# Party of Humanists

The Party of Humanists (German: 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 Parliament election in Germany.

## 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.

### Programme
#### 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

Since 15 July 2024, the party's leadership has consisted of:
* Felicitas Klings (Party Leader)
* Sascha Klughardt (General Secretary)
* Narek Avetisyan (Treasurer)

### Federal executive board

The party's federal executive board is made up of:
* Ole Teschke
* Dominic vice
* Josephine Keller
* Andreas Stirner
* Daniel Keye
* Dr. Jochen Sieck
* Manuel Cran
* Ricardo Reitz

## Federal state parties

| Federal state party | Date of Founding | Chairman | Last state election participation | Last country-wide election participation |
| Baden-Württemberg | 3 December 2016 | Steven Schmitt | 2021 Baden-Württemberg state election | 2021 German federal election |
| Bavaria | 11 February 2017 | Frederic Forkel | 2018 Bavarian state election | 2021 German federal election |
| Berlin | 2 April 2017 | Barend Wolf | 2021 Berlin state election | 2021 German federal election |
| Brandenburg | 13 March 2021 | Tim Ewert | - | 2021 German federal election |
| Bremen | 9 June 2018 | Julia Kreitz | 2019 Bremen state election | 2021 German federal election |
| Hamburg | 1 October 2017 | Michael Brandt | 2020 Hamburg state election | 2021 German federal election |
| Hesse | 25 September 2016 | Dennis Wörner | 2018 Hessian state election | 2021 German federal election |
| Mecklenburg-Vorpommern | 24 May 2021 | Tom Kühnel | 2021 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state election | 2021 German federal election |
| Lower Saxony | 25 November 2017 | Rainer Rößler | - | 2021 German federal election |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | 22 October 2016 | Leonard Niesik | - | 2021 German federal election |
| Rhineland-Palatinate | 15 April 2018 | Tristan Marsell | - | 2021 German federal election |
| Saarland | 20 November 2021 | Fabian Grünewald | - | 2019 European Parliament election |
| Saxony | 7 January 2018 | Jonas Lehn | 2019 Saxony state election | 2021 German federal election |
| Saxony-Anhalt | 31 March 2018 | Konstantin Zisiadis | 2021 Saxony-Anhalt state election | 2021 German federal election |
| Schleswig-Holstein | 20 October 2018 | Marvin Weidemeier | 2022 Schleswig-Holstein state election | 2021 German federal election |
| Thuringia | 29 May 2021 | Anthony Ramstedt | - | 2021 German federal election |

## Election results
### Federal parliament (Bundestag)

| Election | Leader | Constituency | Constituency | Party list | Party list | Seats | +/– | Government |
| Election | Leader | Votes | % | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | Government |
| 2017 | Felix Bölter | — | — | 5,991 | 0.01 (#28) | 0 / 709 | New | Extra-parliamentary |
| 2021 | Alexander Mucha | 12,672 | 0.03 (#19) | 47,526 | 0.10 (#19) | 0 / 735 | 0 | Extra-parliamentary |
| 2025 | Felicitas Klings | 1,873 | 0.00 (#23) | 14,446 | 0.03 (#20) | 0 / 630 | 0 | Extra-parliamentary |

### European Parliament

| Election | List leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | EP Group |
| 2019 | Robin Thiedmann | 62,604 | 0.17 (#26) | 0 / 96 | New | – |
| 2024 | Sascha Boelcke | 82,275 | 0.21 (#23) | 0 / 96 | 0 | – |