Freemasonry

Forward To The 1st, 2nd, 3rd, And 4th Editions

          The intent of the present work is to deal with the principal problems of Freemasonry in a concise manner. It makes no claim to completeness; rather, it intends to provide documentation based on authentic materials from the archives of the Security Service of the Reich Leader Of The SS and Secret State Police, thereby educating the public to the danger posed by Freemasonry over the past several centuries. A detailed description of the irreconcilable conflict between the ideology of Freemasonry and that of National Socialism, based on the fullness of the available archive material, must be left to later works.

 

Heydrich
SS-Obergruppenfьhrer
1938.

Forward To The 5th Revised Edition

          In 1942, World Freemasonry celebrated the 225th anniversary of its founding. Like the 200th anniversary, the 225th anniversary was celebrated during wartime -- during a war for which World Freemasonry was once again partly responsible. But how different is the situation of Freemasonry compared to 1917! Then, it stood at the height of its influence and enjoyed immeasurable political power. Today, by contrast, it is being called upon to render an account: the healthy Folks of Europe have overcome the corrupting poison of the Masonic ideology; the powerful forces of Freemasonry have suffered serious reverses, and must furthermore expect that their days are numbered in Europe.

          Political developments since the publication of this text have confirmed the correctness of the statements made in it. Once again, World Freemasonry has given rise to forces directed against all racially healthy movements, simultaneously creating the impetus for a total extinction of those movements.

          An awareness that the rejuvenated Folks of Europe must remain alert to the disintegrating corruption of liberal Masonic thought in order to prevent any regrouping and renewed grab for power, has impelled the author to publish a revised and supplemented edition for the German and European Folks, in order to make a small contribution to the total spiritual healing of the European community of Folks.

 

Dieter Schwarz
1942.

Forward To The 6th Edition

          Among the spiritual forces secretly working in the camp of Germany's enemies and their allies in this war, as in the last, stands Freemasonry, the danger of whose activities has been repeatedly stressed by The Leader in his speeches.

          The present brochure, now made available to the German and European Folks in a 6th edition, is intended to shed light on this enemy working in the shadows. Though an end has been put to the activities of Masonic organisations in most European countries, particular attention must still be paid to Freemasonry, and most particularly to its membership, as the implements of the political will of a supragovernmental power. The events of the summer of 1943 in Italy demonstrate once again the latent danger always represented by individual Freemasons, even after the destruction of their Masonic organisations. Although Freemasonry was prohibited in Italy as early as 1925, it has retained significant political influence in Italy through its membership, and has continued to exert that influence in secrecy. Freemasons thus stood in the first ranks of the Italian traitors who believed themselves capable of dealing Fascism a death blow at a critical juncture, shamelessly betraying the Italian Nation. The intended object of the 6th edition of this brochure is to provide a clearer knowledge of the danger of Masonic corruption, and to keep the will to self defence alive.

 

Dr. Kaltenbrunner
SS-Gruppenfьhrer
General Of The Police
1943.

        Freemasonry is an ideological form of hostility to National Socialism, the significance of which, in the historical development of the past two centuries, must be deemed comparable to the effects of other supranational organisations, the political churches, world Jewry, and Marxism. In its present form, it must be viewed as the bourgeois liberal advance troops of World Jewry.

        It corrupts the principles of all forms of government based on racial and Folkish considerations, enables the Jews to achieve social and political equality, and paves the way for Jewish radicalism through its support for the principles of freedom, equality, and brotherhood, the solidarity of Folks, the League Of Nations and pacifism, and the rejection of all racial differences.

        With the help of its international connections and entanglements, Freemasonry interferes in the foreign policy relationships of all Folks, and pursues, through governmental leaders, secret foreign and world policies which escape the control of those in government.

        Through its personal influences and economic favouritism, Freemasonry ensures that all dominant positions of the public, economic, and cultural life of a Folk are filled with lodge brethren, who in fact translate the concepts of Freemasonry into action.

        The National Socialist State has destroyed the organisations of Freemasonry in Germany, and has likewise given rise to similar measures in a number of European States during the present war. But the liberal, Masonic body of thought lives on in the former lodge brethren. In addition, there is still a danger of a renewed penetration of Masonic ideas through the lodge organisations of States in which Freemasons remain free to pursue their objectives without hindrance.

Background Of Masonic symbolism

        Thus, researching this enemy, and providing a basic education for all racial comrades on the topic of Freemasonry, is not just a matter of expounding upon interesting historical problems; rather, it is an urgent duty of alertness in the struggle against our enemy.

