Skull and Bones

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Skull and Bones emblem
The Skull & Bones House

Skull & Bones ( English "skull and bones") is a student union of Yale University . It was founded in 1832 and is funded by the Russell Trust Association , which was incorporated into the university as an alumni organization in 1856.

Skull & Bones is known to have produced some leaders in politics and business, including three presidents of the United States. In addition to her only rumored customs, she made this the subject of conspiracy theories .

Has its headquarters Skull & Bones on the campus of the university, in a building which as Tomb (tomb), as temple , T or Boodle is called. Skull & Bones is known by many names: The Order of Death (" Order of Death"), simply The Order and The Eulogian Club ("The Eulogian Club", more in the Eulogia section ) or Lodge 322 . Initiates are called Bonesmen (bone men ), Knights of Eulogia ("Knights of Eulogia") or Boodle Boys (more in the Boodle section ). Since 1991 women have also been admitted and initiated as members of this order, whereby the designation of the members of the highly exclusive circle has been expanded accordingly to Boneswomen (bone women ), Ladies of Eulogia (High Ladies of Eulogia) and Boodle Girls .

Sources and testimonials

As early as the 19th century there were attempts to find out more. The available information comes from semi-public documents, material from break-ins, reports of the intruders, reports from a few who were brought into the crypt for work or work, more or less extensive reports from individual members, leaked internal documents, reports from legal disputes between Skull & Bones and others (see below on Geronimo's skull) and reports from outsiders about secretly observed ceremonies or rituals. In addition, the careers and mutual benefits of numerous members in business and public offices were researched and published in the press. The focus is on the family of the former US President Bush.

Most of the information is not verifiable. The most significant break-in was carried out in 1876 by a group with the ambiguous name The Order of File and Claw ("The Order of the File / File and Claw / Gripper"). Your report is available at Yale University Library. The statements that come from the reports mentioned can only be assessed based on their plausibility. The rumors spread about what was going on in the crypt may have been exaggerated or spread for disinformation . And even if reports about individual incidents are correct, no general judgments can be derived from them.

Up to and including 1970, the membership lists in the university library were kept generally accessible, published in the press, at times even in the New York Times . With a few exceptions (e.g. Dana Milbank ), since the time of the first major publications about the Order around 1983, the Order's side has remained silent about the later registers. The secret society house, like that of the competing younger Yale secret societies Scroll and Key , Wolf's Head , Book and Snake, and Berzelius , is on campus. The name and logo are well known.

Part of the Skull & Bones phenomenon is that reports are accepted uncritically as confirmation of one's own assumptions or conspiracy hypotheses. Antony C. Sutton , author of the first major investigation published in 1980, for example, was guided, firstly, by the suspicion that the Illuminati persisted in the USA after their ban in Bavaria and that Skull & Bones was one of their cells and, secondly, by an aversion to Hegel , whose philosophy the Illuminati would then have used to restrict individual freedoms.

Organizational form

The Order is made up of students from Yale University only. It forms a senior society , ie a society of students in the last year of study before the Bachelor's degree , which has fifteen members, mostly around the age of 22. Skull & Bones is generally believed to have the greatest prestige among the Yale secret societies. These compete in the selection of the new members. The active class selects their fifteen successors from the next younger, i.e. from the juniors . This is called tapping , derived from tap . This refers to the previously common pat on the shoulder as a sign of appointment. The process has changed several times in the 170 years of its existence. The Tap Day , the day of selection was publicly temporarily. There were even preliminary arrangements between the competing secret societies. The elect were featured in the New York Times for many years . Similar organizations and selection processes are also known from other universities, e.g. B. from the Society of the Pacifica House at Brown University in America and the Sphinx Senior Society at Dartmouth College in Hanover (New Hampshire) . The tapping is a form of selection. The criteria can be ancestry, social class, performance, character and others. In the case of Skull & Bones , it is visible or foreseeable excellence of the younger students. In this respect, this secret society claims to form a meritocracy . There is no advertising for members.

So they are elite organizations in the strict sense of the word. The selection system promotes a succession of the chosen. Candidates can decline the appeal. Through academic achievements or engagement in other groups, juniors try to draw attention to themselves and to get involved in tapping . Since an ideological orientation of the secret society is not known, one cannot understand Skull & Bones as an association of like-minded people.

In contrast to German student associations , the Aktivitas consists of just one year of study. There is no trial period. Skull & Bones does not belong to any umbrella organization or cartel .

The holder of the order is the Russell Trust Association (RTA) . It monitors compliance with tradition and makes changes to the statutes. The patriarchs occasionally help with the recruitment of new members and, above all, form a network of influential people. At any given time, the total number of bonesmen should be around 800.

Skull & Bones forms a kind of everlasting bond of life , which does not end with the death of the individual knight , but is carried on by the following generations. The nine months in the Senior Society mean only the admission phase for the individual. An essential feature of such a covenant is the sharp exclusion of all other people, who in this case are called "heathens" or "vandals" (English "gentiles" or "vandals").

