Studies on atheism in the German Democratic Republic
Principal Investigator
Dr. Eva Guigo-Patzelt
Centre d’études en sciences sociales du religieux
EHESS: École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Start and end dates: 1 January 2023 – 30 June 2024
Award: £31,039.65
The eastern part of Germany is a widely secularized region. Religious affiliation fell from 94% in 1946 to about 28% in 1990 and the proportion of people identifying as “not at all religious” has persisted in the post-Soviet period. The main causes of this change remain disputed. This project contributes to this ongoing debate bringing my research to English speaking scholars for the first time. My PhD, completed in 2021, provided the first overview of the general development and inner logics of “scientific atheism” in the German Democratic Republic.
Proponents of scientific atheism pursued a sociology of atheism aimed at discovering the collective and individual correlations that favour atheism in order to hasten the evolution of a perfect atheistic society. Its representatives also actively sought influence on decision makers, students, youth and the general population.
Scientific Atheism provides one example of a broader historical experiment. The project will also convene an international conference, gathering specialists on Marxist inspired attempts to explain the evolution of atheism, indifference and religion and enable further fieldwork in the former GDR in the archives of another group seeking the causes of worldview changes: the Central Institute for Studies on the Youth.
