[2] The organization was founded in 1881 by the materialist philosopher and physician Ludwig Büchner and the socialist politician Wilhelm Liebknecht[3] to oppose the power of the state churches in Germany.
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.
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.
Since then, the German Freethinkers Association has increasingly dealt with political issues and advocates justice, peace, and social, humane, and ecological action.