In 1999, the RTA had assets of approximately $ 4.1 million. Skull & Bones is the only known secret society that has its own island called Deer Island (see the Deer Island section for details ).

Branch of a German secret society?

The Order has taken a private group photo of all of the cohorts of the Fifteen . Posing is always the same, so that human bones can be seen and an old grandfather clock set to 8 o'clock.

The secret society was founded in New Haven , Connecticut in 1832 by William Huntington Russell , Alphonso Taft, and twelve or thirteen other students. Some of them were not accepted into the Yale internal student organization Phi Beta Kappa . The first Skull & Bones class ( Bones - English cohort or club ) existed in 1833.

Russell had previously spent an academic year at a German university, according to Sutton in Berlin. Russell's matriculation cannot be proven on the basis of the Berlin matriculation. Because nothing specific is known about this, there is broad room for conjecture that Skull & Bones is an American subdivision of a German secret society into which Russell was initiated . He received the money to found the order from his cousin; it came from smuggling opium.

The question of the origin of the order is often confused with conspiracy theories. One looks for clues in materials from breaking into the crypt , in reports from insiders or from the few people who were exceptionally allowed in. In the literature listed below, especially the books, many pictures that hang in the crypt and are provided with German language and subject matter are described, e.g. B. “Who was the fool, who was wise, who was beggar or emperor? / Whether poor or rich, / in death the same. ” Alexandra Robbins had Tomb insiders confirm that some German songs are occasionally sung at Bones meetings, including the song of the Germans , but with different lyrics, and that is why because the melody comes from Joseph Haydn ; the melody is already known as a hymn in many Protestant congregations in the USA.

The quotations in the following four points are based on Alexandra Robbins and are given in a separate translation (p. 82 f .; p. 106 f. Of the German edition):

  1. There is an invitation to a 30th anniversary with the wording:
    a Jubilee Commemoration of the History of Our Establishment in New Haven.
    an anniversary commemoration of the history of our New Haven facility .
  2. A historical, formal letter supposedly from the crypt reads:
    The Eulogian Club: An Historical Discourse pronounced before our Venerable Order on the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Foundation of our American Chapter in New Haven July 30th 1863 Thursday evening. By Timothy Dwight of 1849 ...
    The Eulogical Club: A Historical Discourse delivered to our venerable Order on the thirtieth Anniversary of the American Division in New Haven, July 30, 1863, Thursday evening. By Timothy Dwight from 1849 ...
  3. The intruders found next to the picture with the German verse quoted above a card that read:
    From the German Chapter. Presented by Patriarch DC Gilman of D. 50.
    From the German department. Presented by Patriarch DC Gilman from D. 50. (For 'DC Gilman' and 'D. 50' see below.)
  4. A Bones -Dokument of 1933 is reminiscent of the " birth of our Yale department " ( " birth of our Yale chapter ").

Ron Rosenbaum quotes from the crypt burglary report in 1876, which can be found in the Yale University Library. Sutton, Kris Millegan and Alexandra Robbins ( lit .: see below) also refer to it. There it says:

“Bones is the local branch of a corps at a German university… General Russell, the founder, had been in Germany before his senior year and formed a warm friendship with a leading member of a German society. He brought the authority back to college to set up a department here. "

According to this, Russell was a member of a student union in Germany. Under the conditions of the Carlsbad Decrees of 1819, their lives had to take place more or less secretly, depending on the instructions of the local authorities. That is the only thing that could indicate a German “secret society”. Without identification of the student corps to which Russell is said to have belonged, an influence on Skull & Bones cannot be determined in more detail. On the other hand, the corps have largely complete and published lists of members of all corps in the first half of the 19th century in the form of the Kösener corps lists . In any case, Russell is not listed in the relevant Kosen Corps lists 1798–1910 , so that the alleged membership is highly speculative.

In any case, the form of organization of the order does not suggest that it was a mere offshoot of a connection or a secret society from Germany.

Order rule

The rule by which members must act is not publicly known. Only a few conclusions can be drawn from the behavior and some indications can be interpreted.

  • The essential requirement is confidentiality. Nothing is allowed to leak out about the internal matters of the society and especially about what is discussed internally in private and professional matters of the individual members. For that reason alone, it's a secret society.
  • In each new club, the fifteen members must reveal themselves to one another and give an account of their previous lives, including their sexual experiences and their character flaws. A collective intimate sphere is created.
  • The bonesmen are obliged to help each other in their careers.

Quirks

"Skull & Bones"

The skull over the crossbones does not only appear on the organization logo . In the group picture of a year, the people are grouped around a table on which a skull with bones lies. The motif is known as a death symbol from pirate flags ( Jolly Roger ), warnings about poison and, for centuries, from grave slabs. Together with the human bones collected in the tomb , the skulls depicted, the German sayings quoted above and, last but not least, the name of the secret society, a strong preference for the subject of death is proven. Relationships with other organizations cannot be derived from this, as the symbolism is very common. The topic fits a society whose members go through an initiation. You suffer a symbolic death and experience the resurrection to a new person.

