UNIVERSAL CHALLENGES
In October 1985 Most Worshipful Brother
Jurgen Holtrof completed his ninth and final
year as Grand Master of The United Grand
Lodges of Germany, Brotherhood of German
Freemasons. From his Grand Master's Report
we have extracted portions of particular interest
for use in this SHORT TALK BULLETIN.
(The English translation was made by K.W.
Bro. Jess Minton PGM Grand Secretary of
the American Canadian Grand Lodge.)
Before we devote ourselves to the problem
of the present and view the future, let us look to
the past:
It is exactly a half century ago this year that the Light of Masonry in our
Fatherland was forcibly extinguished. In 1935, under pressure of the Nazi power
clique, one Lodge after another was forced to close. Freemasonry was banned. I
know that many Lodges have brought this event to the attention of their brethren
and to the general public. I regard this as especially important, in particular
because it occurs in conjunction with the current commemoration of the German capitulation 40
years ago this year, and to some extent there
have been wholly inadequate analyses undertaken regarding those years of oppression, and
the actual situation of the German people.
On November 30th, 1984 in Wiesbaden I
gave a public address at a jointly sponsored
commemoration ceremony hosted by Lodges
"Plato zur bestandigen Einigkeit", "Mozart
zur Liebe und zur Pflicht", "Luftbrucke", and
"Humanitas zu den drei Lilien". The commemorative ceremony received heavy press
coverage and was attended by some 200 guests;
among them the president of the Hessen State
Parliament and ex-Lord Mayor, Georg Buch;
Bundestag member and ex-Lord Mayor Rudi
Schmitt; representatives of the three political
parties composing the city council; representatives of the Protestant and Catholic Churches; the Grand Master of the ACGL, Brother
Marlon Westenburg; and the District Master of
Hessen (GL AF&AM vD), Horst Vetters. In my
address I traced the curve beginning with the
original bans against Masonry shortly after The
establishment of the first Lodges, through the
excesses of the persecution of Freemasonry by
the Third Reich, down to the contemporary
journalistic attacks and (so-called) 'declarations of incompatibility'. I clearly pointed out
that the current trend to less tolerance within
our contemporary society will, if the forces of
freedom fail to take the offensive and aggressively defend those free areas of
self-expression and self-development, in the final
analysis constitute a threat to the freedom,
integrity, and right of choice for humans. I also
stressed that we ourselves must express our
goals much more clearly and explicitly, as we
have nothing to hide; we are a society which
actively promotes interpersonal understanding,
compromise, and peace within society. I am
convinced that other Lodges will also pursue
the events of fifty years ago in their own areas,
to ensure that a conscious awareness is ever-present that where the Light of Masonry
is forcibly extinguished, civil freedom becomes
a thing of the past. At a joint communication
of the five Lodges in Hamburg on June 6th this
year, hosted by the Lodge "Ferdinand zum
Felsen", in my talk I again referred to the
minutes of the "Dissolution Konvent" of July
30, 1935. With three Gestapo agents present,
the brethren in Hamburg, presided over by
Richard Brose, the last Grand Master of the
Grand Lodge of Hamburg, enacted their own
orderly dissolution with pride and dignity. They
recounted the history of Freemasonry and they
extinguished the Lights true to custom, closing
with a prayer which included the following
words: "We now return the working, tools to
Your hands, those tools we and our predecessors used for almost two-hundred years in
working on our spiritual edifice in Your honor;
not because we have become weary of out service around the pillars of Wisdom,
strength and Beauty, but because of the demands of our government. With full
hearts we thank you for the endless consecrated and elevating hours We were
privileged to experience in this place, and the Light which continued to
illuminate there from into our family and professional lives, and also brought
comfort, joy, and blessing to those outside our circle. A deep and painful sadness now descends upon us. Give us the
strength to carry on with dignity and
perseverance." In recent times, more often
than not one could read something contemptible on the subject of Freemasonry and National
Socialism. Certainly, in the elaboration of the
past, there remains also for us much to be done.