Jahweh

        Freemasonry is tightly allied with Jewry, and not just through its organisation. Even the symbolism of Freemasonry points to Jewry through its customs, and to Hebrew through its words and signs, as its real origin. The Masonic conceptual universe is a reflection of Jewish near eastern images and concepts. The central point of Old Testament thought is represented by the concept of Yahweh as the Jewish God. Initially, the belief in many national deities prevailed among the Jews, for whom Yahweh was still an entirely insignificant desert god, until he sought out a Folk (the nomadic tribe of Israel) with whose help he could set about to dethrone all other gods and achieve world domination. In later Jewry, Yahweh was conceived of first as a High God, then as the One God; but his original nature was strictly retained. To Jewry, the name Yahweh implies a program of world enslavement (see Isaiah LX.).

The Temple

        With the development of the concept of Yahweh, the centralisation of the Jewish religious cult was complete. Instead of the original numerous places of sacrifice in Canaan, a single one appeared: first Shilo (later Jerusalem); then the Royal Tent, and later, the Temple of Solomon were considered the House Of Yahweh. Just like Yahweh himself, the Temple became a symbol of Jewish plans for world domination (see Ezekiel XL-XLVIII; see also the New Testament, Revelation Of Saint John, XXI).

        In the period after the Babylonian Captivity, Prophetic Jewry was supplemented by the priestly Teachings Of The Law (Torah) and the Books Of Wisdom (Chokmah). Bourgeois decency and social order were derived through heavy borrowings from neighbouring cultures, while Yahweh was given a cosmic characterisation as the World Master Builder. At the same time, the way was paved for internationalistic attitudes (spreading of Messianic teachings).

The Mysteries

        The spiritual attitudes of the Syriophoenician mysteries merged with Old Testament thought about the time of the birth of Christ. The mysteries assumed a feeling of sinfulness: an inwardly torn human being to whom divine mercy was to be granted through mystical, that is, secret words, signs, and rituals, thereby achieving salvation and personal eternal bliss. All evil was attributed to the Devil (dualism). These concepts, sometimes depicted with great descriptive power, were reflected in the Jewish Apocrypha and New Testament texts around the time of the birth of Christ, as well as in the Gnostic writings of the following period.

        This whole conceptual world was given a new lease on life through the symbolism and teachings of Freemasonry. The legend of Hiram, the symbol of the Temple with its religious strictures, the testing of courage upon acceptance into the lodge, the symbolic death ritual, the secret signs of recognition, embody in a perceptible, visual manner that which is later revealed in their teachings (the shaping of men from a rough stone into a cube, the building of a Temple Of Humanity, the Messianic, Empire Of Peace and of World Brotherhood, the rejection of all natural racial and political barriers in World Brotherhood). The symbols and teachings are, however, not uniformly developed based on definite original forms, but exhibit a colourful mixture of ingredients of the widest variety of types (syncretism), which makes it much more difficult to prove their origin in any particular case.

The bearer of Jewish thought

        This near eastern conceptual world was first communicated to the entire West through the Church, which loyally guarded its Jewish heritage. The Arabian influence of Islam beginning in the 7th century, the experiences of the Crusades beginning in the 11th century, as well as the influence of Jewish philosophers (Ibn-Gebirol, Maimonides, the Cabbalists) beginning in the 12th century, led to a stronger emphasis on this Jewish derived conceptual world. Jewish attitudes thus returned to the western field of vision, whence they had been driven out by German scholasticism.

        Christian Cabbalists (Pico de Mirandola) acquired particular prestige in the academies and religious associations of the Renaissance.

Renaissance

        Scholars occupied themselves primarily with Hebrew texts, in which an eccentric search for secrets and bizarre insights may have played a part. These efforts were transmitted to Germany through Johannes Reuchlin and others. Secret societies were formed which attempted to build Jewish fantasies with theological elements into a system through an admixture of alchemy, mathematics, astronomy, and astrology, as well as magic.

The documents from 1390 and 1450

        In contrast to the character of western building site huts and the customs of western stone cutters and stone cutter associations, an orientally derived picture of history may be observed in the Regius Manuscript of 1390 and the Cooke Manuscript of 1450, two of the oldest manuscripts relating to medieval English construction workers. These documents contain, in corporate lore, an extract, maintained in legendary form, of corporate history and bylaws (statutes) regarding behaviour within the corporation and the fulfilment of comradely duties towards fellow craftsmen. These two oldest documents were followed by several others of similar import. It is significant that the content of this corporate lore was always increasingly based, and in an increasingly detailed manner, upon the Old Testament legendary and conceptual world. It is claimed by Freemasons that these Old Testament foundations were brought into the corporations by Reverends, who looked after the spiritual well being of the English corporations as pastors.

        These Reverends played still another significant role in the development of Freemasonry. They were the first noncorporate members of the corporate societies, together with the noble patrons of the corporations who had assumed the representation of the guilds before the authorities, and who enjoyed the right to appoint a nominee to a vacant ecclesiastical benefice involving property rights through the guilds. Over the course of time, a situation arose in which these patrons and reverends introduced friends and relatives into the guilds, which had in the meantime assumed the name of lodges, as members. This was especially true of the stone cutter lodges.

