Bernhard Beyer

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Bernhard Beyer (born May 31, 1879 in Laage ; † May 31, 1966 in Bayreuth ) was a German neurologist and an important Freemason as a representative of humanitarian Freemasonry. Beyer campaigned for the unification of various groups of Freemasonry in Germany and founded the research society and lodge Quatuor Coronati eV

Life

Bernhard Beyer was the son of Pastor Carl Beyer in Laage (Mecklenburg). He studied medicine in Jena and Tübingen . He then did his doctorate in Rostock . At the age of 28 he came to Bayreuth as a specialist in psychiatry and neurology . In 1909 he married the eldest daughter of the owner of the Herzoghöhe sanatorium . Later he became its chief physician. In the medical literature he dealt among other things with the legal status of inmates of insane asylums. He became a Freemason in 1910 in the Bayreuth Lodge Eleusis to secrecy . Even as an apprentice he wrote an essay on the history of Masonic symbolism. The fact that Beyer was the chief physician of a large clinic did not prevent him from later calling himself a full-time Freemason.

In Bayreuth, Beyer built the Masonic Museum and the Masonic Library in 1913 and ran it until 1933. In 1921 Beyer founded the Geschichtliche Engbund for the historical research of Freemasonry, the forerunner of the research company Quatuor Coronati founded in 1951 . In 1925 he became secretary of the Grand Lodge Zur Sonne , in 1927 (deputy) grandmaster assigned to it, and after the Second World War its grandmaster. Theodor Vogel was his successor.

A highlight in his Masonic work was the founding of the Quatuor Coronati research lodge on September 9, 1951, of which he became the first master of the chair . "After a long night of pain, now Waldes Morgenpracht", "We welcome the freedom of research that we have regained as Waldesmorgenpracht and we want to strive with all our might to walk in the paths of the brothers of the earlier historical association", he wrote on the occasion of the ceremonial opening of the Research Lodge.

Arguments

Beyer dealt with competing Freemason organizations as a journalist, for example in his work The Teaching System of the Order of the Gold and Rosicrucians . He regarded the order of the Gold and Rosicrucians as a Christian sect "... with a strong alchemical influence". It is worthwhile to examine the similarities of the Gold and Rosicrucian Order with the Masonic Order of the Great State Lodge of Germany and to investigate the points of contact with the Swedish system . “The so-called Zinnendorfer are ... always put off, and for sixteen or seventeen years now, for sixteen or seventeen years, have been put off in vain from one time to another that they would come to the true light.” The Rosicrucian order is “an order of Jesus, the members are little Jesus; Christ himself lives in the district director ”.

Beyer documented what he saw as the nationalist-Christian, reactionary ideology of the Masonic Order of the Great State Lodge of Germany. After the war, Bernhard Beyer demanded that all contact with the former Old Prussian grand lodges be refused until they had started to come to terms with their actions. The lodge had betrayed humanitarian Freemasonry to National Socialism and fundamentally falsified the idea of ​​Freemasonry, which is committed to the Enlightenment and deism . He condemned the Masonic Order as a "Christian sect".

Bernhard Beyer was an advocate of humanitarian freemasonry; he interpreted the old duties ( Old Charges ) of the Scottish Presbyterian preacher James Anderson from the year 1723 in a humanitarian sense. “As a bricklayer, the bricklayer is obliged to obey the moral law; and if he understands art correctly, he will neither be a narrow-minded denier of God nor an unconditional free spirit. ”In the sense of the European Enlightenment, this principle opens a path from moral law to religion, not the other way around, as the principle of counter-Enlightenment religions Be God as lawgiver. Believing in God is everyone's private affair.

Beyer suspected that the representatives of Christian-dogmatic Freemasonry had falsified the basic attitude of Anderson's book of constitution. He refers, among other things, to Ferdinand Runkel and his history of Freemasonry in Germany (published in 1932): “There he [Runkel] makes the assertion that only that could be the meaning of the old duties, that they refer to 'Christianity before the denominational divorce 'wanted to go back to the' pure teaching of the Master of Nazareth '. ... And as a historian he must know very well that five million Freemasons all over the world disagree with him ... The old duties actually mean the opposite of what the writers from the circle of the Grand Lodge would like us to believe. "

Beyer's story of the Grand Lodge Zur Sonne ends with the First World War . His documentation of the National Socialist sentiments of the leadership of the Great State Lodge of Germany in the years from the Weimar Republic to after the Second World War is in the archives of the Masonic Museum in Bayreuth and is currently being processed by the Masonic research company Quatuor Coronati .

