To the three swords and Astraea to the green diamond

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Bijou of the lodge

The Johannisloge zu den drei Schwertern und Asträa zur greening diamond , or Dresden swords lodge for short , is the oldest Masonic lodge in Dresden and today the second oldest still existing lodge in Germany . It is listed as No. 3 of A. F. u. A. M. v. D. , the Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany . Schiller wrote the poem To Joy for the Lodge .

Bijou

The bijou essentially consists of three golden swords arranged in a triangular shape. You are in front of a blue ribbon with gold inscription on a white background. A green diamond ring forms the circular outer edge .

history

The lodge was founded in early 1738 by Friedrich August Rutowski (1702–1764), a son of Augustus the Strong , in what later became known as the Kurlander Palais as the third overall on German soil. It is a St. John's Lodge - that is, its patron saint is John the Baptist  - and was initially called Aux trois aigles blancs ( To the three white eagles ). In the same year, the lodge Aux trois glaives d'or ( To the three golden swords ) split from her because the number of members had become too large. The latter was later only called To the Three Swords . Under Grand Master Count Rutowski, both lodges formed the Upper Saxony Grand Lodge .

The following years were initially marked by frequent lodge mergers. The Aux trois cygnes lodge , established in 1741, merged with the sword lodge in its founding year. The Masonic Lodge Zu den Drei Palmen , founded in 1755, and the Aux trois grénades , created in 1762 , both merged into the Swords Lodge in 1766. The Dresden lodge Étrangere , built in 1765 for foreign speakers, and Aux vrais amis ( To the true friends ), which was founded in 1766 by Count Brühl under the name St. Jean des Voyageurs , subsequently joined the sword lodge, which from then on Names that led to the three swords and true friends . All of Dresden's Masonic lodges eventually joined the Great State Lodge of Saxony , founded in 1811 , of which the sword lodge was one of the founding lodges .

In the summer of 1785 Friedrich Schiller wrote the Ode to Joy for the table of the Dresden sword lodge at the request of the freemason Christian Gottfried Körner in his vineyard house in Loschwitz and in Gohlis near Leipzig . He was inspired by the sight of Dresden and in particular the Waldschlösschenwiese .

Logenhaus Ostraallee , built 1837–1838 according to plans by Gustav Hörnig in the form of a Florentine palazzo , demolished after 1945
Bijou for the centenary of 1873
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In 1831 it was united with the Asträa Lodge, founded in 1815, for the greening diamond , whose name refers to the mythological figure of Astraea who embodies justice . Since then, the newly created Masonic Lodge has been called To the three swords and Astraa to the green diamond . Until the end of the 1830s, it was based in a rented wing of the Calberlaschen sugar boiler on Theaterplatz. Supported by the nobility and later by the educated middle class , there was a steady increase in the number of members of all Dresden lodges, which in the 1930s amounted to around 2500. At that time, the sword lodge was located in the lodge house at Ostra-Allee 15, located in the Wilsdruffer suburb between the theater and the Duchess garden . On July 31, 1935, the Masonic lodge to the three swords and Astraea to the green diamond was banned by the Nazi regime . The zoological department of the State Museum of Animal and Ethnology then moved into the building and used it as an exhibition space until it was destroyed in the air raids on Dresden on October 7, 1944. It was later demolished.

The lodge could not be re-established until November 1991. It is now considered to be the second oldest Masonic lodge still in existence that was founded on German soil. Today the lodge has its seat at Tolkewitzer Strasse 49.

