The Freemasons in Old Prussia. The Lodges in Berlin

This volume is part of a trilogy, consisting of Part 2. The Lodges between the middle Oder and the lower Rhine, 2007, and Part 3. The Lodges in Pomerania, Prussia and Silesia, 2009. It covers the period from 1738 till 1806 within its borders after the 2nd division of Poland (Peace of Basel, 1793/1795). The trilogy represents a social and mental history of Freemasonry, disregarding its symbolism and rites. Every volume is divided into three parts: a narrative part with the history of the lodges and the associations; a more systematic part which describes the membership structure, confessions, regional origin, activities, inner democracy, finances, social and cultural engagement, relations between the lodges; and a biographical part consisting of member lists in alphabetical order with biographical and membership data. From 1991 to 2012 the author of the present research explored nearly the whole of the preserved data concerning the Old Prussian Lodges, which had been unknown until recently. They are deposited in the archives of the Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin-Dahlem. This meant that 1657 papers and documents (VE; protocols, speeches, correspondences, membership lists) were analyzed, out of them 841 for Berlin. The research included also internal histories of the lodges and periodicals, scientific literature on Freemasonry, societies, secret societies, on Prussian Enlightenment and relevant specialist literature. In addition to the Geheimes Staatsarchiv the archives and libraries in the following cities were used: Bayreuth, Berlin, Den Haag, Kopenhagen, Magdeburg, Poznan (Ciazen), Stuttgart, Weimar and Vienna. The masonic lodges of Brandenburg-Prussia can be described by three characteristics: first, they were no secret, but legal associations. The masonic secret was valid only for the doctrine, the rites, and the customs. Secondly, with the transfer of the King`s right to constitute lodges in Brandenburg-Prussia they got official and masonic legality. Thus they were independent from the Great Lodge of England. The lodges organized the main economic, social, scientific and cultural strata, which represented the striving power of Prussia. Berlin as its capital was the embodiment of this development. The lodge Aux trois Globes, founded 1740 in Berlin with the consent of the King, became the centre of Freemasonry in Prussia. Until the 1770-s it developed rather slowly, but accelerated after the Third Silesian War and its aftermath. In the 1750-s four lodges existed in Berlin, among them a lodge with French prisoners of war. They introduced the high-degree masonry which meant a profound change. From now on there existed variing and competing systems, which nevertheless were based on St. John`s Order, all bound by the same degrees Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. These systems divided the Berlin freemasonry into the following lodges: 1764 Strict Observance (Zu den drei Weltkugeln, Zur Eintracht) and the English system (Royale York zur Freundschaft), further 1765 the African Architects (until 1775), 1770 the Große Landesloge der Freimaurer von Deutschland (Johann Wilhelm v. Zinnendorf), 1768 the independent lodge of the St. Andrew`s Order De la Candeur (till 1772), and 1782 the Christian-Jewish Loge zur Toleranz (till 1792). The Decree concerning the Secret Associations of 1798 permitted the existence of three Mother lodges (Old Prussian Lodges) in Berlin, 16 lodges existed at that time. All the other lodges in Prussia had to submit to them. From 1740 to 1806 the Berlin lodges organized 3918 men, that is 29,7 per cent of the 13 180 named freemasons in Brandenburg-Prussia. But the number of registered persons was higher: Mutterloge zu den drei Weltkugeln and their filias had 1514 members, Royale York de l`Amitié had 1107 members, the AfricanArchitects had 86 members, Große Landesloge 969 members, De la Candeur 66 members, Loge zur Toleranz 18 members, Loge Graf Schaffgotschs 7 (without the servant brothers). The lodges were organisations of the bourgeoisie and included a minority of members from the lower nobility (mostly working men). The percentage of the bourgeois members in the Vereinigten Logen (Zu den drei Weltkugeln) was between 50 and 85 p.c., in the Große Landesloge 79 p.c. and in the Royale York de l`Amitié 84 p.c. The number of members from the state administration and the judicial apparatus was high (Vereinigte Logen 21-50 p.c., Große Landesloge 30 p.c., Royale York 28 p.c.), it was followed by the military (Vereinigte Logen 13-60 p.c., Große Landesloge 28 p.c., Royale York 12 p.c.), and the trades and businesses (Zum Widder 42 p.c., Loge zur Toleranz 33 p.c., Royale York 30 p.c.), and the civic intelligence and the artists (10-20 p.c.). Berlin was a city of immigrants multinational and tolerant. The lodges played an important role with the integration of foreigners. The immigrants came from the monarchy (mostly Brandenburg Pomerania, Silesia, Magdeburg-Halberstadt), from the Reich (Saxonia, Thuringia), and from abroad (France, Switzerland, Italy, Kurland and Livland, Poland). In the French lodges Royale York every second member came from abroad (54 p.c., out of which 20 p.c. from France, 4 p.c. from Italy), in Aux trois Seraphim every third member, and in Pégase every fifth member was an immigrant. The Berlin lodges were organizations with an international membership.