Nonguild members in the stone cutter guilds

        Thus, as early as the second half of the 17th century, we find a great proportion of such noncorporate members in various corporate lodges. In these associations, the concept of professional and guild comradeship receded increasingly into the background in favour of sociability. Outwardly, this development was characterised by the fact that these lodges moved their headquarters outside the guild halls and into taverns.

Origin of the word Freemason

        The belief that the contrast between guild masons and accepted, but nonguild members of the lodges, found its expression in the term Free And Accepted Masons, is unfounded. This designation was used for all lodge members, even guild member masons. By the end of the 17th century, we find the term Freemason already generally in use, as shown by several texts from the period and by a student joke at Trinity College in Dublin in 1688. In texts and descriptions from the 17th century, we also see nonguild members in the lodges already practising a symbolic masonry.

Grand Lodge of London, 1717

        In the year 1717, a new period in the history of Freemasonry began. In this year, four London lodges merged into the Grand Lodge Of London And Westminster to celebrate the name of their patron, John The Baptist, in fellowship and in a dignified manner. Initially, therefore, the grounds for the merger were purely social.

        It is important that there were no longer any corporate masons among the officials of this new Grand Lodge. Reliable information on the early years of this new organisation is unavailable.

Masonic personnel policy

        In 1721, the Grand Lodge Of London succeeded in winning over a member of the English high aristocracy, Duke Montagu, for the office of Grand Master. Thus began a development which has characterised English Freemasonry down to the present day, because ever since that time, the aspiration of English Freemasonry has always been to win converts from the highest levels of the aristocracy. A large scale Masonic membership policy thus began, the aim of which to place Freemasons in all the leading positions of the British Empire; thus, there can hardly be any question of a conflict between Freemasonry and British government leadership. This is the true significance of the assertion that England uses Freemasonry as a tool of world politics. The power of the English Freemasons was clearly demonstrated in 1799, when they first defeated a draft law against secret societies in the English Parliament, and then amended it in such a manner that Freemasons were expressly excluded from its edicts.

The Ancient Duties

        Upon the proposal of the Duke Of Montagu and under the Grand Mastership of Wharton, the first book appeared containing the bylaws of Freemasonry, authored by Reverend Anderson. In the main part of the book, the so called Ancient Duties, which assumed great significance in the further development of Freemasonry, were developed into principles for the first time. Together with the Ancient Landmarks Of Freemasonry, a summary of Masonic laws and traditions, the Ancient Duties are still decisive in the ideological orientation of Freemasonry today.

        Freemasonry reached France through English emigrants. In 1725, the first lodge was founded at an English innkeeper's. A second Masonic lodge was opened in 1729. Freemasonry spread very rapidly in France. In contrast to England, development was less uniform. Two lines of development must be distinguished in 18th century French Freemasonry.

Age of the Enlightenment

        One line worked in a speculative, educational direction. To it belonged, in particular, the intellectual forerunners and thinkers of the French Revolution, such as Paine, Montesquieu, Voltaire, Mirabeau, Marat, Lafayette, Philippe Egalite, and Abbe Sieyes.

Encyclopaedists

        In Paris, the lodge of the Encyclopaedists, called The Nine Sisters, was active from 1769. Among the members of this lodge were Helvetius, Lalande, Benjamin Franklin, Count La Rochefoucauld, d'Alembert, Camille Desmoulins, Diderot, and Brissot.

The thought of the French Revolution

        Here, the guiding principles and ideas of the French Revolution were given their characteristic features and further developed. The slogan of Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, the principle of the equality of all who bear a human face, the universal rights of man, were all worked out in this lodge, and advocated aggressively in a revolutionary spirit. A general inversion of all values set in. The governmental form of absolutism and its opposition to Masonic democracy and republicanism was the object of particular animosity in these conflicts.

        This direction reached its climax, and at the same time, its temporarily successful conclusion, in the French Revolution. 629 lodges were then at work in France, 65 of which were located in Paris alone.

The Order concept

        During the same period, however, another current came to be felt in French Freemasonry, bearing a more Catholicising character. This current wished to lead Freemasonry back to the medieval orders. The Scot Ramsay, tutor to the pretender to the British throne, must be viewed as their chief representative. He was a friend of Archbishop Fenelon and converted to Catholicism upon Fenelon's suggestion, becoming a member of the Order of Lazarites. Since many Catholic priests still belonged to the Masonic lodges during this period, it may be assumed that attempts were made by Catholics to change the meaning of Freemasonry from within, and to make its activities useful to the Church.

Higher degrees

        Out of this current, the most varied system of higher degrees soon developed, which spread actively throughout this period.