322

The number 322 belongs to the logo, it is the room number of the Inner Temple in the crypt . Bonesmen use them as a number, e.g. B. for combination locks, or as symbolic donations to friars who belong to a political opposing party. They sign with "Your in the spirit of 322". There are different theses about their meaning: It is the year of death of the Greek speaker Demosthenes (see Eulogia legend in the next section). Another thesis: The Bund in Yale was founded in 1832 as Department 2 . The result is the sequence of digits 322 .

Eulogia

According to legend, the Bonesmen worship a goddess named Eulogia, who is said to represent the rhetoric that began with the death of Demosthenes in 322 BC. Ascended to heaven and descended again to found the Eulogian Club in 1832. This may be taken as an indication that the secret society sees itself in the tradition of debating clubs in which lectures are given. In Greek and Latin, the word eulogia ( eulogy ) has a different range of meanings, namely “praise, blessing, fame, blessing, beneficence, blessed meal, funerary sayings”. These terms also allow associations with what is known about the organization, that it interprets its building as a “crypt”, surrounds itself with symbols of death, organizes large dinners and supports each other with words and deeds for their careers.

Geronimo's skull

Geronimo, portrait by Edward Curtis , 1905

Prescott Bush , later Senator from Connecticut , father of George HW Bush and grandfather of George W. Bush , is supposed to dig up the skull of Apache chief Geronimo from Fort Sill near Oklahoma with five other bonesmen from four years and use it as a Have presented the gift of the brotherhood. This story and photos from the crypt of the skull and other stolen grave goods were leaked to the Apache Indian and activist "Chief" Ned Anderson, who was in search of Geronimo's remains. He asked to be handed over. The FBI ( then called the Bureau of Investigation ) declined to interfere in the dispute until Anderson withdrew from the investigation and reconsidered his evidence; an offer that Anderson turned down. Anderson reported to Alexandra Robbins that a meeting with Jonathan Bush , brother of then Vice-President George HW Bush, had not materialized. At a meeting with Skull & Bones attorney Davison, he was shown the skull of a ten-year-old boy. At the suggestion to take this skull with you and to accept a declaration from the order that Geronimo's skull was not in the crypt , Anderson refused to let himself in. He published the events of the meeting with the remark that it was not the skull from the Skull & Bones Brotherhood. His request for a DNA test was not granted, and so the legend goes on. However, Yale keeps the rumors alive by publishing its own magazine that the New Haven crypt may also be in possession of the Pancho Villa's skull .

Skull and Bones Time

You have your own time calculation, in short: SBT , which differs from the usual time on the east coast by five minutes. If the announcement for an evening meeting states the time "VIII SBT", then 7:55 pm is meant. The year numbers of the respective club, which are written after the name of the member, are coded from a "D" and a number instead of the information in our calendar. "D113" stands for 1915. D is a substitute for the number 1802 (1802 + 113 = 1915) at Skull & Bones. The number after the "D" plus the D number (1802) gives the year according to the usual time calculation. The company's own annual accounts are based on entries in the small-format membership books that Sutton was given for inspection for one day. A club year is listed on each right-hand side.

“An entry between the decade lists of the members is very interesting. On the 1833 list, in front of the 15 founding names, are the words 'Period 2 decade [decade] 3'. Likewise, the words 'Period 2 Decade 4' are placed in front of names on the 1843 list. In short, the 'period' remains the same over the years, but the 'decade' number increases by one every ten years. Undoubtedly, this means something to the Order, otherwise it wouldn't be there.
Another mystical group of letters and numbers is at the top of the first list of names in 1833, 'P.231-D.31'. The numbers increase by one in each subsequent class. In 1834, for example, the entry is 'P.232-D 32'. "

The last are shortened spellings. The years are simply counted. The number for the period should not be read as a hundred digit. Archibald MacLeish from the 1915 Club signed a letter with “A. MacL. D113 “, ie year 3 of decade 11 and not about year 3, decade 1, period 1. The period lasts longer than 100 years.

There are three options for the beginning of the period and thus for the epoch year, depending on whether or not a year 0 and a decade 0 are used, i.e. 1802, 1803 or 1813. (The combinatorially conceivable case 1812 is not plausible.) The exact method of counting is not known, nor is it known which event was set as the beginning of the skull-and-bone era.

In any case, it is questionable whether there is a certain connection between SBT and East Coast Time. An official brochure of Skull & Bones of 17 June 1933 entitled Continuation of the History of Our Order for the Century Celebration ( continuation of the history of our Order for the 100-year celebration ) begins as follows (emphasis in the original):

“I hereby confess that there is no history of the bones . How could there be? It is the very essence of our traditions that there is no change. The deep thinkers of the barbaric twentieth century may be very confused by the problem of time and space, but the Goddess knows that there is only one time, Skull & Bones time, and only one place, your temple, and nothing else exists. "

Boodle

The members of the order are also called "Boodle boys"; why is not clear. It is known, however, that they play boodle ball together in the empty dining room , allegedly every Thursday evening. The two chimneys at the end of the room, which is about 18 meters long, serve as gates. It is a kind of rough ball with a half empty ball that is supposed to be pretty rough. In 1981 some bonesmen smuggled their friends and wives into the crypt to watch. The harshness of the game was cited by some patriarchs prior to 1991 as a reason not to allow female students to join the secret society. The word "boodle" means bribe or kickback and next to it a "chunk of money".

