Editing Freethought (section)

====Germany====
[[File:Otto Martin junge Dame im schwarzen Kleid mit Blumen.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Jugendweihe]]'' is a German coming of age ceremony. Photograph from early 20th century.]]

In Germany, during the period 1815–1848 and before the [[Revolutions of 1848 in the German states|March Revolution]], the resistance of citizens against the dogma of the church increased. In 1844, under the influence of [[Johannes Ronge]] and [[Robert Blum]], belief in the rights of man, tolerance among men, and [[humanism]] grew, and by 1859 they had established the ''Bund Freireligiöser Gemeinden Deutschlands'' (literally ''Union of Free Religious Communities of Germany''), an association of persons who consider themselves to be religious without adhering to any established and institutionalized church or sacerdotal cult. This union still exists today, and is included as a member in the umbrella organization of free humanists. In 1881 in [[Frankfurt am Main]], [[Ludwig Büchner]] established the ''Deutscher Freidenkerbund'' ([[German Freethinkers League]]) as the first German organization for [[Atheism|atheists]] and agnostics. In 1892 the ''Freidenker-Gesellschaft'' and in 1906 the ''Deutscher Monistenbund'' were formed.<ref name="may">{{cite book |last= Bock| first= Heike | chapter= Secularization of the modern conduct of life? Reflections on the religiousness of early modern Europe| editor=Hanne May |title=Religiosität in der säkularisierten Welt |publisher=VS Verlag fnr Sozialw |year=2006 |pages= 157|isbn=978-3-8100-4039-8 }}</ref>

Free thought organizations developed the "[[Jugendweihe]]" (literally ''Youth consecration''), a secular "[[confirmation]]" ceremony, and atheist funeral rites.<ref name="may"/><ref name="isbn0-472-06938-1">{{cite book |author=Reese, Dagmar |title=Growing up female in Nazi Germany |publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor, Mich |year=2006 |page=160 |isbn=978-0-472-06938-5 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=5qA4My-C2nkC&pg=PA160 }}</ref> The Union of Freethinkers for Cremation was founded in 1905, and the Central Union of German Proletariat Freethinker in 1908. The two groups merged in 1927, becoming the German Freethinking Association in 1930.<ref name="Reinhalter">{{cite book |last= Reinhalter|first=Helmut|editor=Bromiley, Geoffrey William |editor2=Fahlbusch, Erwin |chapter= Freethinkers|title=The encyclopedia of Christianity |publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans |location=Grand Rapids, MI |year=1999 |isbn=978-90-04-11695-5 }}</ref>

More "bourgeois" organizations declined after [[World War I]], and "proletarian" free thought groups proliferated, becoming an organization of socialist parties.<ref name="may"/><ref name=kaiser/> European socialist free thought groups formed the International of Proletarian Freethinkers (IPF) in 1925.<ref name="peris"/> Activists agitated for Germans to disaffiliate from their respective Church and for secularization of elementary schools; between 1919–1921 and 1930–1932 more than 2.5 million Germans, for the most part supporters of the Social Democratic and Communist parties, gave up church membership.<ref name="lamberti">{{cite book |author=Lamberti, Marjorie |title=Politics Of Education: Teachers and School Reform in Weimar Germany (Monographs in German History) |publisher=Berghahn Books |location=Providence |year=2004 |page= 185|isbn=978-1-57181-299-5 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=jbmwM4wsMKEC&pg=PA185}}</ref> Conflict developed between radical forces including the Soviet [[League of the Militant Godless]] and Social Democratic forces in Western Europe led by Theodor Hartwig and [[Max Sievers]].<ref name="peris">{{cite book |author=Peris, Daniel |title=Storming the heavens: the Soviet League of the Militant Godless |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, N.Y |year=1998 |isbn=978-0-8014-3485-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/stormingheavenss00peri_0/page/110 110]–11 |url=https://archive.org/details/stormingheavenss00peri_0|url-access=registration }}</ref> In 1930 the Soviet and allied delegations, following a walk-out, took over the IPF and excluded the former leaders.<ref name="peris"/>
Following Hitler's rise to power in 1933, most free thought organizations were banned, though some right-wing groups that worked with so-called ''[[Völkisch]]e Bünde'' (literally ''"ethnic" associations'' with nationalist, xenophobic and very often racist ideology) were tolerated by the Nazis until the mid-1930s.<ref name="may"/><ref name=kaiser>{{cite book|last=Kaiser|first=Jochen-Christoph|title=Atheismus und religiöse Indifferenz|editor=Christel Gärtner|publisher=VS Verlag|year=2003|volume=Organisierter Atheismus|isbn=978-3-8100-3639-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YXOr4xQFSJsC&pg=PA124}}</ref>