Strict observance

        It must be mentioned in this connection that the founder of Strict Observance in Germany, the Baron von Hund und Altengrotkau, must have come into contact with representatives of these circles during his stay in Paris. He too, converted to Catholicism. Strict Observance was a higher degree system, which, in the world of the German lodges, succeeded in gaining great influence at that time, and which aimed at shaping all of Freemasonry into an association of knightly orders. Its members were dutybound to a special, unrestricted duty of the strictest obedience and submission (STRICTA OBSERVANTIA) through the so called Act Of Obedience.

Penetration of Jews into the English and French lodges

        The notion of tolerance, which is anchored in the Ancient Duties and was further developed together with the Masonic ideal of humanity in the France of the Enlightenment, enabled the Jews, with the help of Freemasonry, to penetrate bourgeois society at an early date in England and France, and then to achieve emancipation. In 1723 and 1725, Jewish names already appear in the membership lists of English Masonic lodges. In 1732, one lodge changed the meeting from Saturday evening to Sunday simply to permit Jewish members to take part in the work of the lodge. Jewish influence appears to have been rather great at that time, since as early as 1732 the street orator Henley gave a speech attacking Jew Masons. The Ancient Masons, who appeared around the middle of the 18th century, had a special prayer for Jewish lodges.

Jewish higher degree organisations

        In France, this development moved ahead much more rapidly, and ended in the French Revolution, with complete social and political equality for the Jews.

        Various higher degree systems were worked out around the middle of the 18th century by business hungry Jews, and sold as secret lore at high prices.

1737 first lodge in Germany

        The first lodge, which later took the name Absolom and worked directly under the Grand Lodge of London, was founded in Hamburg in 1737 under the leadership of the Freemason Charles Sarry. English influence was visible in the membership policy of this lodge, which was to win over heads of state and influential personalities as converts.

Frederick The Great

        This led to efforts to convert the heir to the Prussian throne, later Frederick The Great, who was steered into Freemasonry in a very skilful manner, but who lost interest in Freemasonry as early as the first year of his reign, and who expressed himself quite disparagingly on the activity of the lodges in later years.

        The English line of influence was also followed in the founding of the lodges at Braunschweig, Hannover, Bayreuth, Meiningen, Breslau, and Frankfurt am Main.

        French influences played a chief role in the founding of the lodges of the Saxon Polish Marshall Rutowski in Saxony and Bohemia. As already stated, various higher degree organisations penetrated outwards from France and into Germany.

Confusion in the lodges in 18th century Germany

        The conflict of these varying currents caused incredible confusion in the German lodges of the 18th century, climaxing in the Strict Observance of Baron von Hund, the Scottish lodges, the Clermont-Rosachen system, the African Master Architects, the New Goldcrucians And Rosicrucians and many other organisations.

Illuminati

        That political influences were also bound to appear, apart from all enthusiasm for knightly orders and a search for the mysterious, is obvious. Of significance here are the work and efforts of the Rosicrucians under Bischoffswerder and Wцllner, who possessed great influence as Prussian Minister Of State, as well as the Illuminati Order of the Ingoldstadt Professor Adam Weishaupt, who attracted grand attention. Weishaupt was reproached for atheistic and revolutionary tendencies, as well as for connections with the French Revolution. The fact is that Weishaupt, a former Jesuit pupil, built his order on a Jesuitical model, edited a few free spirited books, in which he argued that the Illuminati should gradually occupy all influential offices in order to work for the purposes of the Order. With the help of the Baron von Knigge, he succeeded in considerably expanding the base of his order through Freemasonry. Weishaupt bore the order name Spartacus. At the behest of the Jesuits, who had once again succeeded in gaining influence, the Order Of The Illuminati was prohibited in Bavaria in 1784, and a great many of its members were arrested. Weishaupt nevertheless succeeded in fleeing with the help of his friends. According to Masonic sources, the activities of the Order are said to have ceased in 1785, but rumours persisted according to which zealous activity nevertheless continued, especially during the French Revolution.

Freemasonry In Prussia

        Freemasonry in Prussia developed in a relatively peaceful manner in contrast to the rest of Germany. Nevertheless, the confusion over Strict Observance also affected the oldest of the Prussian Grand Lodges, the Grand National Mother Lodge At The Three Globes. This led to the founding of the Grand State Lodge Of German Freemasons in 1770 by the General Practitioner Johann Wilhelm Kellner von Zinnendorf. In addition, the Royal York de l'Amitie Lodge, founded by French officer prisoners of war, long worked under the Grand Lodge of England. After a change in its ritual by the former Capuchin monk Ignaz Aurelius Fessler, it assumed the name Grand Lodge Of Prussia, or Royal York For Friendship. These three Prussian Grand Lodges, which later referred to themselves as the Old Prussian Lodges, were granted special status under the 1798 edict against secret associations.

