Abstract

The example of Wilhelm Bölsche, popular writer and scholar of the Darwinist Ernst Haeckel, shows that it would be wrong to think that in the German,,fin de siècle“ the fighters for,,science“ were automatically fighters against,,religion“. In his writings Bölsche tried to develop an anti-church world-view that was based on the latest scientific knowledge and at the same time was able to maintain certain religious motifs and impulses. This speaks for the thesis that a religious atmosphere dominated Wilhelmine Germany.