Freemasons in Germany
The first German Freemasons were accepted into England in the early 18th century . In the United Grand Lodges of Germany (VGLvD) five grand lodges with 485 Masonic lodges and around 15,300 members are organized. These are known as regular freemasonry . The liberal grand lodges include the Freemason grand lodge Humanitas , Le Droit Humain and the Sovereign Grand Orient of Germany . There are currently 18 women's lodges and seven working groups in Germany .
The beginning
One of the earliest known personalities was Count Albrecht Wolfgang von Schaumburg-Lippe .
In 1729, Mr. Thuanus , envoy extraordinary from Braunschweig-Lüneburg, was appointed Provincial Grand Master of Lower Saxony by the English Grand Master with the aim of founding lodges in Germany. An activity of this Provincial Grand Master is not known.
In 1733 eleven German gentlemen were accepted as Freemasons in London and received permission from Grand Master Earl of Strathmore to found a lodge in Hamburg . Apparently this also failed.
On December 6, 1737, the Deputy Grand Master of the Kingdom of Prussia and the Electorate of Brandenburg founded a lodge in Hamburg. This first German lodge did not yet have a name, nor did it belong to a grand lodge. The document attesting this establishment is in French. In 1743 the lodge was named Absalom . She still worked in two grades : apprentice and master according to the so-called Prichard's traitor script . Her third master of the chair had her entered in the grand lodge register in London with matriculation number 108. On October 23, 1740 it appeared in the register of the boxes of the London Grand Lodge under the name Bunch of Grapes, Becker Street Hamburg .
A delegation from this lodge, led by Baron von Oberg, accepted the Crown Prince of Prussia, later King Frederick the Great, as a Freemason in Braunschweig on the night of August 14th to 15th, 1738, in the old Kornschen Gasthaus. The Crown Prince founded his own lodge in his Rheinsberg Castle called La loge première / La loge du Roi notre grand maître . Von Oberg became chamberlain to the Crown Prince and headed this Masonic lodge. From 1739, Crown Prince Friedrich himself took over the task of master of the chair , after his accession to the throne he continued to run the lodge and on June 20, 1740 he held the first temple work in Charlottenburg Palace .
1738 was in Dresden by Graf Rutowski the Loge Aux trois blancs aigles founded which had such a large inflow that within two years, two other lodges founded from it. Numerous other lodges were created in Berlin: Aux trois Globes (September 13, 1740), in Bayreuth: Zur Sonne (January 31, 1741), in Leipzig (March 20, 1741), in Meiningen: Aux trois boussoles (September 1741), in Breslau: Aux trois squelettes (May 18, 1741), a deputation box in Frankfurt an der Oder (1741) and in Frankfurt am Main: L'Union (1741). The latter had its own patent from the London grand lodge and acquired the powers of a mother lodge . The Aux trois Globes lodge, founded in Berlin in 1740, called itself from 1744 the Great Royal Mother Lodge “To the Three Worlds” and is therefore the oldest Masonic Grand Lodge in Germany that still exists today. In 1780, on the one hand, the Johannisloge Wittekind zur Westfälische Pforte was founded in Minden according to the teaching method of the Great Royal Mother Lodge "To the Three Worlds" , and on the other hand the Johannisloge Aurora was donated by the Great State Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany in Berlin .
A total of 19 lodges had been founded in Germany by 1754. Gradually, the corresponding provincial, grand and mother lodges established themselves, such as the provincial grand lodge of Hamburg in 1740, the mother lodge l'Union of Frankfurt in 1741, the grand lodge of Upper Saxony in 1741 and the grand royal mother lodge "To the three world balls" from 1744.
Origin of the higher grades in Germany
In the middle of the 18th century, strict observance (unconditional obedience), a high-level Masonic system , emerged in Germany . The organization became popular through the legend spread by the order's founder, Karl Gotthelf von Hund and Altengrotkau , that strict observance comes from the tradition of the Knights Templar. He thus followed up on Templar legends that had emerged around 1737. It was also claimed that the strict observance teachings contained a closely guarded secret and that "secret superiors" were in charge of the organization.