        Masonic writings, especially those intended to defend Freemasonry, make frequent mention of the great men of German history and German intellectual life who maintained relations with Freemasonry or who were Freemasons themselves. In addition to Frederick The Great, whose relations to Freemasonry have already been mentioned, these men were mostly the philosophers and writers of German Idealism during the last third of the 18th century, who are depicted as the bearers of true Freemasonry in Masonic texts.

German Idealism of the 18th century

        Freemasons usually also claim that these men received decisive inspiration in the lodges, and that therefore their creative works must be credited to Freemasonry. These Masonic accounts, which are often very skilfully presented, have enticed many undecided racial comrades into Freemasonry, while many opponents of the lodges have gone so far as to attack the great Germans who once belonged to lodges, together with their works, and to describe their membership as intolerable for German intellectual life and German history, without examining the political and cultural conditions of that time.

        A unified Germany, which would have provided these men with a national mission, did not then exist. Many of the numerous princes of the divided Fatherland were anything but ideal representatives of the Nation. The churches were in a state of utter calcification. Dogma prevented any free flight of thought. The natural sciences were the first to free themselves from a stranglehold of compulsion which killed all initiative, and to achieve their most brilliant successes. A second age of Humanism appeared to be dawning, and with it, controversies again arose regarding the education of the entire human race and its higher development.

        The intellectual world of the bourgeoisie of that time had no connection with the present internationalism of Freemasonry. Thinkers felt drawn to all those who, on the other side of the border of their own small German States, held the same views regarding the need to free themselves from the dogma of the churches, and who were sick of doctrinal disputes. At the same time, they opposed the excesses of absolutism. Schiller was never a Freemason, but nevertheless he went through the same development.

        The humanitarian ideal of antiquity had already been fundamentally misunderstood and distorted by Christianity. Now we see Freemasonry take over the same concept and turn it into an ideology denying all Nations and races, in crass contradiction to the racially based concepts of antiquity. In the doctrinal declarations of Freemasonry, insofar as any were issued, this contradiction was, at any rate, not very obvious. To the enlightened spirits of the time, Freemasonry must have appeared to be an ideal merger of the best.

        This is why Frederick The Great, Goethe, Herder, Klopstock, Fichte, Lessing, and many others entered the temple of the lodges. This is how the poetry and artistic productions appeared which are represented by the lodges today as the priceless products of Freemasonry, but which have nothing to do with Freemasonry today.

Change in the meaning of Freemasonry

        What the German intellectuals of the 18th century understood by Freemasonry existed only in their imagination, and was far removed from the actual conditions and objectives of the lodges. Precisely those men who are trotted out today as the star witnesses for the great ideals of Freemasonry soon recognised this, and turned their back on the lodges.

        Frederick The Great took part in no lodge meetings after the first year of his reign (1740), and adopted a critical position against various lodge activities during the last years of his life, wishing them to function as bourgeois social associations only (see his letter of 1779 against the application for titles by Freemasons). Lessing and Fichte left the lodges in anger. The Stolberg brothers quit, and Herder, who entered a lodge in Riga in 1766, never acknowledged himself as a Mason in Weimar. What the General Handbook Of Freemasonry writes about Herder applies to all the great Germans of the time, when it states:

        On the significance, basis, and intent of the association, he built his own system, which he had once wished to propagate.

Goethe and Freemasonry

        That Goethe was not the enthusiastic lodge brother gladly depicted by the Freemasons, is openly admitted by the well known Masonic reference works (General Handbook Of Freemasonry and International Lexicon Of Freemasonry). In 1782, he was, it is true, raised to the Degree of Master and accepted into the Inner Order, but even Masons can make no statements concerning his further participation in the work of the lodge. By the end of 1782, the Weimar lodge closed its doors due to quarrels which broke out due to the confusion of lodges and among the lodge brethren. Goethe's later opinion of Freemasonry is shown by a report written by Goethe in his capacity as Minister Of State for Prince Karl August, when the lodge brothers in Jena filed an application for reinstatement of their lodge in 1807. In it, he stated:

        Freemasonry creates a State within a State. Wherever it is once introduced, the government should attempt to rule it and make it harmless. To introduce it where it has not existed, is never advisable. Even in small towns, such as Rudolfstadt, for example, such an organisation serves a sort of social purpose. Here in Weimar we really don't need it, and in Jena I consider it dangerous, on the grounds mentioned above and for several others as well. Anyone who could immediately imagine the entirety of the membership of which the lodge would consist one half year after confirmation, would consider the matter distressing.

Goethe's report against Freemasonry

        Significantly, these passages are not to be found in either the General Handbook or the International Lexicon, which quote everything that supports Masonic claims. From another text of Goethe dated 1st May 1808, it appears that only Karl August of Sachsen-Weimar insisted upon reopening the Amalia Lodge in Weimar, formally assigning Goethe to introduce the necessary measures. Here, Goethe rather disparagingly calls Freemasonry quasimysteries. With this text, Goethe considered his mission fulfilled, since there is no further information on his participation in lodge work; on the other hand, he addressed a request to the Master Of The Chair of the Amalia Lodge on 5th October, which begins as follows:

        Your Highness would be doing me a special favour if you would deign to count me as absent, in some diplomatic manner not improper to Freemasonry, and suspend me from my duties with regards to the society.

