Schröder's type of teaching

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The Schröder method of teaching is a Masonic ritual form introduced by Friedrich Ludwig Schröder in the late 18th century as a distinction to Strict Observance .

According to Schröder, the Masonic ritual should dispense with all extraneous ingredients and better accommodate the "German being" through words, text and song. This includes the restriction to the three degrees of apprentice , journeyman and master .

history

After his admission to the Masonic Lodge "Emanuel zur Maienblume" in Hamburg in 1774 - the lodge works according to the Zinnendorf system (the teaching method of the Great State Lodge ) - Schröder recognized that the hierarchical structures that existed in masonry were his, that of the little esteemed the actor came from who had little to give socially. He tried in vain to break new ground by founding the Elise zum Warmeart Lodge , to which primarily professional colleagues (actors and dancers) belonged.

In 1787 he returned to Hamburg and his mother's box after many years of absence and was elected master of the chair . His aim was to return Freemasonry to the simple and original form that he had found in England. He collected and studied everything that bricklaying had somehow put on paper, and where that was not enough he tried to have the oral sources recorded. His critical edition of Materials on the History of Freemasonry since its inception in 1723 is still an important source of Masonic research today.

On the basis of the knowledge gained here, Schröder wrote a Masonic ritual that abolished the high grades and concentrated on the essentials: "the tolerant, human thought". This also included the restriction to the three degrees of apprentice , journeyman and master . One of his core sentences was: "With the master the circle closes", with which he expressed that with the master degree all masonry knowledge is acquired and should now be applied.

"Contemporary history" plays a role in the ritual reform, because parallel to it raged the French Revolution , in which the bourgeois self-confidence was strengthened, while the aristocracy , which had also ruled the lodges, was pushed back. Even before Schröder, the General Staff Doctor Johann Wilhelm von Zinnendorf (1731–1782) carried out a fundamental reform of German Freemasonry by founding the teaching method of the Great State Lodge (Freemason Order), which still exists today almost unchanged. This bricklaying based on Swedish models still insisted on a pronounced high-grade system , which Schröder disliked. At the same time as Schröder, other reformers appeared, among them the former Capuchin friar and priest Ignaz Aurelius Feßler (1756–1839). One of Schröder's most important partners in the creation of Schröder's teaching was the theologian Johann Gottfried Herder in Weimar. For many years they exchanged information down to the smallest of formulations.

Current distribution

German Schröderlogen are united in the Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany (AFuAM). There are currently 33 Masonic lodges in Germany, and thus more than a tenth of all German Masons, who follow this type of teaching. There are also some Schröder lodges in other European countries, especially in Switzerland .

In Austria, the German-speaking lodges of the Grand Lodge of Austria work according to a modified Schröder ritual.

In Brazil there are now over 100 lodges, including 20 only in Porto Alegre, capital of the state of Rio Grande do Sul in the south of Brazil. The Schröder Lodge Zur Eintracht was founded on December 24th, 1874 by the journalist Carlos von Koseritz and still works in German to this day. Many characteristics of the ritual were incorporated into the AFuAM teaching method.

In Chile, lodges also work in German according to the Schröder ritual. During the Nazi regime, the brothers of the state lodge emigrated from Hamburg to the Chilean port city of Valparaíso , where they also founded lodges of the Schröder type of teaching.

After the war, the ritual texts of the individual Schröder lodges had diverged and removed from the historical models. The Grand Lodge of the Old Free and Accepted Masons of Germany (AFuAMvD) put a stop to this development of the Schröder ritual in 2005. In collaboration with all of the Schröder lodges, she is currently developing a version that is binding for everyone on the basis of the ritual from 1816, which was found in Copenhagen and is therefore available in the original.

literature

  • Eugen Lennhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder: Internationales Freemaurerlexikon. 5. revised and updated edition. Herbig, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-7766-5007-9 , pp. 759-760.

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