For many people in German-speaking countries, the natural sciences in particular seemed to promise social progress after the revolution of 1848/49. The most radical representatives of this interpretation were the so-called natural scientific materialists Carl Vogt (18171895), Jacob Moleschott (18221893) and Ludwig Büchner (18241899). In a mixture of scientific popularization, anti-clericalism and progressive thinking, the materialists turned against religious interpretations of life and celebrated the natural sciences as the central authority of modernity. These positions sparked decades of debate. The study asks what conceptions of the relationship between science, religion and society manifested themselves in the discussion of materialism.