Minerva to the three palms

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Vignette of the Minerva box to the three palms after Veit Hanns Schnorr von Carolsfeld

Minerva zu den three Palmen is a Masonic Lodge in Leipzig .

history

On March 20, 1741, an initially nameless Masonic Lodge was founded in Leipzig. In the year it was founded, it took on the name “Aux trois compas” (To the three circles) and worked in French according to contemporary tastes. She officially stopped her work in 1745. In 1746 a German-speaking lodge "Minerva zum Circul" was created. In 1747 this took over parts of the lodge, which was dissolved in 1745, while other parts continued to work “in secret”.

Leipzig Minerva Bijou FS.png
Leipzig Minerva Bijou BS.png


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Medal ( Bijou ) from 1766 of the Lodge Minerva to the three palms
The box house on Schulstrasse (garden side) before 1868
The box house in Schulstrasse after the reconstruction (around 1890)
The new box house from 1905
The foyer in the new box building
3 Pfennig - special stamp of the Reichspost (1941) with the expropriated lodge house as "House of Nations"

Finally, in 1766 the lodge "Minerva zu den drey Palmen" was founded. In 1772, thanks to its powerful protector ( Karl Herzog von Kurland ), the latter was able to dissolve and take over the secret lodge.

Through these dissolutions, takeovers and associations, Minerva finally dated its founding year to 1741 and was thus the tenth oldest German lodge. It developed into one of the largest lodges in Germany. Members were respected businessmen, university professors, publishers, writers and visual artists. Other foundations in Saxony and Thuringia came from the Leipzig Lodge. According to the Masonic principle of brotherhood, the lodge members also took care of social issues, such as alleviating the consequences of the famine in 1770/71, caring for the poor and helping orphans.

Initially, the lodge's meetings were held in public taverns and coffeehouses. B. in the "Golden Ships" in the Kleine Fleischergasse and in the " Hôtel de Bavière " in the Petersstrasse. The wine and coffee house of the restaurateur Francesco Venoni in Schulstrasse next to the Pleißenburg, which acquired the lodge and garden as the first lodge house in 1774, was such a location.

For the 100th anniversary of the lodge on March 20, 1841, Albert Lortzing , who was a member of the Balduin zur Linde lodge , wrote the “Cantata for the secular celebration of the Minerva lodge on the three palms” to the text of the master of the chair August Ludwig Mothes Hear! The hammer's call sounds (LoWV 49). Lortzing's cantata, believed to be lost, was rediscovered in 1997 in the Lippische Landesbibliothek Detmold .

In 1884–1886 the box house in Schulstrasse was completely rebuilt by Max Bösenberg , after the box house had been renewed and enlarged in 1816. The new box house had utility rooms in the basement, meeting and administration rooms on the ground floor, work rooms on the first floor and the party rooms on the second floor. The outside was in the style of Neo-Renaissance in sandstone executed.

Also in the 19th century the lodge's social undertakings are to be noted. In 1813 lodge members got involved in alleviating the suffering of the Battle of Nations , and the lodge house was made available to the students of the destroyed citizen school. In 1843 the funeral benefit fund was founded, and in 1870 Carl Gustav Thiem founded the widows 'and orphans' pension association of the Minerva Lodge. In 1896, members of the lodge donated a considerable amount of capital and, in memory of the former master of the chair Siegfried August Mahlmann, founded the Mahlmann Foundation, whose interest income was used for charitable purposes in Leipzig.

In 1905 they moved into a new lodge house. It was built on Weststrasse, which branches off from the Rathausring, directly opposite the New Town Hall behind the Pleißemühlgraben . It was built by the architects Handel & Franke . Among other things, it contained a ballroom and numerous meeting rooms.

Under pressure from the National Socialists , the Minerva Lodge for the Three Palms, turning away from its humanitarian-Masonic roots, was transformed into the “Christian Order of the German Cathedral” in 1933. But that was only a temporary solution. In 1935 the order was liquidated and removed from the cooperative register . The contacts between former lodge members in associations, round tables and in private circles persisted well into the 1970s. The lodge building was expropriated and in 1937 handed over to the Leipzig mess office , which used it as the “House of Nations”.

During the heavy Allied air raid on Leipzig on February 20, 1944, the former lodge house was also hit and partially destroyed. The partial ruin was demolished in 1957. Since then the place has been vacant.

Start-up

At the initiative and resolution of the Friedrich zum Weißen Pferd Hannover lodge, preparations began in 1990 for the re-establishment of the Minerva deputation lodge to the three palms. The founding meeting took place on November 18, 1990.

On March 7, 1991, the Minerva lodge to the three palm trees No. 7 was re- entered in the register of associations. The first East German Masonic Temple was consecrated on March 23rd in Rudolf-Breitscheid-Strasse (today Kurt-Schumacher-Strasse). On December 31, 1992, the Minerva deputation lodge became independent. After the lodge was transferred back its property on the old lodge property, an agreement was reached with the city of Leipzig to swap the property of the former music library at Ferdinand-Lassalle-Strasse 21. The new lodge house was inaugurated on May 27, 1995. After the sale of this property, the Loge acquired a villa on January 8, 1997 at Naunhofer Straße 75, where the Logenhaus is today.

Since 2008, the Lodge has organized the so-called “ Leipzig Book Lodge ” in the foundation “catacombs” of the Monument to the Battle of the Nations at irregular intervals on the occasion of the Leipzig Book Fair .

Well-known lodge members

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Forester / Hempel: Leipzig and the Freemasons. Pp. 56-59, 124
  2. ^ Association of Leipzig Architects and Engineers (ed.): Leipzig and its buildings 1842-1892. JM Gebhardt's Verlag, Leipzig 1892. Reprint: saxoniabuch Dresden 2014, p. 505
  3. ↑ Inner West Suburb. A historical and urban study. PRO LEIPZIG, Leipzig 1998, p. 41
  4. ↑ Minerva to the three palms: Chronology of the lodge history
  5. ^ Forester / Hempel: Leipzig and the Freemasons. P. 123 f.
  6. ↑ Alexander Suss: Leipzig Freemasons in word and stone. The influence of the lodges on the Völkerschlachtdenkmal and the publishing town . Salier Verlag, Leipzig 2009, ISBN 978-3-939611-44-8

literature

  • Alexander Süß: The Minerva box to the three palm trees in Leipzig. Salier Verlag, Leipzig 2016, ISBN 978-3-943539-63-9
  • Alexander Süß: Leipzig Freemason in word and stone. The influence of the lodges on the Völkerschlachtdenkmal and the publishing town Salier Verlag, Leipzig 2011 (2nd edition), ISBN 978-3-939611-44-8
  • Otto Werner Förster : Freemason in Leipzig. People, history, facts. Taurus Verlag, Leipzig 1999, ISBN 3-9805669-3-5
  • Otto Werner Förster; Günter Martin Hempel: Leipzig and the Freemasons. A cultural story. Taurus Verlag, Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-9810303-4-1
  • Horst Riedel: Stadtlexikon Leipzig from A to Z. PRO LEIPZIG, Leipzig 2005, ISBN 3-936508-03-8 , p. 160

Web links

Commons : Minerva to the three palms  - collection of images, videos and audio files