Coming of Age – the Non-Religious Way

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Non-religious confirmations for teenagers, sometimes also called civil confirmations or coming-of-age ceremonies, are popular in Nordic European countries. Non-religious confirmations form an alternative to traditional religious confirmations. Several Humanist organizations offer these ceremonies to young people as their main Humanist youth activity. The form of the confirmations and preparatory activities vary, from camps (in Finland and Sweden, for instance) to courses (Iceland, Norway). But the main element is to celebrate and think about the new responsibilities that adulthood brings.

 

The Humanist Association of Germany offers non- religious confirmations and this has stimulated the growth of Humanist youth groups in several German cities, including Berlin (the JuHu). Gregor Ziese- Henatsch describes their history below. Young Humanists attending the International Humanist Youth Conference jointly organized by IHEYO and Berlin JuHu will have the opportunity to visit some of these events personally!

 

Gea Meijers

 

 

 

Youth Work in the Humanist Association of Germany in Berlin

In Berlin, the Humanist Association of Germany is mainly involved in two branches of activity with young people outside school or kindergarten:

 

1.  Coming-of-Age Ceremonies (called JugendFEIER) for eighth-grade students (aged 13–14).

 

2.  The activities of its own youth organization, Junge HumanistInnen (JuHu).

 

JugendFEIER has a long tradition. It developed out of what was called Jugendweihe until the late 1980s. Towards the middle of the 19th century, the Civil Revolution provoked not only political emancipation. Some citizens also turned away from the big churches and organized themselves in free religious congregations. These free congregations invented Jugendweihe as their alternative to the Christian confirmation. While these first congregations were rather liberal-minded and in some cases even nationalist organizations, the rise of the working class movement brought big changes to them: many turned into politically oriented cultural organizations of the socialist movement. In Berlin the first proletarian Jugendweihe, with socialist rather than freethought content, was conducted in 1889. After that, Jugendweihe developed fast and in the 1920s were conducted by all kinds of organizations with social democratic or communist orientation. One of them was the German Freethinkers, the predecessor of the Humanist Association in Berlin. In 1933 the freethinkers were dissolved by the Nazi government and many of their functionaries were persecuted and even murdered.

 

After the war and the liberation of Germany these organizations were re-established and Jugendweihe were conducted again. While this was uncomplicated in West Germany and West Berlin, the East German authorities stopped these activities at the end of the 1940s because they feared disputes with the churches they wanted to gain as partners in building up a socialist Germany. However, this policy was changed totally in 1953/54, when they introduced Jugendweihe as a ritual for all students of the eighth grade. From then on it was conducted as a quasi state ritual and the numbers rejecting participation grew ever smaller. By the time East Germany collapsed in 1989 more than 90% of eighth-grade students participated in Jugendweihe. In contrast to its popularity in East Germany it became less and less popular in West Germany, as Jugendweihe was perceived as a communist ritual of the GDR, and by 1989 the numbers participating in West Berlin had sunk to fewer than 200 per year. Nevertheless, after the destruction of the Wall and the unification of Germany Jugendweihe, surprisingly, remained popular in the Eastern part of Germany.

 

In Berlin, JugendFEIER peaked at almost 4,000 participants in 2002, though it has subsequently declined, probably as a combination of demographic and economic reasons. Our JugendFEIER consists of various courses and spare time activities that we offer in autumn and winter before the ceremonies take place in spring every year. However, it is not necessary to participate in these activities in order to take part in the actual JugendFEIER ceremony, and almost half the ceremony participants do not take part in the preparatory activities. Nevertheless, JugendFEIER and similar activities of another organization – still called Jugendweihe – have the highest degree of voluntary participation among young people in East Germany.

 

Compared to this high level of participation our youth organization, Berlin JuHu, is fairly small: about 200 young people, mainly aged between 18 and 30. Many of us have been former participants of JugendFEIER and have got to know the Humanist movement in this way. The activities of JuHu include a lot of travel and tourism and various other activities such as cookery classes, parlour games, sports and outdoor activities. We also run a youth club and a small school club for pupils of a primary school in the centre of Berlin. In September this year we will host the IHEYO-Conference in Berlin. We hope to see you there!

 

Gregor Ziese-Henatsch