Deer Island

Deer Island ( 44 ° 22 ′  N , 75 ° 54 ′  W ) is a haven privately owned by the Russell Trust Association . It is one of the Thousand Islands, 162,000 m² in size, located in the Saint Lawrence River , three kilometers north of Alexandria Bay between the states of New York (USA) and Ontario ( Canada ). Two tennis courts, two houses, a bungalow, a boathouse and an amphitheater were built on it. The island serves as a refuge for Skull & Bones members and their families and is often used to receive guests who are welcome to the family members. It can also be rented privately, for which it is necessary to be a Skull & Bones member. The island is controlled and maintained by the Deer Island Club , to which only Skull & Bones initiates belong. This association explains in its articles the purpose of the club as follows:

"[...] to promote social interaction among his relatives and to provide them with facilities for recreation and mutual enjoyment; and for this purpose to acquire, hold and transfer any property, be it real estate or private property, which may be necessary or suitable for it; to maintain a clubhouse for the benefit and benefit of its members; and to accept statutes and generally to exercise all the usual powers of corporations that are not prohibited by the aforementioned statutes. "

Socialization of demarcation

The Skull & Bones crypt in 1906 with no vines

The meetings, ceremonies and perhaps also rituals of Skull & Bones , in which the students form a union, take place in the crypt , a simple, almost windowless building from 1856 in the classicist style, which is doubled in size in 1903 and has not been overgrown by ivy tendrils since then. Before that, they met in rented halls. Normally only initiated students and alumni, the patriarchs and a few employees have access to this building.

Separation and Initiation

The actual socialization of the new members is preceded by two phases: the selection in the form of the tapping outlined above as a release from the status of a profane and the initiation into the union with the help of ceremonies. These have been designed more and more elaborately over the decades. This already shows that these are not fixed rites, but variable ceremonies. They are adapted to the circumstances of the time, but also to the neophytes. Reference is made here to Alexandra Robbins' detailed description of such a process.

The candidates who accepted the election while tapping receive a message a little later, telling them when they should be alone in their dorm room. A delegation of Bonesmen then appears, seizes the person waiting there and presses them roughly against the wall in the toilet. He receives precise instructions for the following evening when he is called to the crypt .

This is where the initiation takes place, in which at least eleven patriarchs take part. One tries to persuade one of them to act as Uncle Toby as the master of ceremonies. The evening with its long program has been rehearsed extensively. The knights and patriarchs have distributed roles and functions. All wear masks and represent characters from Western history, mythology and literature. A neophyte is pushed, pushed and whirled through the corridors and rooms of the house by “shakers”. He learns of the legends of the house, but is repeatedly joked with z. B. provoked by his girlfriend or his dog.

The actual initiation takes place in the room called the Inner Temple . There the neophyte has to swear the oath of secrecy. He is shown in front of the image of the goddess Eulogia and the image of a woman who symbolizes the happiness of a marriage. A devil's tail hits him in the face. He has to kiss the shoe of a knight disguised as a pope. Then he is brought to his knees again, in front of a bonesman in a Don Quixote costume, who beats him to "Knight Eulogias". Then he is pushed out of the room into the arms of waiting patriarchs. This ceremony is performed with thirteen other neophytes alike. The fifteenth, who has been assigned the role of Little Devil , is carried upside down through the room because his feet are never allowed to step on the floor of the Inner Temple.

The ceremony has a clear function, but the way it is designed it appears more as a parody of the initiation rites of other secret societies than as an occult practice. The clearest sign of this is the accolade by a Don Quixote of all people. The neophytes are presented with a confusing and creepy event that resembles a ghost train ride.

Nevertheless, a clear segregation is carried out: the neophytes are given new religious names. After their accolade , the uninitiated others are only profane pagans or vandals . In this way, the order differentiates itself and its members from the rest of the world. Your own time calculation also serves this purpose .

integration

Complementary to this, an internal bond of the group is created over months. The prerequisite for this is confidentiality , which favors the highest level of loyalty to the order - Alexandra Robbins should be known to members who have branded the insignia of the order in order to always carry them with them, although the order forbids its members to inform themselves about their membership and to express the order.

The fifteen members of a year meet at least once a week during the academic year. According to some sources, there is a Thursday date on which, among other things, a joint, lavish meal is held, which is prepared by employees in the crypt . Patriarchs also take part in these meetings. Unlike in German student associations, no alcohol is served in the Order of Death .

What happens on Sunday is notorious. It is probably the essential element of group formation: the self-analysis of the individual members, in which the previous life story, including the sexual development and committed offenses and crimes as well as one's own weaknesses in character, are revealed to the others and exposed to criticism. Alexandra Robbins, who knows something similar from her secret society, is of the opinion that these life confessions should bind the Bonesmen together for a long time beyond their time at university. Anyone who evades the obligation to maintain secrecy must expect that intimacy will also come to the public through him. Nevertheless, John Kerry did not shy away from exposing the character weaknesses of his younger competitor George W. Bush in the election campaign (see below).

