Metadata: Collection of documents of Masonic Lodges, including those in Dresden, Hanover and Altenburg
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Holding institution (official language):
- Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. Emanuela Ringelbluma
- Postal address:
- Archiwum, Żydowski Instytut Historyczny im. E. Ringelbluma, ul. Tłomackie 3/5, 00-090 Warszawa
- Phone number:
- (+48 22) 827 92 21
- Email:
- secretary@jhi.pl
- Reference number:
- 312/118
- Title:
- Collection of documents of Masonic Lodges, including those in Dresden, Hanover and Altenburg
- Title (official language):
- Zbiór dokumentów lóż masońskich m.in. w Dreźnie, Hanowerze, Altenburgu.
- Creator/accumulator:
- Masonic movement
- Date(s):
- 1815/1939
- Language:
- German
- French
- Dutch; Flemish
- Czech
- Latin
- Italian
- Hebrew
- Polish
- Spanish; Castilian
- Yiddish
- Extent:
- 66 archival units (1.0 linear metre)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Graphic material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection includes:
ref. nos. 1-2: correspondence of lodges in Germany (1846-1935);
ref. no. 3: correspondence of lodges in the Netherlands (1926-1939);
ref. no. 4: sample diplomas of members of the lodge in Hanover;
ref. nos. 5-34: diplomas of members of masonic lodges sorted alphabetically by surname. In many cases, one individual was a member of several lodges in different cities.
ref. nos. 35-37: lists of names of members of various lodges and the lodge "Carl zum neuen Licht";
ref. nos. 38-47: sheet music of religious and Masonic songs;
ref. nos. 48-54: selected scores of works by various composers (including E. Mendelssohn, F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, W.A. Mozart, F. Hiller, H. Ring, F. Chopin, A. Rubinstein, R. Schumann);
ref. no. 55: poster of a concert in honour of the fallen; a poster for an evening open to the public in the Dresden Lodge;
ref. no. 56: Hugo Weber-Rumpe brochure Gedächtnisstoff aus der Musik;
ref. nos. 57-58: documents relating to lodges in Germany, e.g. brochures, lists of members, forms, excerpts from publications;
ref. nos. 59-60: documents relating to lodges in the Netherlands, e.g. regulations, brochures, fragment of the statute, forms, certificate forms, a commemorative book;
ref. nos. 61-62: cash books;
ref. no. 63: Spanish-German dictionary;
ref. nos. 64-66: books on freemasonry, e.g., Alexander Levy, Nadia Strasser Wir Juden, Dieter Schwarz Das Weltjudentum.
- Archival history:
- The materials were transferred to the collection of the Archives of the Central Jewish Historical Commission in 1947 by the County Jewish Committee in Kłodzko. They were probably found in 1945 at a railway siding in Kłodzko and are part of a larger collection of Jewish documents removed from Berlin by the Germans.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The beginnings of the Masonic movement are associated with the guilds of builders, or masons, active in England in the 16th century. Among them were masters, journeymen and apprentices, and these titles survived. In the mid-seventeenth century, the meetings of masons, already known as Freemasons, began to take on an increasingly social character. They included representatives of free professions, such as doctors, lawyers, and scientists. The beginning of modern Freemasonry is considered to be the merger of the lodges from England into the "Great Lodge of London" on 24 June 1717. The Constitution of 1723 assumed the principle of equality of people regardless of their talents and social position, and the political neutrality of the lodges. Similar organisations soon arose in Paris, Madrid, Florence, America, and eventually Russia and Austria, and elsewhere. The first lodge in Germany was established in 1737 in Hamburg, and it was the lodge where the first Jews were admitted. In 1872, the German Association of Free Lodges was established.
Before Hitler came to power, there were 650 lodges in Germany, with some 80,000 members. The Nazi system repressed German freemasonry: 62 people were murdered, 53 were sent to concentration camps and 238 were expelled from the country. After WWII, the movement was rebuilt. In 1948, the Association of Grand Masters was established in Germany and in 1949 the Great United Lodge of Germany was established. Only the Great Lodge of Freemasons in Germany and the Great Lodge of the Three Globes did not join these associations until 1956.
- Access points: locations:
- Dresden
- Germany
- Hanover
- Netherlands
- Subject terms:
- Freemasons
- Music
- Music--Composers
- Sheet music
- System of arrangement:
- The collection is arranged thematically.
- Finding aids:
- A digital inventory (2012) is available in Polish.
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Monika Taras; The Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute; April 2020
