Georg Liberalitas
The Georg Liberalitas Lodge is a Masonic Lodge founded in Meiningen in 1992 . The lodge has the matriculation number 993 and belongs to the district of Bavaria of the grand lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany in Berlin .
history
Masonic lodges were not allowed in the GDR and so only after the political change in 1990 did Freemasons resume their activities in Meiningen . On June 13, 1992 they founded the Georg Liberalitas Lodge in the marble hall of Elisabethenburg Palace in Meiningen. Since then it has belonged to the district of Bavaria, the "Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany". The foundation of the Freemasons of the Lodge Brudertreue am Main in Schweinfurt and the Lodge Thekla - a lamp in Franconia in Kitzingen was initiated and supported . The chosen name Georg Liberalitas refers to Duke Georg I of Saxony-Meiningen , who, as a representative of enlightened absolutism and master of the chair of the Lodge Charlotte to the Three Carnations around 1800, promoted reforms of the school system in the duchy and humanitarian aid for poorer sections of the population . Together with the brothers of the Charlotte to the Three Carnations Lodge, which was reactivated in 1993, the celebrations for “275 years of Freemasonry in Meiningen” were celebrated.
The domicile of the Masonic Lodge Georg Liberalitas is the Hotel Sächsischer Hof in Meiningen. "Master of the chair" is currently the hotelier Peter Henzel.
First Meininger lodges
A first Masonic lodge in Meiningen was founded in 1741 by Duke Carl Friedrich von Sachsen-Meiningen with the name Aux Trois Boussoles (To the three compasses). It was the first daughter box to the mother box “ To the Three Worlds ” in Berlin and the sixth box in Germany at all. The colloquial language was French and the members were mainly high court officials. After the death of Carl Friedrich in 1743 this lodge was dissolved again.
Under the protection of Duchess Charlotte Amalie von Sachsen-Meiningen, a patent was issued on September 29, 1773 for a new lodge named Charlotte zu den Three Carnations , which began work on August 31, 1774. Since Freemasonry could not be reconciled with the National Socialists' policy of harmonization, the Charlotte Lodge for the Three Carnations had to be dissolved on September 1, 1935. A new establishment of lodges in the GDR was not possible, since this state saw political opponents in the Freemasons and viewed the lodges as a breeding ground for possible subversive activities. The Charlotte Lodge at the Three Carnations was finally reactivated in 1993. The lodge has been inactive since 2000, but there is a close relationship with the Georg Liberalitas lodge .
literature
- Lexicon on the history of the city of Meiningen. Bielsteinverlag Meiningen 2008, ISBN 978-3-9809504-4-2
- Helmut Müller: Reflections on Freemasonry in Meiningen , 2005.