Disclosing biography and character in front of others makes it easier for members to decide who they can - or may not - undertake joint projects with in their future careers.

Numerous photos show that there are large numbers of human bones in the crypt , although Connecticut public law does not allow it. The bones are also believed to play a role in some community rites.

The house is said to be full of bones and skulls as well as memorabilia and booty that the bonesmen collected as knights or patriarchs. Some objects also originate from the wars, allegedly even a set made from Hitler's table silver. Conspiracy theorists see these things as objects of cultic worship rather than prey that a bonesman uses to keep memories alive.

So far it has been unable to suspicions Skull & Bones due to some thefts on campus and the robbery of the skull of Geronimo educate because the company knew how to prevent it. Here, too, it is suspected that such offenses are intended to strengthen loyalty to the group.

While the initiation ceremony introduces the selected students to the order, the months together serve as knights of acceptance into the elite, which represent the patriarchs in American society.

Familys

The organizational form and socialization are designed to integrate the demonstrably outstanding young students from the elite Yale University in an exclusive association that outlives the lives of the individual because it secures the population through a selection process. Despite this, as it were, asexual reproduction, it is assumed that family traditions of membership have developed.

The private researcher Antony C. Sutton received from a Bonesman, among other things, a list of members until 1985, which extends beyond the time in which the names were published. He believed he could prove that individual families form an inner core of the secret society. He assumed that a family that was frequently represented for decades must belong to the inner circle. His attempt to prove the initiation of many family members with a statistic of names is completely inadequate. These are the fifteen most common names on member lists:

  • Smith (15)
  • Walker (15)
  • Allen (13)
  • Brown (13)
  • Clark (12)
  • White (12)
  • Day (11)
  • Johnson (11)
  • Jones (11)
  • Miller (11)
  • Stewart (11)
  • Thompson (11)
  • Cheney (10)
  • Taffeta (10)
  • Williams (10)

Religious names

The initiate is given a name on the first day that he keeps for the rest of his life. Names that are commonly used are: Magog , assigned to the person who has had the most sexual experience with the opposite sex; Gog means the one with the fewest sexual experiences; Long Devil is the name for the greatest person, and Little Devil for the smallest; Boaz is the name for the captain of an American football school team. Millegan's claim that Greek names are preferred, which corresponds to the anti-Roman attitude of the Illuminati founder Weishaupt , is wrong. In fact, the names come from a wide range of mythology, history, and literature. Fixed and frequently recurring names were taken from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne .

The acceptance of religious names is not a peculiarity, but is widespread among many secret societies and religious communities.

Order names of some bonesmen

Members

Lists

Up to and including 1970, Skull & Bones published their membership lists in newspapers, which are also kept in the Yale library and contain the following names of the Bonesmen :

Bush and Kerry

Quote from Alexandra Robbins : "Without Skull & Bones such a mediocre and incompetent politician as George W. Bush would never have become President of the USA."

It caused some irritation in the US that both 2004 US presidential candidates were members of Skull & Bones ( John Kerry, born in 1966, two years before George W. Bush ), even though they come from different political camps. Both refused to talk about the common link when notified by Tim Russert for the show Meet The Press of NBC were asked about it.

Interview with Kerry on August 31, 2003: Kerry polemicises against Bush's policies. Then the journalist interjects:

  • Russert: You were both members of Skull and Bones, a secret society at Yale. What does that tell us?
  • Kerry: Not much because it's a secret.
  • Russert: Is there a secret handshake? Is there a secret code?
  • Kerry: I wish there was something secret that I could make known.
  • Russert: Three twenty-two, a secret number?
  • Kerry: There are all kinds of secrets, Tim. But one thing is not a secret. I disagree with this President's direction in which he is leading the country. We can do better. And I intend to do it.

Interview with Bush on February 9, 2004:

  • Russert: That's what John Kerry had to say last year. He said that his colleagues were appalled by the - Quote: “The President's lack of knowledge. They directed him in the same way that they directed Ronald Reagan. They send him out in front of the press for one appointment a day. You put him in a brown jacket and jeans and let him move some hay or drive a truck and all of a sudden he's the Marlboro man. I know the guy. He was at Yale two years behind me. I knew him and he's still the same guy. ”
    Did you know him from Yale?
  • Bush: No.
  • Russert: How do you answer that?
  • Bush: Politics. I think that's - you know, when you close your eyes and listen carefully to what you just said, it sounds like the year 2000 all over again.
  • Russert: You were both in Skull and Bones, the secret society.
  • Bush: It's so secret that we can't talk about it.
  • Russert: What does this mean for America? The conspiracy theorists are nuts.
  • Bush: I'm sure of that. I dont know. I haven't seen any websites yet. (Laughs.)
  • Russert: number 322.
  • Bush: First of all, he's not the candidate, and - but look, I'm happy.