When von Hund died in 1776, the later King of the Swedes, Karl XIII. elected as his successor. At the convent of Lyon one began to abandon the direct descent of the Knights Templar. In their place came the "Chevaliers bienfaisants de la Cité Sainte". At the Wolfenbüttel Convention in 1778, the Berlin National Mother Lodge had political concerns and withdrew from the Strict Observance.
On July 16, 1782, the Strict Observance met for the last time at the Wilhelmsbad convent . It should take 50 days. The legend of the descent from the Templar Order was dropped and Johann Christoph Bode described the "Unknown Superiors" as an invention of Johann Christian Schubarts von Kleefeld . Thereupon they distanced themselves from this legend.
At this time, numerous Masonic lodges, including the mother lodge To the Three Worlds, were infiltrated by the Gold and Rosicrucians and the mother lodge became the headquarters of the Rosicrucians in Germany. According to a legend of the Rosicrucians, their order was founded by the Egyptian "Ormusse" or "Light-Wise" in Scotland under the name "Builders of the East".
During the convention, the Rosicrucian Old Scottish Lodge Frederick the Golden Lion from Berlin urged Ferdinand von Braunschweig and all the other Freemasons present to submit to the Rosicrucians, but this attempt failed.
Another reform of the Strict Observance failed, so that the majority of Masonic lodges and grand lodges renounced the Strict Observance. That sealed her end.
The time of enlightenment
In the Age of Enlightenment , the Masonic lodges contributed to the formation of a new form of public . Like the salons, clubs and reading societies in the 18th century, which had a similar effect, they operated in the private sector. Their private character and their arcane practice made it possible, however, that men of different denominations and different statuses met as equals, independently and in part in opposition to the forms of public that had established themselves in the absolutist corporate state , namely the Princely Court and the Church. The lodges and the Enlightenment Societies were only permeable upwards, but members of the lower classes were denied access. At the same time, it was possible for this new form of sociability to try out civil equality between members of different classes as an idea for the first time and to participate in an uncensored opinion-forming process from the same time in a conversation. The German philosopher Jürgen Habermas described this process in his habilitation thesis of the same name in 1962 as “ structural change in the public ”. Although conversations on religious and political topics are not permitted in the open lodges, they contributed to the spread of enlightening ideas. This is true even though the German lodges did not always succeed in keeping themselves free from obscurantistic and mystical currents. These were shown among other things in the competitive Rosicrucianism as in the Masonic Strict Observance with its medieval-looking high degree system and the obedience to "Unknown Superiors". Even in the 19th century, the Great Mother Lodge of the Eclectic Freemasons Association considered it appropriate to declare war on jousting games, superstition (belief in ghosts, spiritualism, occultism, belief in magical powers), astrology and obscurantism of all kinds, but overall, like the social historian Hans-Ulrich Wehler judged, but continued to develop the “bourgeois enlightenment mentality” in the lodges.
German grand lodges founded
After the age of Masonic aberrations and Strict Observance, several long-lived grand lodges with large numbers of members emerged in Germany . The Great National Mother Lodge “To the Three Worlds” and the Great Mother Lodge “To the Sun” were founded in 1744. This was followed by the Great State Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany in 1770, the Great Mother Lodge of the Eclectic Freemasons Union in 1783 and the Great Lodge of Prussia called Royal York for Friendship in 1798.
Earlier attempts are e.g. B. the German Freemasons 'Association of 1790 and the German Grand Masters' Day of 1868. In 1929 an attempt was made to unite the humanitarian grand lodges of Hamburg, Frankfurt, Bayreuth and Darmstadt into one grand lodge "To the old duties", but this went up to the second World War I no longer succeeded.
At the suggestion of Friedrich Ludwig Schröder , Masonic lodges began to establish so-called lodge associations from various grand lodges around 1801 . In the first association of this kind, the Provincial Grand Lodge of Hamburg, the Grand Lodge of Hanover and the Grand Lodge Royal York formed a friendship. Based on their model, the Freemasons' Association of the three Great Lodges in Berlin was founded in 1810 with the Great National Mother Lodge “3WK”, the Great State Lodge and the Grand Lodge “Royal York”. In 1811 the Great Lodge of Hamburg and the Great State Lodge of Saxony were created . In terms of content, the Hamburg association concentrated more on scientific issues, while the Berliners took care of the administrative aspects of their grand lodges. The Berlin club fell asleep again in 1823. It was replaced in 1839 by the Grand Masters' Association of the three Old Prussian Grand Lodges , which existed until 1935. From this a close cooperation between the Berlin grand lodges actually developed. The Great Masonic Lodge "Zur Eintracht" was built in 1846.