        Goethe's further dealings with the lodge were limited to social politeness. Thus in 1830, upon his appointment to honorary member of the Denkverse Lodge, he sent his reply mostly through the agency of his son August, who entered the lodge in 1815.

        The efforts of the Masons to represent the great Germans of the 18th century as exponents of Masonic spiritual life must be called a falsification of history; since these claims are made against better knowledge, as may be seen from the following quotation from a lodge record of the Grand National Mother Lodge At the Three Globes dated 7th May 1868:

        The complaint that the intelligentsia is withdrawing from the lodges, is not new. Precisely our greatest writers have expressed the same complaint. Herder was a lodge member for a short time; Lessing withdrew after belonging to the association for a few years. Fichte did the same. Goethe maintained a noble reserve, and only participated in the work of the lodge in extraordinary matters, such as the memorial in honour of Wieland, commemoration days, and so on. Schiller never entered the association at all, although, as may be seen from his exchange of correspondence with Kцrner, he was very well informed about the doings and aims of the order. Even Frederick The Great, the founder of our lodge, turned against the order in difference only a few years after entering the order.

The age of the German Wars Of Liberation

        That which is true of the German poets and thinkers at the end of the 18th century, also applies to the German freedom fighters and poets of the Napoleonic age, such as Blьcher, Stein, Gneisenau, Scharnhorst, Schenkendorf, and the others. Even these men gave a new interpretation to Freemasonry in their minds: for them, it became an association of men around great ideas. At the same time, and in the same manner, they distanced themselves from the trite doings of the lodge. The depths of indignity and lack of national honour shown by the lodges in relation to the great national mission is proven by the example of the Frederick For Virtue lodge in Brandenburg, which belonged to the Grand National Mother Lodge At the Three Globes, and which sent a circular letter in 1808 containing the following sentences:

French officers in German lodges

        But how much joy we once again experienced, how many happy hours were ours again, in the temple! How many worthy men and brethren entered our association and paid homage to the illustrious order! In particular, we had the pleasure of initiating several French officers from various regiments for the same lodge, and we thereby hope to have made an important contribution to the propagation of humanity, patience, universal brotherly love, and love of humanity, by uniting some very worthy men closer to us.

        The attached membership list contains the names of 16 French officers among 96 members. This fraternisation with the enemies of their country is all the more repellent when one sees the name of a Prussian Captain alongside the names of the French officers, and learns from the lodge records that the Captain participated in the lodge work along with the French officers.

        French officers in the Napoleonic army, who also allowed themselves to be accepted into other German lodges, apparently acted according to a definite plan, as proven by a French lodge map from the year 1809. In addition to the civilian and military lodges of that time, which are classified according to units and branches of service, the map, in particular, lists the Grand Lodges outside France which were associated with the French Grand Orient, and visits to which were considered advantageous to members of the French army. Under Prussia, the map states: Berlin: Grand National Mother Lodge, called At The Three Globes.

Napoleon

        The question of whether Napoleon I was a Freemason, is disputed even by Freemasons themselves. Clear proof is not available. A variety of evidence indicates that the Corsican belonged to no lodge. Nevertheless, Napoleon appears to have been inspired by the intent to harness Freemasonry for definite political purposes. Thus, he sent the greater part of his marshals into the lodges: Massena, Augerau, Serrurier, Moreau, Kellermann, Mortier, Moncey, Soult, Oudinot, Lefebre, MacDonald, Murat, Ney, Bernadotte (the later King Of Sweden), Perignon, Sebastiani, Lannes, and Poniatowski all belonged to lodges, and in some cases occupied high offices in French Grand Lodges. The former Jacobin Cainbacieres was considered truly his right hand man in these matters, and until 1814, was Grand Master of the Grand Orient Of France, and, from 1806 onwards, Grand Commander Of The Supreme Council Of The Ancient And Accepted Scottish Rite For France. Even the Emperor's two brothers, Joseph and Louis, were Grand Masters of French Freemasonry.

        In his attempts to make the lodges work for him, Napoleon made the mistake of failing to take international Freemasonry into account in his calculations. Thus, a determined enemy arose against him in the English branch of Freemasonry, an enemy which furthermore received support from the Freemasons of all countries oppressed by the Corsican.

        The role played by French Freemasons in the intellectual preparation for the French Revolution of 1789 is no longer disputed by anyone. The Freemasons were, however, swept away in the purge of the radicals in 1792, a fate often suffered by their bourgeois liberal advance troops in later bloody civil upheavals. Nevertheless, the practical results of Revolutionary principles and writings were monstrous, and determined the developments of the following period throughout the world.