Conspiracy theories about skull and bones

In September 1977 Esquire magazine published an article by former Yale student Ron Rosenbaum, the first research-based article on Skull & Bones . Rosenbaum draws parallels between the Illuminati and the Bilderbergers (see web links), but mainly focuses on the tomb , the rituals and the origin. In the books of Antony C. Suttons the links of the Order with the Bilderbergers , the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations were examined.

Until the end of the 1990s, when the membership of President Bush Skull & Bones became a topic of global interest, mostly outsiders and conspiracy theorists occupied themselves with the order.

accusations

In addition to the presentation of the network of relationships created by the order and the conclusions and assumptions based on it, attempts were also made to substantiate specific allegations (occultism, satanism and grave robbery), which of course resulted in rumors being spread in the absence of reliable information.

Occultism, satanism

On April 21, 2001, Ron Rosenbaum believed he had videotaped a rite full of profanity and depictions of violence. His reports about it caused a great press coverage. According to her research, Alexandra Robbins considers the matter to be more of a parody, if not a deliberate deception in order to “wipe one out” of Rosenbaum.

Theft and grave robbery

In addition to the aforementioned allegation of having stolen Geronimo's skull , the order is suspected of further grave robberies. Whether the bones that make up the club's props were legally or illegally obtained has not been investigated.

Types of conspiracy theories

The German danger

Skull & Bones never denied having roots in Germany. Connections of the order or its members to Germany are often used for discrediting. The conspiracy hypotheses, including those of the British-born Antony C. Sutton , who studied in Göttingen , use anti-German resentments .

From the assumption that the founder Russell studied in Berlin when Hegel died there at the age of 61, the assumption of right-wing Hegelianism is derived. By this, conspiracy theorists understand an application of the Hegelian dialectic as an instrument of rule. A “controlled conflict” will be generated between social opposing parties and thus “creative chaos” will be created. The opponents are opposed to thesis and antithesis and do not know that their quarrel had been instigated in secret by the conspirators who benefited from the confusion and achieved a synthesis in their own interest. An article from the Encyclopædia Britannica from 1954 is sometimes cited as a source .

Other Bonesmen are named who studied in Germany or who are said to have served as diplomats, for example: the later Yale President Timothy Dwight V (1828–1916; Skull & Bones 1849) and two knights of the same year (1852), Andrew Dickson White (1832–1918; born 1852 or '53) and Daniel Coit Gilman (1831–1908, born 1852). White is said to have studied with Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) at the Institute for Psychology in Berlin from 1856 to 1858 . The later founder of experimental psychology did his own medical exam in Tübingen in 1856, then stayed in Berlin for research purposes only for a few months and was only called to Leipzig in 1875. From there he actually influenced American psychologists.

The three bonesmen are represented as a trio or troika. One suspicion is seen in the fact that they were involved in the founding of universities and colleges and that they brought in their experience from Germany. In the understanding of the conspiracy theorists, educational institutions serve as mind control . The ideas for this should again come from Germany, especially Prussia . It is believed that the instructions for mind control were found in Johann Gottlieb Fichte's speeches to the German nation (1807/08), which were held in Berlin during the Napoleonic occupation.

Illuminati

It is alleged that the German secret society that Russell met was an Illuminati order . Sutton tries to support this thesis by stating that after Skull & Bones Time ( see above ) the club in Yale was founded in the third decade of the second period, i.e. the first period should have ended in the decade from 1790 to 1800. That is not true mathematically. The end must have been after 1800. A connection to the Illuminati is to be established, who would have continued to work underground until the 1790s. The description of an initiation rite of the Illuminati in the book by Alexandra Robbins is given as further evidence:

“The candidate is presented for admission in the form of a slave; and he is asked to answer what would have put him in this most wretched position of all. He replies: 'Society - submission to the state - false religion.' He is shown a skeleton with a crown and a sword at its feet. He is asked whether it is the skeleton of a king, a nobleman or a beggar? Since he cannot make up his mind, the chairman of the congregation says to him, 'Being human is the only thing that matters.' "

Loyalty conflict

The suspected connection to the Illuminati, which were organized in a strictly hierarchical manner, has brought Skull & Bones into suspicion that its members, even in elected public offices, are first committed to their order and only then to their voters and the country. The whole of Yale comes under suspicion, as public policy seems to be dominated by this university at times. "Because in the Democratic primary elections last winter [2003/04], four aspirants - John Edwards, Howard Dean, Joe Liebermann and John Kerry - got by for the presidency - you guessed it: Yale."

Nepotism and favoritism

The authors agree that the bonesmen mutually benefit each other in the allocation of leadership positions in business, public service and education. This has been dealt with particularly extensively by George W. Bush. According to Sutton, a nationwide network has been formed. However, this accumulation of careers may simply be due to the fact that the members of this secret society have graduated from an elite university.

Bush family

The order received increased attention around the world as it was discovered which members and relatives of this family belonged to it. As a result of the polarizing policies of the two Presidents Bush, the conspiracy theories about Skull & Bones found further supporters in the circles of opponents. The secret society appears as a switching center of power even in the moderate press.