The first truly nationwide association was the German Grand Master's Days , which were launched in 1868 by Gustav Heinrich Warnatz , the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Saxony and held in Berlin in the House of the Three Worlds . Further conferences took place in Dresden in 1869, in Hamburg in 1870, in Frankfurt am Main in 1871 and again in Berlin in 1872.
Motivated by the founding of the German Empire, the Freemasons also formed an even closer league through the German Grand Lodge Association , which was formed in 1871 from the days of the Grand Masters and officially founded on May 19, 1872. They later recognized the Grand Lodge, the German brother chain, as regular, which was founded in 1924. In addition to the German Grand Lodge Association, there were other attempts to unite the German grand lodges or at least bring them under one umbrella organization.
The German Grand Lodge Association was joined by the eight grand lodges in Germany recognized by the London Grand Lodge: Great National Mother Lodge "To the Three Worlds", Great State Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany, Great Lodge of Prussia called Royal York for Friendship, Great State Lodge of Saxony, Great Lodge of Hamburg, Great Mother Lodge “Zur Sonne”, Great Masonic Lodge “Zur Eintracht” and the Great Mother Lodge of the Eclectic Freemasons Association.
The German Grand Lodge Association did not make groundbreaking decisions. The internal structure did not allow the member grand lodges to grow together. There were only a few joint declarations made by the German Grand Lodge Association. In 1874, for example, the statement that race and skin color were not a criterion for refusing membership, in 1880 the end of efforts to found a national grand lodge for all German Freemasons, in 1897 the recognition of Anderson's old duties . In 1903, the Grand Loge de France was recognized as a regular grand lodge by France. In 1909, connections were made again to the Grand Orient de France, which the United Grand Lodge of England had declared irregular since 1877, against the votes of the three old Prussian grand lodges. After the First World War , the German Grand Lodge organized humanitarian aid for women and children in need through the grand lodges of England, the USA and the states that remained neutral during the World War.
On the 50th anniversary in 1922, the three Berlin grand lodges resigned from the German Grand Lodge Association, as the formation of parties between the three Christian Berlin grand lodges and the humanitarian grand lodges became more and more apparent. Since the federal government was practically divided into two, the Berliners drew the consequences. The German Grand Lodge was weakened even further, as the Grand Lodge of Saxony also withdrew and the Grand Lodge "German Brother Chain" did not even enter. It continued to exist as a rump organization until 1935 and then went under with the forced dissolution of the German grand lodges.
In places with several lodges from different grand lodges, so-called chairmen's associations were often formed, which at the local level bring about closer cooperation between the various lodges in Germany.
In 1900 the Grand Masters' Association of the Grand Lodges of Bayreuth, Frankfurt and Hamburg was founded. In 1902, the German Freemason Museum was opened and in 1913 the Wolfstieg Society for Freemason and Scientific Research was founded.
Germany after the First World War
In the Weimar Republic , the Freemasons were also the preferred objects of right-wing extremist agitation . The Baltic German Alfred Rosenberg published such works as The Crime of Freemasonry. Judaism, Jesuitism, German Christianity , in order to spread the theory of a “ Jewish - Masonic world conspiracy ”, which aimed to “undermine the existence of other peoples”. It was for this purpose that the Freemasons brought about the First World War.
The then chief of the Supreme Army Command, General Erich Ludendorff , acted as a sharp critic of the Freemasons. In 1927 he published the work Destruction of Freemasonry by Revealing its Secrets . Ludendorff ran a propaganda campaign with his wife Mathilde Ludendorff against the “supranational powers”, which consisted of “Jews, Jesuits and Freemasons” and formed an “international network” for the purpose of gaining and maintaining power. Even in the early days of the National Socialist movement, Hitler and his followers took much of Ludendorff's anti-Masonic conspiracy theories .
