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Scientific Atheism in East Germany (1963-1990): How to Turn a Hare into a Lion book cover

1st Edition

Scientific Atheism in East Germany (1963-1990) How to Turn a Hare into a Lion

By Eva Guigo-Patzelt Copyright 2025
256 Pages
by Routledge

256 Pages
by Routledge

This book offers an in-depth, archive-based analysis of “scientific atheism”, focused on the development of the field in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). Scientific atheism was established as a Soviet import in 1963 at Jena University, with a presence in East German universities, propaganda and politics for nearly 30 years. The chapters explore the sociological work done by scientific... Read more

Acknowledgements

List of acronyms and abbreviations

Note on sources and spelling

Introduction

1 Atheism, sciences and the introduction of scientific atheism in Eastern Germany

2 East German scientific atheism unveiling its contents in the 1960s

3 Scientific atheists as actors of atheisation in the 1960s

4 Recovery, upswing and upper limit of scientific atheism in the 1970s and 1980s

5 Lectures on scientific atheism in the GDR against widespread indifference

6 Scientific atheism in the 1970s, between conflicts with religion and cooperation with believers

7 Towards a theoretical renewal of scientific atheism and new commitments in society in the 1980s

Conclusion

Biography

Eva Guigo-Patzelt is an associate member of CéSor – Centre d’études en sciences sociales du religieux (EHESS/CNRS) in France and a project lead within the Explaining Atheism Programme led by Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland.

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