Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany
The Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Germany (GL AFuAMvD or GL AFAM), based in Berlin, is a June 19, 1949 under the name United Grand Lodge of Germany established regular Freemasons - Grand Lodge . The Grand Lodge is an umbrella organization without personal membership; Members are only other Masonic lodges . With 264 boxes it is the largest German grand lodge with the largest number of members.
organization
According to its own information, with 9,300 Brothers (December 2, 2010) in 264 lodges and 10 districts, the Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany is today the grand lodge with the largest number of members under the umbrella of the United Grand Lodges of Germany (VGLvD) . The lodges organized in GL AFAM work as Johannis lodges, i. H. in the degrees of apprentice, journeyman, master. A uniform ritual has existed since 1967, but some older lodges continue to work according to their traditional rituals ( Schröder , Feßler , Eclectic ritual ).
The democratically organized GL AFAM is headed by a grandmaster and other board members who are elected every four years at a grand lodge day. The current grandmaster is Prof. Dr. Stephan Roth-Kleyer. The chair masters (the chairmen) of the member boxes are entitled to vote . The grand lodge council with the district masters etc. is at the side of the grand master. The Grand Chancellor conducts the administrative business. The grand lodge is divided into districts, which largely correspond to the federal states.
history
The Grand Lodge AFAM was founded on June 19, 1949 under the leadership of Theodor Vogel as the United Grand Lodge of Germany in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt . It is the first cross-system association of German Masonic lodges after the first attempts in 1801 and 1872, as well as after the First World War in 1922, had failed. There is also the United Grand Lodges of Germany (VGLvD), founded in 1958 , whose grandmaster Theodor Vogel was 1958-1959.
The number of German Freemasons had fallen from 80,000 before the war to 5,000 after the war. After a first attempt at unification by German grand lodges failed in 1945, the grand master of the state grand lodge of Bavaria Theodor Vogel succeeded in founding the Frankfurt Working Group of Masonic Lodges in 1947 with the renewed aim of reaching an agreement.
On June 19, 1949, the United Grand Lodge of Germany was solemnly founded and the light of the Symbolic Grand Lodge and that of the Grand Lodge of Hamburg (whose light continued to exist in lodges in Palestine and Chile), rescued in 1933 by Leo Müffelmann from Germany to Jerusalem, was brought in.
The founder's lodges were:
- 42 boxes of the Great National Mother Lodge "To the three globes" ,
- 35 lodges of the Great Lodge of Prussia, called "Royal York for Friendship" ,
- 34 boxes of the Grand Lodge Zur Sonne ,
- 18 lodges of the Great Lodge of Hamburg ,
- 14 boxes of the Great Mother Lodge of the Eclectic Freemasons Association ,
- 7 boxes of the Great Masonic Lodge "Zur Eintracht" ,
- 5 boxes of the Symbolic Grand Lodge of Germany ,
- 4 boxes of the Great State Lodge of Germany ,
- 4 boxes of the Great State Lodge of Saxony ,
- 1 Lodge of Freemasons federal to the rising sun .
In addition, 10 lodges were founded after 1945.
Theodor Vogel became the first grandmaster.
In 1952, the other lodges of the Freemasonry Association of the Rising Sun were added, in 1958 all German grand lodges were merged under one umbrella organization called the United Grand Lodges of Germany - Brotherhood of Freemasons. Here, too, Theodor Vogel was elected first grandmaster.
The former United Grand Lodge of Germany gave up its name and from this point on was called the Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany and from 1970 the Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany (GL AFuAMvD).
Awards donated
The Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany has honored public figures with the German Freemasons ' Culture Prize , the Lessing Ring and the Humanitarian Prize since 1966 .
In 2015, Helmut Schmidt was the only winner to date to receive the Gustav Stresemann Prize for “a person's lifetime achievement”.
See also
Web links
- Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany
- United Grand Lodges of Germany
- List of all boxes of the AFuAMvD
Individual evidence
- ↑ Alexander Giese: The Freemasons: an introduction . 4th ext. Edition. Bohlau, Vienna 2005, ISBN 978-3-205-77353-5 , p. 126 .
- ↑ Freemasons award the Stresemann Prize to Helmut Schmidt. Website of the Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany, January 27, 2015