"Humanistic" grand lodges
Some of the German Freemasons did not agree with the nationalistic and conservative stance, especially of the three old Prussian grand lodges, the Great Lodge of Prussia called Royal York for Friendship , the Great State Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany and the Great National Mother Lodge "To the Three Worlds" . Those Freemasons founded the Symbolic Grand Lodge of Germany in 1930 in order to provide a home for the current of national and international Freemasonry. A pacifist attitude based on reconciliation and international cooperation with the victorious powers was represented as grand lodges only by the reform grand lodges “Freemasons' Association for the Rising Sun” (FzaS), which were regarded as “irregular” , and the “Symbolic Grand Lodge of Germany” founded by former members of the aforementioned Die Symbolische Grand Lodge of Germany stopped its work in 1933 and moved its documents to Jerusalem.
Old Prussian grand lodges
The vast majority of the German Freemasons were organized in the three old Prussian grand lodges, whose members came from the middle-class camp. They saw themselves in the field of tension between their humanistic ideals aimed at international understanding and their endeavors to survive within National Socialism.
As in the German bourgeoisie after the First World War, a national-conservative, sometimes even a nationalist attitude, increasingly spread within the old Prussian grand lodges . The old Prussian grand lodges left the German Grand Lodge Association in 1922 because they did not agree with the pacifist attitude of the German Grand Lodge Association, which was based on reconciliation and international cooperation. On February 16, 1924, the joint declaration of the three old Prussian grand lodges was published. It stated that only Christians can be admitted to a Masonic lodge and that the lodges had no relations with lodges of the victorious powers of the First World War . A deletion of the word Freemason from the names of the grand lodges, at least for the GNML "3WK", was refused by its national grandmaster Karl Habicht . On April 7, 1933, at a meeting between the Grand Master of the Great State Lodge of the 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. 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 ( see also German-Christian Order ).
1933–1935 harassment and ban
Through targeted propaganda , the German lodges became part of the enemy in 1933. Alfred Rosenberg wrote :
“Here we see international Judaism, out of instinct and at the same time out of conscious deliberation, nestling in the organization of Freemasonry. [...] Year after year, your 'Weltanschauung' undermined the foundations of all Germanic being. Today we see the busy representatives of the international stock exchange and world trade leading the counter'church 'almost everywhere.' "
“People strive to become an international association of people beyond race and nationality. One is proud that in this chain of brothers that spans the world, negroes, yellows and Jews are on an equal footing with whites. [...] Unrestrained individualism [...] is one of the consequences of the Masonic ideology. In the ritual for the 30th degree it is expressly pointed out that the goals of the 'dictators', who would restrict the rights of the individual and his self-determination, must be fought. There is no question of subordination [...] for the benefit of the national community. The right of the individual takes precedence over all others. [...] The form of government that corresponds to Freemasonry is the democratic republic. '"
This propaganda was also supported by scientific publications. One example is the book series published by Nordland-Verlag Berlin under the title Quellen u. Representations on the Masonic question . Texts were published in it, some of which had previously been written as a dissertation .
In order to avoid a ban after the NSDAP came to power in 1933, the Freemasons of the time went into a determination of the state leadership: If Freemasonry should not overtake the guillotine of the ban, the rituals should be cleared of Old Testament content. The Prussian grand lodge, the most national of the German grand lodges, stipulated that no lodge, no freemason, could no longer call itself a freemason and that freemasonry could no longer call itself freemasonry. The lodges were renamed to German or Christian-German orders. In Würzburg , the house of the Masonic lodge there was renamed the Alfred Rosenberg House . Those lodges which had separated from the grand lodges before 1933 in order to avoid the unacceptable nationalization no longer had to struggle with these decisions and regulations. The symbolic grand lodge of Germany dissolved immediately after the Nazis came to power. Her grandmaster Leo Müffelmann founded the Symbolic Grand Lodge of Germany in exile in 1934, based in Jerusalem.
