Party of Humanists

The Party of Humanists (Partei der Humanisten) is a minor political party in Germany that first participated in the 2017 federal election. It is considered left-of-centre and supports socially liberal and secular policies, such as a federal European state, openness towards technologies such as stem cell research and strict separation between state and religion. The party contested the 2017 and 2021 federal elections, the 2019 European elections and numerous state elections from 2018 onwards. It also contested the 2024 European elections.

History
In spring 2012, the Facebook 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 in Berlin. The provisional executive committee consisted of eight spokespersons for various subject areas.

At the first ordinary federal party conference in March 2015, David Helmus was elected as the party's first chairman. 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.

The Berlin regional association was founded on 2 April 2016. A few months later, the regional associations of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Württemberg were founded. Shortly afterwards, in February of the following year, the Bavarian state association was also founded.

On 21 March 2017, the Party held a joint press conference along with the Pirate Party Germany, the Liberal Democrats, the New Liberals, the Transhuman Party Germany, and the youth organization of The Left to announce a "socialliberale proclamation" and better cooperation among the participating organizations.

In the 2017 German federal election, the Humanist Party took part in an election for the first time, although it was initially only electable in North Rhine-Westphalia. For this purpose, various teams were set up within the party, which now has around 600 members, for internal party organisation. In the election, the party received 5.991 second votes. 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.

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 American Skeptics Society, also became a member of the advisory board.

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. In 2021, the last four state associations, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Thuringia and Saarland were founded. Shortly after the founding of the Brandenburg state association, the party celebrated its new size of 1800 members. 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.

Party platform
The underlying ideology is evolutionary humanism. The core themes of the Humanist Party are science and education, the right of self-determination of the individual, and secularization. For example, the party supports the liberal and self-responsible use of drugs, supports legal voluntary euthanasia and is against circumcision of children. The party also supports the implementation of universal basic income. The party is considered left of the political centre.

Currently, the Party of Humanists is the only party in Germany that specifically targets non-religious people, freethinkers, and atheists as voters.

Health and science

 * Compulsory health insurance should only cover evidence based medicine, not pseudomedicine such as homeopathy
 * Legalization of active euthanasia under specific circumstances
 * Legalization of all drugs, but only for adults and with more prevention measures such as education, drug-checking, regulated production and sale
 * Openness towards new technology and impartial assessment of the harms benefits, e. g. with respect to genome editing and stem cell research
 * Reduction of antibiotic use in livestock farming in order to avoid emerging resistances
 * Funding for in-vitro-meat research

EU and military

 * Founding of a united European Federal Republic. Today's national states shall be converted into strong sovereign regions.
 * Rejection of a compulsory military service year for young adults
 * Establishing a united European military

Economy

 * Simplification of the tax system by eliminating exemptions as well as cutback on unnecessary subsidies
 * Deregulation of shop opening hours on Sundays
 * Trialing and implementation of universal basic income

Climate

 * Stopping the nuclear energy phase-out in Germany and utilization of new reactor types to combat climate change

Social topics

 * Legalization of surrogate motherhood
 * Legalization of sex work, modeling after New Zealand
 * Legalization of abortion regardless of gestation age, modeling after Canadian abortion laws

Freedom of speech and the Internet

 * Repeal of upload-filters and protection of net-neutrality

Religion



 * Complete separation of church and state
 * Introduction of unified ethics education instead of compulsory religious education in schools
 * Removing references to god from the constitution and other laws
 * Prohibition of medically not-indicated religious circumcision in children unable to consent

Leadership
The current federal executive committee of the Party of Humanists consists of eleven members:


 * Lasse Schäfer (Party Leader)
 * Dominic Ressel (General Secretary)
 * Stephan Wiedenmann (Treasurer)
 * Axel Börold
 * Ole Teschke
 * Sascha Klughardt
 * Andreas Stirner
 * Josephine Keller
 * Felicitas Klings
 * Jochen Sieck
 * Maximilian Pindl
 * Ricardo Reitz