The German Freethinkers League ('Deutscher Freidenkerbund') was an organisation founded in 1881 by the materialist philosopher and physician Ludwig Büchner[1] to oppose the power of the state churches in Germany.[2] Its aim was to provide a public meeting-ground and forum for materialist and atheist thinkers in Germany.
By 1885, the group had 5,000 members.[1] The largest organization of its sort in Germany at the time, by 1933, the German Freethinkers League had a membership numbering some 500,000.[3] The League was closed down in the spring of 1933, when Hitler outlawed all atheistic and freethinking groups in Germany. Freethinkers Hall, the national headquarters of the League, was then converted to a bureau advising the public on church matters.[3]
See also
- German Humanist Association, the DF's post-war reincarnation
References
- ^ a b Royle, Edward (1980). Radicals, Secularists, and republicans: popular freethought in Britain, 1866-1915. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 78. ISBN 0-7190-0783-6.
- ^ Hanne May (2006). Religiosität in der säkularisierten Welt. VS Verlag fnr Sozialw. ISBN 3-8100-4039-8.
- ^ a b "Atheist Hall Converted: Berlin Churches Establish Bureau to Win Back Worshipers". The New York Times. May 14, 1933. p. 2. Retrieved September 18, 2010.