In my own study of the events of fifty years ago it became quite clear to me
that while many became unfaithful, a multitude of brethren accepted the
inevitable with courage, bearing, and unbroken pride. Let us honor their memory
now with a moment of silence. We remember those Brethren who, fifty years ago,
because of their loyalty to our fraternity, suffered difficulties and persecution, those who
emigrated. either domestically or to foreign
shores, or later joined the forces of resistance to
the regime of terror. We remember the many
silent ones throughout the land who remained
faithful to themselves and to their good cause.
We remember those whose vocations or professions were denied them, whose possessions, and
even their very lives were sacrificed. As a
representative of the many, let us honor the
name of Wilhelm Leuschner . . . the Man of the
Resistance, a member of the Lodge "Johannes
der Evangelist zur Eintracht" in Darmstadt,
who was murdered by the National Socialists
on September 29th, 1944.
Great tasks that demand our utmost efforts
lie before us. As an example, the solicitation for
members. I know that many of you shy away at
the very mention of this term; Freemasons
don't solicit!
There are simply too few Masons in the
Federal Republic of Germany, and I believe we
can no longer permit that attitude to prevail.
And it is a fact, as our American Brethren
stated at the Grand Masters' Conference this
past February, "That which stops growing,
begins to die!" I want to instill in you, my
Brethren, the courage to tread new paths, and
to mobilize your Lodge Brothers for the
monumental task of achieving a genuine and
decisive increase in membership in the future. I
would like to remind you of a survey made
some twenty years ago which revealed that in
the age bracket of greatest interest to us, men
25 to 40 years old, only 6% admitted having a
"definite, positive opinion of Freemasonry".
Only 6% .... viewed positively that meant a
potential of 250,000 men!
As a result, also twenty years ago, in the
"Bruderschaft" magazine, one of our younger
Brethren called for us to "grasp that information as a mandate." The significance and importance of an association is, after all, determined by the number of supporting members.
We love to use the phrase, "Quality is more important than quantity." If we are capable of
honest self-criticism, we can only arrive at the
conclusion that we are not blessed with any
great amount of either; quality or quantity! Of
course we have Brethren of superb quality in
our ranks! But there's too few of them.
How else can we explain that over the last few years so many of just average
leadership capability have come along. We must exert every effort in the future
to attract a greater number of men to our ranks who possess those qualities we
desire for ourselves. However, this is no easy task. It requires fortitude, and
the ability to conquer our own comfortable indolence.
Naturally, membership increase as all end
in-itself cannot be fulfilling; it must be paced by
a process of greatly increased education and
training of our members. For Brothers
prepared to undertake this responsibility and
not just for them alone Masonic tutoring
holds no taboos.
We must also intensify our capacity and
readiness to effect internal reforms. A dedication to traditional form and the courage to
tackle reform are not mutually excluding; each
is dependent upon the other. For a Mason,
prescribed, or due form as the vessel containing
our intellectual heritage, is something indispensable. In its 250-year history, our Brotherhood
has repeatedly demonstrated its capacity to
rediscover and define the original essence, the
truth and purity of its rituals and symbols; even
then when the specter of past hypertrophy, that
deeply ingrained overgrowth of false.
misunderstood concepts as to what constituted tradition, was carried along as
ballast. An overly uncritical retention of long-obsolete portions
of our usage, those which are no longer
believable and have long since been devoid of
real meaning as an example, the rather bombastically formulated, horrifying
penalties, constitute a considerable hindrance in respect of our attempts to
defend ourselves from critical attacks. Custom and ritual are matters of
exclusive concern to our partner Grand Lodges. However, as Grand Master
representing our entire jurisdiction I want to provide the
impulse; in view of the urgency of the questions we are increasingly being confronted with,
we ourselves must be confident of our subject
matter, that we may represent our precious
customs with inner conviction.
Great challenges lie before us. Our most important mission in the future as far
as our intellectual work is concerned, I envision in the
form of a "New Enlightenment". Here too, as
part of this 'Outlook' I want to provide a final
impulse:
Humanity at present finds itself in the midst of a tremendous transition. The
belief in progress (for its own sake) has widely yielded to considerable doubt.