Human rights

        Universal human rights were worked out in the lodges of Aachen, propagated at the French convention held on 13th September, 1791, by the Freemason Lafayette, and raised to the fundamental principle of the French constitution in the Declaration Of Human Rights And The Rights Of Citizens.

        These universal human rights, containing the Masonic themes of freedom and equality of all men and the rule of the Folk, to whom those in government are responsible at all times, were proclaimed in America for the first time, and formed the basis for the American constitution. The American independence movement was almost exclusively led by Freemasons. The revolutionary and independence movements in other countries are also known to have been led by Freemasons, who derived their ideas from Paris. In those years, Paris claimed the title of defender of liberty, forming the image of the cultural mission which was to be fulfilled by the Grande Nation.

        The extent to which these views have been retained until the present day is shown by an Open Letter To The French Chamber written by the founder of the Pan European Movement, the Freemason Coudenhove-Kalergi, in 1924. Towards the end, the letter reads as follows:

        Your forefathers hurled three great words into the history of Europe: freedom, equality, fraternity! France brought political freedom to Europe. All the revolutions of the past century were but the echo of the great French Revolution. Renew your mission! Proclaim to the world the outbreak of the third revolution! The revolution of brotherhood! Step forth, with determination, gentlemen, to the forefront of the great movement which is pulsing through Europe, and lead the Europeans through brotherhood to unity! While the Star Spangled Banner of freedom flutters in the American West, while the Red Flag Of Equality flutters in the Russian East, may you in the centre between these two worlds, unfurl the Banner Of Brotherhood, from man to man, from class to class, from Folk to Folk, from continent to continent! Only then can Europe again become the centre of the Earth, and France the centre of Europe!

        Again and again, we see that both main currents of Freemasonry, regardless of their emphatic supranationalism, always attempt to chain the Masonic Internationale to their own countries: just as English Freemasonry serves the purposes of the British Empire, Romanic Freemasonry attempts to chain the Masonic democracies to Paris.

Democracy and Republic

        Even in 1737 and 1741, Ramsay, in his capacity as speaker of the French Grand Lodges, in his groundbreaking speech Speech Of A Grand Master, described the concepts of a universal democratic republic which was to be filled with tolerance. The antimason Abbe Lerudan, who published his well known text attacking Freemasonry The Freemasons Crushed in 1746, pointed out the concepts of liberty, equality, and fraternity -- later actually adopted as the motto of French Freemasonry -- which were the basic principles of this speech.

Louis XVIII

        The demand for democratic forms of government has never since then been abandoned by Freemasonry. With the exception of the English current of Freemasonry, we see the lodges in the opposition wherever the concepts of democracy and the fundamentals of liberalism are violated during the following period. At the same time, it is immaterial whether those who violate these principles are themselves Freemasons. Thus Louis XIV, Louis XVIII, and Charles X all belonged to a Military Lodge Of The Three Brothers United In The Orient Of The Court, French Freemasonry even took a more critical attitude against Kaiser Wilhelm I in 1871, although he was also a Freemason. Napoleon I had made the lodges harmless and, to a certain extent, serviceable to his purposes by skilfully packing them with his confidants. But when, after his death, the lodges were left to their own devices again under Louis XVIII, all dissatisfied republican and democratic elements gathered in the lodges. Pierre Jean de Beranger, who poured biting scorn on the reigning house in his songs, was a Freemason. Decazes, who was called to the head of government and issued a series of liberal regulations, was even a Grand Commandeur Of The Ancient And Revered Scottish Rite in France.

        But the liberal Freemasonic current was once again repressed in favour of the Catholic party, the so called Ultras. Unfortunately, little light is shed on this chapter of French history from the Masonic side, although there are important points of departure for the later developments in Germany, particularly with regard to relations with the Jewish lodge At The Rising Dawn in Frankfurt am Main, and the so called Young Germany movement of Bцrne and Heine.

Charles X

        At the same time, Jewish capital and stock market speculation expanded to such an extent during this period that public life was increasingly dominated by these forces. During the same period, the concept of the liberal bourgeoisie arose in France. The press became the most important tool of this Jewish Masonic clique.

        Thus, the governmental measures of Charles X, directed entirely towards the reestablishment of prerevolutionary conditions, were to a great extent directed towards the suppression of the press.

        At the same time, the struggle was a conflict between two rivals: Freemasons and Catholics. Magnificent demonstrations of Church power took the form of processions moving through the streets of Paris again during this period. But liberal Freemasonry also exploited every opportunity to show its strength. When the deputy General Foy, who had been an enthusiastic Freemason, died in November, 1825, his funeral became just such an event for the liberal bourgeoisie. At the same time, the collections taken up for his widow and children showed the power of the Masonic capital standing behind these efforts: the sums contributed amounted to over one million francs.