The magazine GEO reported that the Unification Church claims to have found out with the help of its genetic database that George W. Bush - like a large part of all Europeans - is genealogically related to Charlemagne . This line leads back to the family of the Carolingians and, according to various interpretations, to Jesus among others . This interweaves the Bushs and Skull & Bones with a myth and conspiracy theory about the Holy Grail , and as a result Bush is often called Saint George or the dragon slayer . The author A. Sutton also points out in an interview with K. Millegan that all European royal houses are related to the Saxon-Coburg and Gotha line , whereby Sutton notes that this line is also connected to the Illuminati founder Adam Weishaupt . This also deepened David Icke's theory, according to which Skull & Bones was a subordinate division of an extraterrestrial conspiracy of reptilian extraterrestrials, which had been working since Babylonian times through association with noble families and occupation of influential positions .

The CIA

George HW Bush was director of the CIA in 1976/77 . The secret service itself is not only the subject of conspiracy theories, but has also been shown to have been involved in government overturns abroad. He is blamed for drug trafficking. That will u. a. associated with the fact that the family of the Skull & Bones founder Russell controlled the opium trade around 1830.

During the Revolutionary War the Yale graduate founded Benjamin Tallmadge under the command of George Washington , the organization culper ring , a forerunner of the CIA. Nathan Hale (1755–1776), also a Yale graduate and a friend of Tallmadge, was not a member of the Culper Ring, but achieved national fame as the first, albeit unsuccessful, US spy. There is a statue of Nathan Hale on both the old Yale University campus and in front of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia . Among the bonesmen who are particularly close to the CIA are, in addition to George Herbert Walker Bush, Senator David Boren and Senator John Kerry.

Yale history professor Gaddis Smith describes the inner relationship between Yale and the CIA: “Yale has influenced the CIA more than any other university. This sometimes gives the CIA the character of a class reunion ” (source: Junge Welt, May 18, 2004).

In conspiracy theories in which the CIA plays a central role, namely those surrounding the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon building on September 11, 2001 , the Order of Death is included. For example, a CIA agent known to George Bush is said to have killed Che Guevara . Thus the rumor spread that the skull of this paramilitary freedom fighter was in the crypt . Meanwhile, a research team claims to have discovered Che Guevara's body in a mass grave and identified it by means of its teeth. In both the Iran-Contra affair and the Félix Rodríguez case (who was responsible for the execution of Che Guevara), the Bush office is said to have been informed first. Rodney Stich tells in his book Defrauding America of a "deep cover CIA officer" who belonged to a counter-information unit called Pegasus. This unit was in possession of tape recordings. They revolve around "Plans to Eliminate President Kennedy". Pegasus had tapped the phone of J. Edgar Hoover , then head of the FBI . Said tape recording allegedly featured Nelson Rockefeller , Allen Dulles , Lyndon Johnson , George Bush and J. Edgar Hoover. Should Bush be involved in the assassination attempt on John F. Kennedy ? In 1963 he worked as President of the Zapata Offshore Oil Company . He denied the existence of a letter from J. Edgar Hoover to a "Mr. George Bush of the CIA ”. As a result, some reporters did their research and found that there was a second George Bush - who was only responsible for ordinary office work at the CIA.

Due to the connection between Yale or Skull & Bones and the CIA via Bush, it is lost sight of the fact that members of the order themselves can be the object of observation and suspicion. The poet and politician Archibald MacLeish (born 1915) came into the focus of Hoover and later Joseph McCarthy because of his commitment to anti-fascist organizations .

New World Order

The concept of the New World Order is usually understood to mean a utopia that often arises in times of political crisis and upheaval , the aim of which is to make conditions around the world humane for all people. In contrast, supporters of the world conspiracy theory understand it to be exactly the opposite, namely the rule of a secret group over the world. This group uses organizations such as the Bilderberg Conference and the Trilateral Commission in public , but is ultimately anchored in supposed secret societies such as the Freemasons or the Illuminati .

When President George HW Bush spoke of a “New World Order” in a 1990 speech, it was a sign of his intentions for conspiracy theorists. At the same time, various elements of conspiracy theories seem to come together in this way: Bush, Illuminati, Skull & Bones and world domination.

Linking the suspicious facts

Since the individual suspicions are not sufficient to confirm the overall suspicion of a world conspiracy, they are linked to one another in a similar way to an evidence process. Most of the evidence , however, would not be “usable in court” or scientifically tenable, since it is often rumors, documents, the meaning of which does not necessarily indicate a conspiracy, or misinformation. Instead of trying to demonstrate the validity of the circumstantial evidence, suspicions have increased over the years. Anything that fits the hypothesis of a world conspiracy is suspect . It is not checked whether the indicators themselves form a connection. What needs to be proven is presupposed.

Characteristic of these conspiracy theories

Skull & Bones is the subject of newer type of conspiracy theories that developed in two steps from the original concept of conspiracy , which they almost turned into its opposite. According to the original term, which is still valid, people secretly band together in an act that is punishable under current law. This also includes political conspiracies, even if they are directed against a violent regime or a tyrant.