Known members

Masonic Institute

Location of the Freemasons Institute in Friedrichstadt (city map by Heinrich Lesch, 1828)
Parade event by students of the Freemason Institute on the open space at the City Exhibition Palace in Dresden 1911

The Lodge to the Three Swords and Astraa to the Greening Diamond appeared, together with other Dresden Masonic lodges, as a charity and maintained, among other things, the so-called Masonic Institute. It goes back to a Masonic boys' education and teaching establishment founded in Friedrichstadt in 1772 , which in 1801 became a general citizen school. This boys' school primarily conveyed bourgeois- humanistic ideals. In 1876 it was converted into a secondary school . Well-known students were Ferdinand von Rayski and Johann Andreas Schubert . Carl Heinrich Nicolai, for example, worked as a teacher here from 1784. Even orphans and children from poorer classes had to attend school because of financing by an affiliated foundation possible.

After a new building was built on Eisenacher Strasse in Striesen in the last years of the 19th century , the school moved there. It was now called the Foundation for Teaching and Education for Boys in Dresden-Striesen - Freemason Institute . As a result of the state-decreed ban, the building and its attached boarding school have not been used by the Freemasons since the mid-1930s. Today the Kreuzschule is located there .

literature

sorted by year, newest first

  • Finding aid (copy) regarding the files on the Dresden Freemasons' Lodge on the Three Swords and Astraea on the Green Diamond , Secret State Archives Prussian Cultural Heritage, 2003.
  • Karl-Dieter Holz: The Loge's commitment book (extract 1785–1817); Johannislogen To the three swords and Astraea to the green diamond No. 3 i. O. Dresden (founded 1738), To the golden apple No. 119 i. O. Dresden (founded 1776 i. O. Wildenfels) , 2002.
  • Kurt Kranke : Freemasonry in Dresden. in: Dresdner Geschichtsverein (ed.): Dresdner Hefte - Contributions to cultural history No. 64: The conspiracy for the good - Freemasonry in Saxony. Dresden 2000, pp. 9-40
  • Friedrich Adolph Peuckert: The ger. and fully St. Johannisloge for the three swords and Astraea for the green diamond in the Orient Dresden 1738–1882. Contribution to the history of Freemasonry in Dresden and Saxony , Leipzig, 1883.
  • Lodge to the three swords and Astraa to the greening diamond (ed.): Songbook of the Lodge to the three swords and Astraa to the greening diamond in the Orient Dresden , Dresden, 1879.
  • Lodge to the three swords and Astraea to the greening diamond (ed.): Songbook of the united Lodge to the three swords and Astraea to the greening diamond in the Orient Dresden , Dresden, 1855.
  • Lodge to the three swords and Astraea to the greening diamond (ed.): Chants at the funeral service in the boxes to the three swords and Astraea to the greening diamond on December 29th. 1849 , Dresden, 1849.
  • Lodge to the three swords and Astraea to the greening diamond (ed.): Code of the united box to the three swords and Astraea to the greening diamond in Dresden , Dresden, 1849.
  • Johann Christian Hasche : Complicated description of Dresden. Volume 2, Leipzig 1783, p. 724
Masonic Institute
  • From the Freemasons' educational institute in Dreßden. in: Ephemeris of Mankind. 2. Vol., 1786, pp. 671–677, online in the project: Magazines of the Enlightenment (Bielefeld)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b inventory 11134: Freemasons Institute Dresden-Striesen. Main State Archive Dresden , accessed on November 18, 2014 .
  2. ↑ Dresden. In: Maconnieke Encyclopedie. Retrieved November 18, 2014 .
  3. ^ Johann Christoph Friedrich Schiller: Life and work as well as its points of contact with Freemasons. In: internetloge.de. Retrieved November 18, 2014 .
  4. ↑ The history of our lodge. Johannisloge To the three swords and Astraea to the green diamond, archived from the original on September 27, 2006 ; Retrieved November 18, 2014 .
  5. ↑ http://www.schwerterloge.de/impressum-2
  6. ↑ Carsten Hacker and Elmar Vogel (master of the chair): Christian Barnewitz - obituary notice. In: Sächsische Zeitung , May 14, 2011
  7. ^ Striesen in dresdner-stadtteile.de

Coordinates: 51 ° 3 ′ 12.9 ″  N , 13 ° 43 ′ 51 ″  E