German-Christian order

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German-Christian order was the name chosen in 1933 for various Freemasons - grand lodges in the German Reich at the beginning of the National Socialist era to ensure the continued existence of the organizations:

history

While some Freemasons' associations withdrew from the German Reich after the " seizure of power " by the National Socialists - the General Freemasons' League disbanded and the Symbolic Grand Lodge of Germany and the Scottish Rite suspended their work in the German Reich - the major Freemasons' associations tried to leave the National Socialists to convince that Freemasonry was not in opposition to National Socialism . On April 7, 1933, in a meeting between the Grand Master of the Great Freemasons of Germany and Hermann Göring , the Reich Commissioner for the Prussian Ministry of the Interior, the renaming of the Great State Lodge to the German-Christian Order of the Templars was agreed. At the same time it was declared that the order was no longer a Masonic organization. After this became known, the Great National Mother Lodge "To the Three Worlds" changed its name three days later to the National Christian Order of Frederick the Great . In the next few weeks, other grand lodges were renamed.

The renamed grand lodges introduced the Aryan paragraph between April and September 1933 , partly made more stringent by the regulation that all members had to be baptized . “Non-Aryan” Freemasons have been dismissed from membership. All references to Judaism and the Old Testament were erased from the rituals of the lodges , the legend of Hiram was replaced by the Baldur saga , and the two pillars Jachin and Boaz were renamed Light and People .

Despite these adaptations, which were subservient to the ideology of National Socialism, the renamed grand lodges failed to overcome the National Socialists' opposition to Freemasonry. The renamed grand lodges were forced to dissolve themselves by the Gestapo in 1935 .

literature

  • Ralf Melzer : In the eye of a hurricane. German freemasonry in the Weimar Republik and the Third Reich. In: Arturo de Hoyos, S. Brent Morris (ed.): Freemasonry in context. History, ritual, controversy. Lexington Books, Lanham 2004, ISBN 0-7391-0781-X , pp. 89-104.
  • Ralf Melzer: Conflict and Adaptation. Freemasonry in the Weimar Republic and in the “Third Reich”. Braumüller, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-7003-1245-8 .
  • Helmut Neuberger: angle measure and swastika. The Freemasons and the Third Reich. Herbig Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-7766-2222-9 .