New anxieties have elicited new intolerance. Man is uncertain of himself. In the
media we can read the question: "Is Homo sapiens faced with extinction due to
the excesses of his brain, just as the saber-toothed tiger once arrived at an
evolutionary dead end?" In the commentary columns of leading weekly papers we
run into such headlines as: "The Enlightenment Dismisses Its Children," or "Intellect is
the Real Insanity." The menace of atomic
destruction is whip-lashed as being a direct
result of the enlightenment. Man mistrusts his
own intellectual faculties. He would (see to)
prefer to begin a retract back to the Middle
Ages. Drop-out movements and sects of
types have been multiplying. Man (seems to)
want to divest himself of himself . He seeks total
surrender and subservience.
In one of our magazines this 'new wave' was
characterized thusly: "It involves renunciation
of personal intellect, personal opinion, of
everything which constitutes the foundation of
human freedom. It involves a voluntary retreat
to that human condition referred to by Immanuel Kant as 'self-inflicted dependency'; a
retreat to that magical-religious, befuddled
idolatry which the best minds of our Western
civilization have resisted for the past 30 years."
Hermann Hesse, who, in contrast to the contemporary 'Baghwan pilgrims' was always
are of the drawbacks of his own personal Far
East yearnings referred to this widespread
trend as an "escape from the agony of
adulthood", and "an infantile flight back to
Paradise, an unwillingness to abandon
childhood or accept the riddles of the universe
and master them."
We, as Freemasons, must regard these
challenges characterized here only in a few
glaring phrases not only with concern, but also as a great new task to which we
should devote ourselves with determination. Masonic Lodges were the breeding
grounds and also the refuge of the monumental movements of "The Enlightenment",
that human bursting of intellectual bonds, and for all that we possess today in intellectual freedom and progress, we
owe a debt of thanks to the I8th Century
awakening, with all its risks and dangers. None
of the spiritual fathers of that human release
from intellectual bondage ever promised an
awakening in Paradise. On the contrary; as the
result of that "Enlightenment" man first
became fully aware of the burden and responsibility imposed upon him by Clod's admonition
to go out and "subdue" the Earth. But the true
meaning of "subdue" in that sense is: you have
the responsibility, and are appointed as the
guardian and protector of your own destiny, as
well as that of the Earth.
The light of pure reason illuminates our
temples. We want the man who can perceive;
who can grasp and accept the universal order;
one who responsibly structures his life with rational humanitarianism. As Thomas Dehler
aptly stated at the Konvent of the United Grand
Lodges of Germany two decades ago, in Hamburg, we want "the person who embodies
human dignity, who is ever mindful of his
development and his responsibilities toward
himself, his family, and the community; who at
no time attempts to rid himself of this responsibility, but bears it with full awareness; who
does not act out of hollow instinct; one who
does not sanction cheap incantentions or succumb to untruths; who does not hope
for a miracle, but believes that God helps those who help themselves"; one who
knows that freedom exists only when defended with determination, courage, honesty, and the power of
deeds."
Lodges are places of self-discovery.
Freemasonry enables one to face up to himself
and his capabilities with courage, and enhances
self-confidence. Lodges of the future will be
much more, as fellowship associations with
customs and some intellectual demands. With
the fascination and convincing power of the old
rituals, which they will inherit as the result of
reforms, they will grow and become stronger;
and with the desire for common-sense, will
develop whole new areas in which to confirm
their intentions. They will devote themselves
to promoting a new human understanding
notable for its commitment to self-determination and responsibility. We are not
concerned with the limits of growth, but rather
with new horizons. As a counter-force to contemporary destructive ideologies we patiently
and persistently offer our age-old concept of
building; stone by stone. Together with all people of good will, we will resist
giving up hope for a more human world. Exactly because progress has raised so many new questions, we require new forces with faith in the triumph of
Reason.
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