Georg Friedrich von Johnssen

Georg Friedrich von Johnssen (also Johnson or von Johnson-Fünen ) (* around 1726 ?; † May 13, 1775 at the Wartburg near Eisenach ) was an adventurer and the first great Masonic impostor who, among other things, started a political conflict with Prussia in Jena conjured up and fueled anti-Jesuit prejudice.

His real name was allegedly Johann Samuel lamp or lamps or light and one was under the fraudulent name and title Baron of Johnson known.

Life

Johnssen is the spelling of his name that he used himself. He came from a family in Thuringia . Some contemporaries thought he was a Jew. No information is available about his possible educational path. He was called "black Solomon" by some who were acquainted with him. He stayed in Prague in 1752 and was accepted into Freemasonry there. After a short stay in Vienna , he came to Rastatt . In 1758 he was visiting brother of the lodge "Philadelphia to the three golden arms" in Halle , where he posed as the ambassador of the grand lodge and was accepted into higher degrees of Freemasonry. When some of his frauds failed, he was given a galley penalty. However, he was able to escape this during his transport to Marseilles . In 1757 he was to be found as a court hunter in the service of the Prince of Anhalt-Bernburg , who later appointed him his secretary because Johnssen pretended that he could produce gold. Before he was exposed for this fraud, he disappeared into the Saxon military service , from where he soon deserted. After betraying a Hamburg Jew for 30,000 ducats, he left for Prussia. Here he was appointed 'Rittmeister König' by Frederick the Great , but released again after a short time.

He then teamed up with the Württemberg cavalry captain and soldier Franz von Prangen, who, as a Prussian prisoner of war in Magdeburg , had been initiated into some high degrees that Johnssen now got to know through him. Together they decided to do a profitable business with the help of this knowledge, which they also succeeded in gaining many followers who they knew how to bind to themselves with romantic, transfiguring mysticism , alchemy and sensuality. A large number of affluent and willing brothers from Jena, the center of high-grade freemasonry, financed them and believed him to be a Scottish nobleman: Knight of the great lion of the high order of the Templars in Jerusalem. He drew the entire chapter of the Clermontian system in Yemen to his side. In order to purify masonry, he made himself the 'Grand Prior of the highest, true and hidden Grand Chapter in the whole world' and founded a 'High Chapter' in which he accepted novices and knights (Grand Prior of the true Knights Templar, the actual Scottish superiors). To this end, he pretended to be the 'superior' of the entire Freemasonry and burned the constitutional acts and documents of the Berlin mother lodge in a large ceremony. He attracted his followers by promising immense treasures and speaking of the great armies and fleets of the order. Also, the baron of dog was deceived by him and he recognized him and his chapter. Von Hund also allowed himself to be carried away to comply with Johnssen's request to convene a Masonic convention in Altenberga near Kahla (or near Jena), which took place in December 1763 and which turned into a scandal because he subsequently made his promises as an impostor could not hold, was exposed. This was a decisive event for Freemasonry, as it led to the supremacy of the Strict Observance , which had been operating since the 1750s . The convention, to which well-known Freemasons were sent from all over Germany, was a large-scale event in which Johnssen duped his order members for considerable sums of money. He presented himself as a victim of an intrigue by the Prussian king and, threatening severe punishment if his demands were not complied with, demanded that some of his knights secure his bedchamber with sword force. Mounted knights in full armor had to ensure that the convent area was sealed off from the Prussian soldiers who were supposed to be there and approaching. He later announced that he had been sent here to establish a 'militia'. With great success he had his secretary - and later unmasking of his swindles -, the Saxon-Weimar government assessor Johann Ludwig von Bechtolsheim, send out demands to all larger lodges in Germany, which urged them to renounce the Berlin mother lodge and adhere to its regulations to subjugate. However, shortly after the pompous convention in Altenberga, Johnssen's fraudulent ambitions were made known by suspicious and cheated knights and word got around, so that Johnssen, challenged by Baron von Hund to duel, had to flee in a hurry, but stole the order's treasury.

When the extent of his frauds became known, the laws he had passed were repealed and the former territorial division of the Knights Templar was restored.