In 1934 detailed regulations for Freemasonry were issued: It had to ensure that the "orders" were kept Aryan and that party officials had access to all work and ritual-symbolic temple work. But the hostilities were not only implemented on paper and by means of the law, there were also terror, humiliation, defamation and imprisonment.
In an incendiary speech , Joseph Goebbels identified the global conspiracy of Judaism , international Freemasonry and international Marxism as the background to the threat to Germany.
In May 1935, Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht , the only Freemason in the Nazi government, intervened in vain with Hitler . In the same year of the final ban on Masonic life from the public, the master was interned in a concentration camp for nine months because he was a Freemason . In the run-up to the final ban on Freemasonry, the National Socialists always tried to maintain a halfway legal appearance and ensured a formal dissolution of the associations. The liquidation through bogus "purchase contracts" made it possible to transfer the lodge assets to state institutions.
In July 1935 the three old Prussian grand lodges disbanded themselves, and on August 8, 1935, the closure of all lodges was announced. On August 17, 1935, Interior Minister Frick ordered Freemasonry to be banned in Germany.
In a Führer decree of March 1, 1942, Rosenberg received a corresponding power of attorney for the occupied eastern territories , because the "Jews, Freemasons and the ideological opponents of National Socialism allied with them" were the authors of the war directed against the Reich and the "systematic intellectual fight against it Powers “is a task necessary for war.
Many long-serving lodge houses were converted into " lodge museums" or "Freemason museums" , in which National Socialist ideologues portrayed Freemasonry as the basic evil and disintegrator of the German people. In the museum guide for the Lodge Museum in Chemnitz, National Socialism presents itself as the liberator of the Germans:
“Freemasonry exposed - this is this museum. Hard are the hands that opened the box doors and built a school for the German man here, in which he should get to know and fight Freemasonry without a coat, without a veil, without a phrase or disguise. Hard is the will that will continue this fight to the victorious end. The times for the dark men and their work are over. We no longer live in the realm of fictions , but in the Third Reich, the realm of EITHER - OR! "
The Gestapo set up a department "IV B 3 (Other Churches, Freemasonry)" as Amt IV of the Reich Security Main Office .
According to unconfirmed figures, 26 German Freemasons are said to have been murdered, including the politician Julius Leber , the trade unionist Wilhelm Leuschner and the publicist Carl von Ossietzky , although those named here were not persecuted and murdered because they belonged to a lodge, but because they were during the Weimar Republic had been among the most prominent political opponents of National Socialism .
Masonic resistance
In 1943 there was a unique occurrence in the history of the Nazi concentration camp . Belgian resistance fighters founded the Freemason lodge Liberté chérie within Emsland Camp VII ( Esterwegen concentration camp ) . The monument to these Freemason brothers at the Esterwegen memorial was created in November 2004.
The small blue forget-me-not was used for the first time in 1926 by the Grand Lodge Zur Sonne as a Masonic emblem in Bremen for the annual meeting. When the Nazis founded the Winter Relief Organization in 1934 , each donor received a badge that changed annually. In March 1938 the forget-me-not was chosen again as the badge - made by the same factory as the Masonic emblem in 1926. This enabled the Masons to use the forget-me-not as a secret token.
Before the Second World War, around 80,000 men were organized in boxes in Germany. The main focus of the spread was in Prussia. Since these areas were located in the Soviet zone after the Second World War and Freemasonry remained prohibited there, this, together with the losses in the war, led to a considerable decrease in membership numbers. It is estimated that only about 8,000 remained by 1945.
Since 1945
After the Second World War, the forget-me-not was used again in 1948 by the United Grand Lodges of Germany as a Masonic emblem at the first annual meeting. The emblem is still worn today by Freemasons as a sign of identification and in memory of the Nazi era.
In 1949 the Frauenloge Zur Humanität was founded in Berlin , which formed the basis for the founding of the later Grand Lodge Zur Humanität (today: Frauen-Großloge von Deutschland ). There are currently 18 women's lodges and seven working groups in Germany.
However, much information is not available to the public. One of the few insights into the work of the Freemasons in Germany was offered by an exhibition entitled “Licht ins Dunkel” in the Focke Museum in Bremen in 2006.