Fonts

  • About the relationship between pseudoleukemia and lymphosarcoma, based on anatomical studies. Rostock 1904 ( proof of existence of the Rostock University Library)
  • Efforts to reform the insane. Material on a Reichs-Irrengesetz (= Psychiatric-Neurological Weekly. Supplementary Volume). Marhold 1909.
  • From the order of true patriots and true philanthropists. In: Sources on the history of Freemasonry. Volume 1. German Society for the Promotion of Masonic Scientific Research, Zechel, Leipzig 1917, pp. 7–57.
  • The teaching system of the Order of the Gold and Rosicrucians. Pansophia, Leipzig 1925. New publication: Edition Secret Knowledge, Graz 2008, ISBN 978-3-902-70502-0 .
  • The fight of the Great State Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany against humanitarian Freemasonry. Mühl, Bayreuth 1927.
  • The destroyer of Freemasonry in its true form. Mühl, Bayreuth 1928.
  • Our relationship to the Freemasonry of the former enemy states during the war and after the peace treaty. Bayreuth 1929.
  • The foundation of freemasonry. Publishing house of the Freemasons' Letters, Krefeld 1947.
  • (Ed.): The transfer of the old Prussian grand lodges to the Völkisch National Socialist camp. Files on Freemasonry in Germany 1920–1946. Bayreuth 1955 (unpublished), German Freemasons Museum Bayreuth, No. 10115 .
  • History of the grand lodge "Zur Sonne". 3 volumes. Bauhütten-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1954–1955.
  • History of Munich Freemasonry in the 18th century. A contribution to the cultural history of Old Bavaria. Bauhütten Verlag, Hamburg 1973.

literature

  • Alexander Giese: The Freemasons. An introduction. Böhlau, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-205-77353-5 .
  • Hans-Hermann Höhmann: Freemasonry. Analyzes - Considerations - Perspectives. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2011, ISBN 978-3-837-84028-5 .
  • Martin Papenheim: Italian and German Freemasonry in the time of Fascism an National Socialism. Four Essays and a Comparative Introduction. In: Quatuor Coronati. European Masonic Papers, Vol. 1. 2012.
  • Klaus-Jürgen Grün: Human resemblance. The difference between humanitarian freemasonry and religion. Edition Temmen, Bremen 2012, ISBN 978-3-837-84041-4 .
  • Manfred Steffens: Freemason in Germany. Balance of a quarter of a millennium. Wolff, Frankfurt am Main 1966.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See also Bernhard Beyer's matriculation in the Rostock matriculation portal
  2. ^ Heinrich Wilhelm Lorenz: Bernhard Beyer. Man and his work. Bayreuth o. J., 6 p. (Unpublished), Library of the German Freemason Museum Bayreuth No. 9846.
  3. ↑ quoted from Winfried Brinkmann: 60 years of the Quatuor Coronati research lodge. In: Quatuor Coronati yearbook. 49/2012, pp. 5-19
  4. ^ Heinrich Wilhelm Lorenz: Bernhard Beyer. Man and his work. Bayreuth undated, p. 4 (unpublished), Library of the German Freemason Museum Bayreuth No. 9846.
  5. ^ Bernhard Beyer: The teaching system of the order of the Gold and Rosicrucians. Pansophia, Leipzig 1925. New publication: Edition Secret Knowledge, Graz 2008. ISBN 978-3-902-70502-0 , p. 15.
  6. ^ Bernhard Beyer: The teaching system of the order of the Gold and Rosicrucians. Pansophia, Leipzig 1925. New publication: Edition Secret Knowledge, Graz 2008. ISBN 978-3-902-70502-0 , p. 19.
  7. ^ Manfred Steffens: Freemasons in Germany. Balance of a quarter of a millennium. Christian Wolff Verlag, Frankfurt 1966, p. 528 f.
  8. ↑ a b Bernhard Beyer: The Foundation of Freemasonry. Publishing house of the Freemasons' Letters, Krefeld 1947
  9. ↑ Bernhard Beyer (ed.): The transfer of the old Prussian grand lodges to the Völkisch-National-Socialist camp. Files on Freemasonry in Germany 1920–1946. Bayreuth 1955 (unpublished), Deutsches Freemaurer-Museum Bayreuth, No. 10115., p. 4.
  10. ↑ JWS Mitchell: The History of Freemasonry and Masonic Digest […] to which are Added the Old Charges and Ancient Regulations as Collated by Order of the Grand Lodge of England, in 1722 1859, p. 311.
  11. ↑ James Anderson: The constitutions of the free-masons: Containing the history, charges, regulations, & c. of that most ancient and right worshipful fraternity. For the use of the lodges . printed by William Hunter, for John Senex, and John Hooke. In the year of masonry 5723 Anno Domini, 1723.
  12. ↑ Bernhard Beyer: The Foundation of Freemasonry. Verlag der Freemaurerbriefe, Krefeld 1947, pp. 9-10.
personal data
SURNAME Beyer, Bernhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German neurologist and freemason
DATE OF BIRTH May 31, 1879
PLACE OF BIRTH Laage
DATE OF DEATH May 31, 1966
Place of death Bayreuth