Hans Heinrich von Ecker and Eckhoffen

Hans Heinrich Freiherr von Ecker and Eckhoffen (on mountain) (born August 1, 1750 in Munich ; † August 14, 1790 in Braunschweig while passing through) was a German nobleman who, as a Freemason and Rosicrucian, developed high-level Masonic systems , including Jewish Admitted members.

Public functions

Hans Heinrich von Ecker and Eckhoffen was a royal Polish Privy Councilor, holder of the Grand Cross and Chancellor of the Order of St. Joachim and, since 1788, a ducal Brunswick Landdrost .

Freemasonry

As a freemason and master of the chair of the Viennese lodge to the seven heavens , Ecker tried to establish an order of knights and brothers of light in 1781 with the aim of “spreading light and truth, giving bliss and peace and the real secret images of the three Grade of Brr. Unlock the Freemason Knight ” . It was shaped by the Rosicrucians, and through Kabbalistic elements in the ritual it made possible the admission of Jews as "ancient real brothers from Asia" . Because of disputes with the Rosicrucians and financial entanglements, he left Vienna and then advertised his "way of teaching" - ultimately without success - in Berlin.

In this experiment building, he founded in 1782 on the Wilhelmsbader Masonic Convention , with the support of the Landgrave Karl of Hesse the Order of the Knights and Brothers of St. John the Evangelist from Asia to Europe , and Asian brothers called as a noble-minded "fraternal association pious, learned, experienced and discreet men regardless of religion, birth and class ” . Jews were allowed, but not blasphemers, religious scoffers and criminals of majesty, ie those who "violate the holy rights of kings and princes, who are the image of the Eternal on earth, only in the slightest" . The order briefly had some success in Austria and northern Germany, where Ecker received support from his brother Hans Karl .

Fonts

• Freymäurer meeting speeches of the Gold and Rosenkreutzers of the old system. Amsterdam [ie courtyard] 1779.
• The Rosicrucian in his nakedness. For the benefit of the states, posed by doubts against the true wisdom of the so-called genuine Freymäurer or golden rosary cross of the old system. Amsterdam [ie Nuremberg] 1782 (under the pseudonym Magister Pianco ).
• Dispatch to the unnamed author of the widespread so-called Authentic Message from the Knight and Country Initiates in Asia. Hamburg 1788.

• L'Erudition universelle militaire, ou Analyze abrégée de toutes les sciences et parties militaires. Augsburg 1781.

swell

• Johann Georg Meusel: Lexicon of the German writers who died from 1750 to 1800, Volume 3, Leipzig 1804, p. 23f.
• The brothers St. Johannis the Evangelist from Asia in Europe or the only true and genuine Freemasonry together with an appendix of Fessler's critical history of the Masonic Brotherhood and its nullity concerning a high superior. Berlin 1803. (digitized [1] )
• Stefan Redies: Freemasons, Knights Templar and Rosicrucians. On the history of the secret societies in Marburg in the 18th century. Marburg 1998, p. 45f.
• Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: International Freemasons Lexicon. Munich 2006, p. 240f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Johann Georg Meusel (see under Sources), p. 23. - Since almost the same titles are ascribed to his younger brother Hans Karl (see these), a mix-up of the two cannot be ruled out