The first step in the shift in terms began with anti- Jesuit conspiracy theories in the 17th century and continued in connection with the French Revolution : a well-known and widespread organization was preparing international government overturns and revolutions in order to achieve world domination. Illuminati and Freemasons were then suspected. The latter is also blamed for American independence. The conspiracy theories about skull & bones also tie in with this model . It is not claimed, however, that the country's government should be overthrown, but rather, conversely, that the ruling elites and authorities have conspired against the people and democracy. The people become the mere object of the mighty. It will be deprived of its function as a democratic sovereign.

Because of considerable methodological and argumentative deficiencies, the published accounts of Skull & Bones as a conspiratorial organization create a picture in which the boundaries between serious research results, fiction and delusions are blurred.

Conspiracy theorists

In Germany, awareness increased through the controversial books by Jan van Helsing ( Secret Societies , Volumes I and II), which in the meantime have been indexed and confiscated by the Mannheim district court in Germany for sedition . The content of Van Helsing's books, which are composed of Nazi mythology, ufology and the implication of a Zionist world conspiracy with the Illuminati , raises considerable doubts as to whether the statements he made about Skull & Bones are actually true, as van Helsing's almost all sources kept silent.

In more politically left spectrum, the secret society among others is due to the strong financial background of many members attention, whereas the right -oriented camp next to the foreign domination of the US religious conspiracies and Satanism suspected behind this secret society; right-wing extremist claims that Jewish machinations guide skull and bones fortunes are factually untenable. Alexandra Robbins was able to prove anti-Semitism in individual bonesmen.

requirements

The desire to protect ourselves from possible manipulation attempts is of course innate . Conspiracy theories function as a survival strategy in this context. The basic requirement of many conspiracy theories in which Skull & Bones was embedded is the belief in an evil force . Different people or groups are not held responsible for criminal acts or abuse of power, but a singular, absolute organization that controls all events. It deliberately controls the ideology and behavior of people - the only exception to this are the conspiracy theorists themselves.

For Skull & Bones one assumes that the order actually forms a conspiratorial community, a kind of collective subject. There can be no apostates, although some have leaked information and material to N. Anderson, Antony C. Sutton or Alexandra Robbins. No thought is given to possible conflicts or competition within the group. Contrasts like those between Bush and Kerry are therefore seen as appearances.

It is believed that it is possible to completely take over fifteen selected students each year into the secret world government. Anyone who has been affiliated is inevitably one of them.

Movies

literature

  • Alexandra Robbins : Secrets of the Tomb , Little, Brown and Company, Boston / New York / London 2002; ISBN 0-316-72091-7 .
    • German edition: Brotherhood of Death. Skull & Bones, the secret order behind George W. Bush , from the American by Andrea Panster, Diederichs (Hugendubel), Kreuzlingen / Munich 2003; ISBN 3-7205-2459-0 - Robbins has access to extensive press material and has interviewed 100 bonesmen himself. She follows the web of power and relationships that this secret society has created.

Web links

Commons : Skull and Bones  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
 Wikinews: Apaches accuse Prescott Bush of robbing Geronimo  - message

German:

English:

Individual references / footnotes

  1. ↑ Berlin matriculation 1830 pp. ( Memento from December 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ See the article by the German news channel N24 from October 25, 2004: In the Secret Society of Bone Men ( Memento from December 26, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Kösener corps lists 1798–1910. ( corpsarchive.de ).
  4. ↑ Lit .: cf. Sutton: .
  5. ^ Zach O. Greenburg: Bones may have Pancho Villa skull . In: The Yale Herald . tape XXXVII , no. 2 , January 23, 2004 ( yaleherald.com ). yaleherald.com ( Memento from December 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Noam Rudnick: Of skulls and bones: More secrets of the tomb. Native Americans groups fight to recover lost skulls of Geronimo . In: The Yale Herald . Vol. XXXVI, No. 8 , October 24, 2003 ( yaleherald.com ). yaleherald.com ( Memento from January 29, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ↑ Robert Tomsho: Dig Through Archives Reopens the Issue Of Geronimo's Skull. A 1918 Letter Points to Theft, But Grave Was Unmarked; Skeleton in Bush Closet? In: WSJ.com. The Wall Street Journal, May 8, 2006, accessed August 16, 2009 .
  8. ↑ Ralph Nader : Statement ( memento of October 9, 2004 in the Internet Archive ) (speech in front of the Skull & Bones headquarters on October 6, 2004).
  9. ↑ Interview in the film World of Miracles Easter Special 2: Secret Societies .
  10. ↑ August 31, 2003 NBC interview with Kerry
  11. ↑ February 9, 2004 - NBC interview with ( February 1, 2006 memento in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ See the reaction of the American radio presenter Rush Limbaugh in front of an audience of 20 million, in which he compares the CIA affair of interrogation practices in secret prisons to Skull & Bone's alleged initiation rites. See also Susan Sontag : Endless War, Endless Stream of Photos. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung of May 24, 2004 sueddeutsche.de .
  13. ↑ Source: Junge Welt, May 18, 2004.
  14. ↑ Millegan: . P. 81.