        Another occasion was the journey of the old Masonic revolutionary Lafayette, undertaken in early 1830. The lodges put on grand ceremonies in his honour; citizen crowns and triumphal arches decorated the streets in the path of the gigantic triumphal train.

July Revolution of 1830

        It is known that the first victory fell to the liberal opposition through the overthrow of Charles X in the July Revolution of 1830. The Citizen King Louis Philippe mounted the throne, uniting in his person Masonic liberal principles with a truly crafty business sense which led him to be advised by a Paris lawyer, Dupin, a member of the Supreme Council of France, prior to every step he took. But the Citizen King was not enough to satisfy the demands of the liberal opposition in the long run. The conflict finally led to the events of February, 1848. Freemasons participated in great numbers in the peoples' rebellion of Paris. The provisional government formed after the abdication of Louis Philippe included six Freemasons among its ranks, including the Jew Adolphe Isaac Cremieux, who forced the Orleans family to leave France. When the lodge brothers of Paris greeted the new government with a proclamation, Cremieux received the brethren, together with the other Freemasons in the provisional government, and honoured them with an address.

        From now on, French Freemasonry stepped quite openly into the forefront; all leading men in political life stood in some relationship to it.

Napoleon III

        Napoleon III was unable to hinder these developments. His lodge policies aroused the stubborn resistance of the lodge brethren. In the person of Marshall Magnan, he attempted to force a Grand Master upon them who had never been a Freemason. He created an especially dangerous enemy in Cremieux, who united in one person the position of Grand Commander Of The Supreme Council with that of the founder of the all Jewish organisation of the Alliance Isrealite Universelle. Thus, once again, under Napoleon III, the lodges became a hotbed of resistance, in which men like Gambetta, Arago, Minister Of War and Minister Of The Navy in 1848, in addition to Henri Brisson, Jules Ferry, Floquet, Gustave Flourens, later the chief ringleader of the rebellion of the Paris Commune, Jules Simon, Dubost, and many other men who set the tone for democracy and liberalism. When Napoleon III's game was played out in 1871, these same circles went into action, determining the anti German policies of the French government to the present day.

        In Germany at that time, for a variety of reasons, Freemasonry could not point to any such great participation in political events. The negative attitude adopted by the German lodges of the 18th and the early 19th centuries towards the admission of Jews must be viewed as the most important reason. In the 18th century, when the Israelites in Germany were still charged a cattle toll for passage by guards at city gates, the notion that individuals so low on the social scale were to be viewed as brothers with equal rights was, regardless of any philosophical reflections on the matter, simply unthinkable.

Struggle of the Jews for equal rights

        Thus, the activity of the Jews was bound to take the form, initially, of fighting for equal rights in the German Masonic lodges and at the same time in bourgeois society, and then of occupying the key positions in all spheres of public and private life.

Humanitarianism and tolerance on the Jewish Question

        From the beginning of the conflict over the Jewish Question, the tactic, for all parties involved, was to establish the German lodges on the Masonic principles of humanitarianism and tolerance, and then wipe out the concept of differences of religion and race.

        These efforts were encouraged by the fact that Anderson, in the Ancient Duties, had set forth his concepts of humanitarianism and tolerance on a religious basis only. In so doing, he followed the views of his time.

        If Freemasonry really wished to unite members of the most widely varied religious beliefs, it was necessarily forced to advocate the negation of all racial principles.

        The Jewish lodge brethren in England and France, who were already members in full equality of the lodges in both these countries, and who occupied a large proportion of the most important lodge offices, helped the Jews in Germany considerably in these efforts.

        The first attempt was were made in 1749, when three Portuguese Jews reported to the local lodge for a visit. In 1787, the provincial lodge master of Exter spoke out in fundamental agreement with the acceptance of Jewish visitors.

        At the same time, it must be mentioned that the Jews in France and America were engaged in an effort to expand their position in the lodges through the creation of additional higher degree lodge offices. We see this development already a matter of course in the various higher degrees of the Ancient And Accepted Scottish Rite, as well as in the Misraim and Memphis rites.

        In Germany, Jewish efforts were therefore primarily a matter of penetrating the lodges, and in order to do so, any organisation was exploited which could serve as a tool for Jewish interests.

        In the Order Of The Asiatic Brothers, we find, intermixed with a number of German aristocratic names, those of an Isaak Oppenheimer, Hirsch Wolff, Wolff Nathan Liepmann, Jakob Gцtz, Markus Jakob Schlesinger, and others. The Order Master Ecker von Eckhoffen even bore the Order name of Israel. Von Eckhoffen was the author of the text: Can And Should Israelites Be Accepted As Freemasons? It must be assumed that the German aristocrats who thus associated with Jews had fallen into financial dependence on the Israelites, among whom were many money lenders.

1807 Jewish lodge in Frankfurt ain Main

        A fundamental turning point occurred in 1807. Jews gathered together to