The organization was founded in 1881 by the
materialist philosopher and
physician Ludwig Büchner and the
socialist politician
Wilhelm Liebknecht to oppose the power of the state churches in Germany. By 1885, the group had 5,000 members. Many freethinkers were active in the resistance. Max Sievers, the then chairman of the Freethinkers' Association, and general secretary Hermann Graul, managed to leave Germany in April 1933. Sievers immigrated to the United States in 1939, returned however subsequently to Europe, and after being detained in France by the Gestapo in 1943, he was executed at
Brandenburg-Görden Prison on January 17, 1944.
Post–World War II Deutscher Freidenker-Verband Numerous new groups formed after the end of the
Second World War. The first association at the state level was the
Deutscher Freidenker-Verband (DFV) in Hamburg. The founding date was intentionally set to December 24, 1945. In 1951, the DFV was re-established at the federal level in Braunschweig after the former General Secretary Hermann Graul emigrated and returned from exile in 1949. The DFV has been a member of the
World Union of Freethinkers (WUF), based in Paris, since 1952.
Verband der Freidenker der DDR In the GDR, the Association of Freethinkers was only founded on June 7, 1989, by 400 delegates at the Academy of Arts headquarters. Among other things,
Erich Honecker was a member until the end of his life. In 1991 the
German Freethinkers Association (GDR) merged with the DFV in Braunschweig. Since then, the German Freethinkers Association has increasingly dealt with political issues and advocates justice, peace, and social, humane, and ecological action. ==See also==