Most of the German lodges of male Freemasons belong to grand lodges , which are combined in the United Grand Lodges of Germany VGLvD. These are from the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLoE) recognized and be in the language of the German Masonic "regular" called lodges.
The following five grand lodges belong to the VGLvD:
- Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany (AFuAM)
- Great State Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany (GLLFvD)
- Great National Mother Lodge "To the Three World Balls" (3WK)
- The Grand Lodge of British Freemasons in Germany
- American Canadian Grand Lodge
There are also feminine and mixed-gender grand lodges in Germany. Of these, the Women's Grand Lodge of Germany is recognized by the United Grand Lodges of Germany as “working in a masonic manner”. In Germany, the United Grand Lodges of Germany is relatively open to a dialogue on issues of equal rights for women and coexists with liberal lodges.
The liberal grand lodges are recognized by the Greater Orient of France (GOdF). These include the mixed-sex grand lodges, the Freemason Grand Lodge Humanitas , Le Droit Humain and the Sovereign GrossOrient of Germany . There are around 50 liberal lodges (for women and men).
The international Masonic Order Le Droit Humain currently has two lodges in Germany (as of 2016). Others broke away from this obedience in the past and joined the Grand Lodge Humanitas , Grande Loge Mixte Universelle ( Saarbrücken ), Grand Orient de Luxembourg ( Heidelberg ) or the Memphis Misraïm Rite ( Hamburg and Leipzig ).
In addition, in Germany, as in almost all countries in which Freemasonry is active, there are lodges that do not work under the recognition of a grand lodge. Such lodges are called irregular or corner lodges in Masonic usage . Depending on the orientation, only men, only women or both male and female members are accepted.
Web links
Umbrella organization of the regular grand lodges in Germany
Regular grand lodges in Germany
- Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany
- Great State Lodge of the Freemasons of Germany (Freemason Order)
- Great National Mother Lodge "To the Three Worlds"
- American Canadian Grand Lodge
- British Freemasons in Germany
Regular district boxes in Germany
Liberal lodges in Germany
- Albert Schweitzer Lodge in Berlin
- Lodge order of the heart in Mannheim
- Union Chain Lodge over the free Rhine in Düsseldorf
Masonic museums in Germany
- The German Freemason Museum is located in Bayreuth .
- Freemason Museum St. Michaelisdonn in Dithmarschen, Museum of the Great State Lodge of Freemasons of Germany . It is one of the three largest Masonic museums in Europe.
- In Kuckuckstein Castle in Saxony , a room with the historical furnishings of a Masonic lodge can be viewed.
- In the city museum of Aschersleben there is the publicly accessible temple of the Lodge to the Three Clover Leaves with an exhibition on the history of Freemasonry and the local lodge.
literature
- Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: International Freemasons Lexicon. 5th edition, Herbig Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-7766-2478-7
- Dieter A. Binder: The Freemasons - Origin, rituals and goals of a discreet society , Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2019, ISBN 978-3-86539-948-9
References and comments
- ↑ freimaurer.org website of the VGLvD ( Memento of the original from January 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 8, 2016
- ↑ Homepage of the Grand Women's Lodge of Germany ( Memento of the original from April 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 19, 2011.
- ↑ Fondation, Règles, charges, Loix et Minutes de la très vénérable Société des acceptés Maçons Libres de la Ville de Hambourg, érigée l'an MDCCXXXVII, le sixieme Décembre - see also the Loge St. Georg zum Kaiserhof Hamburg # 1737 in Hamburg - First documented establishment of a lodge in Germany .
- ^ Alfred Kollmeyer: On the history of the Mindener Masonic lodges. Communications of the Mindener Geschichtsverein, year 52 (1980), pp. 112–126.
- ↑ Jürgen Habermas: Social structures of the public. In: Peter Pütz (Ed.): Research into the German Enlightenment (= New Scientific Library, Vol. 94). Verlagsgruppe Athenäum, Hain, Scriptor, Hansen, Königstein 1980, pp. 139–145; Ulrich Im Hof : The Europe of the Enlightenment. 2nd Edition. CH Beck, Munich, 2nd edition 1995, pp. 126-131; Hans-Ulrich Wehler : German history of society, Vol. 1: From the feudalism of the Old Empire to the defensive modernization of the reform era 1700-1815 . CH Beck, Munich, 3rd edition 1996, p. 322 ff.
