Otto Wolf, January 14, 2013 in Berlin More on the topic
Online chronicle: Humanist milestones from two decades
