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Many non-denominational people do not feel sufficiently recognized in our society. This is why secular groups are pushing for greater visibility. To this end, the Coordination Council of Secular Organizations (KORSO) wants to present itself more strongly as a secular lobby organization in the future. The Humanist Association of Germany – Federal Association (HVD) will no longer be represented.

After many years of preparation, the Humanist Association of Germany (HVD), the Giordano Bruno Foundation (gbs), the Humanist Academy of Germany (HAD) and the Federal Association of Humanist Students (BAG) have founded the Bertha von Suttner-Studienwerk. With its help, humanist students are to receive the same support as their religious fellow students.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time – if not the greatest. In the current issue of our humanist magazine, we therefore ask: What relationship do humanists actually have with nature? Should it change? What can we do to prevent excess in the use of our limited natural resources? And how do we move from knowledge to action?

Many people are hoping that 2021 will be better than last year – thanks to the vaccinations, overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic now seems within reach. But the pandemic is far from our only problem. Thoughts on the new year from Erwin Kress, Spokesman of the Board of the Humanist Association of Germany.

The Humanist Association of Germany (HVD) has welcomed a new regional association, HVD Bavaria, and is now active in 13 federal states. We look forward to working together!

At this year’s General Assembly of the European Humanist Federation (EHF), HVD Federal Representative Katja Labidi was elected to the new Board. Labidi announced that she would actively support the EHF in its reorganization in order to facilitate good cooperation between humanist organizations at European level.

The new issue of diesseits is dedicated to a topic that we have been unable to avoid for the past six months: the coronavirus crisis and how we are dealing with it. What does the crisis show us about ourselves and how we deal with restrictions? What does it teach us about dealing with other (global) crises such as the climate crisis? And what could humanistic interventions look like in times of crisis?

In recent months, the appearance of the new organization ‚Humanistische Vereinigung‘ (HV) has repeatedly caused confusion among members, partners and interested humanists and led to questions about the relationship between the HVD and this organization.

Today’s Human Rights Day is all about young people: their commitment to a better world is being honored. But it can’t happen without the older generation, comments HVD board member Richard Scherzer.

On December 7, 2019, the Humanist Association of Germany (HVD) concluded a phase of internal debate on the mission and structure of the federal association with the unanimous adoption of a new membership fee schedule, the 2020 budget and the election of a new federal board. „Our association makes a valuable contribution to our society with its many practical humanism projects. We need to make this more visible to the public and in the political arena,“ said the new board spokesperson Erwin Kress.