- ^ Hans Ulrich Wehler: German history of society . CH Beck, 3rd edition 1996 p. 322 ff.
- ^ Alfred Rosenberg: The crime of freemasonry. Judaism, Jesuitism, German Christianity ,. JF Lehmann, Munich 1921.
- ↑ Deutschlandradio : Conversation with contemporary witnesses: Horst Ehmke 'Freemasonry against National Socialism'. Retrieved February 26, 2012 .
- ^ Hans-Hermann Höhmann: Freemasonry: analyzes, considerations, perspectives. Edition Temmen, 2011, ISBN 978-3-8378-4028-5 .
- ↑ Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurerlexikon. Special production 1st edition. Herbig Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7766-5036-2 , p. 824.
- ^ Paul Wagler: Freemasonry as a Germanic racial spirit. In: Yearbooks of the Association of German Freemasons. Zeche Verlag 1929–1930, p. 57.
- ↑ Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurerlexikon. Special production 1st edition. Herbig Verlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7766-5036-2 , p. 216.
- ^ Royal York: "Am rauhen Stein" Maurische Zeitschrift für die Grosse Landesloge, Berlin Jhrg. 1924, Issue 3, pp. 33/34.
- ^ 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 (English)
- ↑ Hans Riegelmann: The European dynasties in their relationship to Freemasonry: Historical-political investigations on a genealogical basis , Jena 1941
- ↑ Peter Weidisch: Würzburg in the "Third Reich". In: Ulrich Wagner (Hrsg.): History of the city of Würzburg. 4 volumes, Volume I-III / 2, Theiss, Stuttgart 2001-2007; III / 1–2: From the transition to Bavaria to the 21st century. 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-1478-9 , pp. 196-289 and 1271-1290; here: p. 213.
- ↑ Back then you didn't know who to trust. In: Badische Zeitung. May 14, 2011.
- ↑ Education in National Socialism: Article of Shoa.de accessed on February 21, 2012, URL: http://www.zukunft-brauch-erinnerung.de/drittes-reich/herrschaftsinstrument-staat/413-erbildung-im-nationalsozialismus.html ? q = freemaurer.htm ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ IMT: The Nuremberg Trial of the Major War Criminals. Reprint Munich 1989, Volume XXV (= Document Volume 1), Document 149-PS, p. 235.
- ↑ The Forget-Me-Not Badge and Freemasonry. The true story. on: internetloge.de
- ↑ "THE BLUE FORGET-ME-NOT" - ANOTHER SIDE OF THE STORY
- ^ Karl Heinz Francke, Ernst-Günther Geppert: The Freemason lodges in Germany and their grand lodges 1737–1972. Quatuor Coronati Bayreuth, Hamburg 1974. ( The Freemason lodges in Germany and their grand lodges 1737–1985. 2nd, revised edition. Hamburg 1988)
- ↑ The hand to the covenant. In: Der Spiegel. 25/1950, June 22, 1950.
- ↑ Flower Badge as told by Galen Lodge No 2394 (UGLE) ( Memento from June 13, 2006 in the Internet Archive ). March 4, 2006.
- ↑ Homepage of the Grand Women's Lodge of Germany ( Memento of the original from April 10, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed June 19, 2011.
- ↑ Weser-Kurier of June 22, 2006, page 15: “Freemasonry in front of blue velvet”, access via the digital newspaper archive on February 8, 2016
- ^ Museum St. Michaelisdonn
- ↑ Johannisloge To the three clover leaves - Aschersleben ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
International Masonic Lexicon
- ↑ a b c Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurer Lexikon. 5th edition. Herbig Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-7766-2478-7 , Lemma Germany, pp. 217, 218.
- ↑ Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurer Lexikon. 5th edition. Herbig Verlag, 2006, ISBN 3-7766-2478-7 , Lemma Superstition, p. 44.
- ^ Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner: International Freemasons Lexicon. Almathea-Verlag, Munich 1980, p. 413. (Reprint from 1932)