He was arrested in the Anhalt region in 1765. The Weimar civil servant Jakob Friedrich Reichsfreiherr von Fritsch , 'Scottish Master' of Freemasonry, had his cabinet judicially handed over to Johnssen - in order to spread the veil of oblivion over this embarrassing incident for Freemasonry - with great diplomatic efforts from the Prussian Magdeburg . For this purpose, at the behest of a letter dated April 10, 1765 from Duchess Anna Amalia of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, it was to be transported around the city to avoid a major fuss and crowd. That same year, Johnssen was sentenced to life imprisonment without being granted the right to trial and a hearing. Particularly high security measures were taken with regard to his detention, so that many high-ranking civil servants were not informed of this matter either. Duchess Anna Amalia issued a directive to the matter "like secretirt from mancherley causes [concealed] knowledge" wanted. They also ordered that "a good windows, grids, solid doors u [nd] a not easy durchzubrechenden oven provided u [nd] otherwise well preserved Behältniß traced" or specially manufactured and will "but such fixed above all [ n], that this so cunning and daring and [nd] in the mood for all boys' pieces released from the same and [nd] never find the opportunity to come back in freedom. ” His guardians were not allowed to be Freemasons.

According to most sources, he is said to have served his imprisonment at the Wartburg in the room where Luther once lived - allegedly Anna Amalia had decreed this place of accommodation. Here, in the 1770s, in his defense, Johnssen wrote a pamphlet that attempted to reveal an allegedly anti-monarchist plan and clearly bore political elements (title of the book, which was published in several versions: Promemoria to every righteous citizen of the world and patriot ), and that of 1772 to the emperor Anna Amalia, the Weimar upper consistory and Duke Ferdinand von Braunschweig (the Grand Master of Strict Observance) was sent. As it shall be published by the ban that he no Connexion should receive (connection) with other people, and explicitly including paper, no pen or ink succeeded is uncertain. He claimed that an agreement was made in 1732 between the Association of the Templars (Strict Observance) and the Jesuit Order that pursued bizarre goals. In 1775 he proclaimed that the (Jena) Freemasons had the plan to " overthrow the entire state of Europe [!], And every prince in particular." No prince could prevent them from doing so because the bricklayers had too great a counteracting influence in the cabinet and in the field. In addition, they had influenced the election of the Polish king and tried to eliminate the monarchs of Denmark and Sweden , but also the two princes of Weimar (for example, by the castle fire of May 6, 1774). King Frederick II pursued him because he knew of Johnssen's extremely important position.

He died on May 13, 1775 while in prison. Johann Christoph Bode , the intimate of Goethe and Herder , as Grand Master of the VII. Province of Strict Observance (which province was practically identical to Germany) addressed the question of whether Johnssen's widow had been granted a pension by the Order through Fritsch. Fritsch had paid the costs for Johnssen's detention out of pocket for many years until the Strict Observance reimbursed these costs. Around April 1775, Fritsch made efforts to get the imprisoned Johnssens to be taken over by another sovereign at the Masonic Convent of Braunschweig , because he was concerned that Carl August von Sachsen-Weimar would lead a legal dispute before a court after he took office in September grant. That intention became obsolete when Johnssen died before the convention. Bode basically advocated the same conspiracy theory as Johnssen, but also suspected him of secretly being a Jesuit.

literature

• Ludwig von Aigner (Ludwig Abafi / pseud.): History of Freemasonry in Austria-Hungary. 5 volumes. Budapest 1890-1893.
• Ludwig von Aigner-Abafi (pseud.): Johnson. A con man of the XVIII. Century. Contribution to the history of Freemasonry. Frankfurt am Main 1902. (digitized version)
• Karlheinz Gerlach: The Freemasons in Old Prussia 1738-1806, the lodges in Berlin. Studies Verlag, Innsbruck 2014, ISBN 978-3-7065-5199-1 . (on-line)
• Jens Riederer: Enlightened law firms and sociable associations in Jena and Weimar between mystery and the public 1730–1830. Dissertation . Jena 1995, DNB 945480830 .
• Georg Schuster: Secret societies, connections and orders. (Reprint from 1905; 2 volumes in one). Komet Verlag, Cologne 2003, ISBN 3-89836-326-0 .
• Reinhold Taute: The Freemason Convention in Altenberga: a knight's comedy 150 years ago. Zechel, Leipzig 1914. (digitized version)
• W. Daniel Wilson : Underground corridors. Goethe, Freemasonry and Politics. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 3-89244-310-6 .