Our History

The first Master of the Chair was the publishing director Br. Eckard Klostermann. Only two years after its founding, the lodge was drawn into the debate over an arrangement among German lodges and Grand Lodges of markedly German-völkisch-nationalist leanings, for which the national idea ranked far above that of the universal chain of brotherhood — in part, no doubt, a reaction to the unhappy Treaty of Versailles. So emphatically national a path the brethren of this lodge could not and would not follow. For the spirit of the young lodge was shaped by writers, journalists and art-minded brethren of a Rhenish-liberal temper. It was precisely for this temper that several brethren of the Mosaic confession, too, felt at home within this circle. A conflict was inevitable, because at that time in Bonn there was no alternative lodge to which these brethren in particular could have turned. The lodge „Beethoven" applied for, and received, its orderly release from the association of the Grand Lodge „Zur Sonne". Thereby, having communicated the grounds of its stance to all German lodges in a „Blaubuch" (Blue Book), it consciously entered into irregularity.

The substance of this „Blaubuch" — a copy of which, incidentally, is held in the „Prometheus" library in Bonn — was, in short, that the Masonic reality of 1930 was measured against the postulates of the „Alte Pflichten" (Old Charges, the foundational precepts of Freemasonry). The outcome of that comparison did not speak well for the Masonic reality of the day. It was fortunate, then, that on 26 July 1930 the Supreme Council for Germany of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite had installed eight St John's lodges, which in turn constituted the „Symbolische Großloge von Deutschland" (Symbolic Grand Lodge of Germany). The Bonn lodge joined it in order to end its irregularity, yet was in no haste to affiliate. On 19 December 1932 Br. Leo Müffelmann, the Grand Master of the Symbolic Grand Lodge, at last brought the light into the new daughter lodge. The new Grand Lodge, however, was not recognised by the nine previously established German Grand Lodges. Much could be said about this, and criticism would lie close at hand. Yet before pursuing such thoughts, one thing must be remembered: within the lodge „Beethoven", no brother was ever urged to leave the fraternal circle because his ethnic or religious affiliation was, in 1933, supposedly a burden upon the lodge. It should further be borne in mind that German Freemasonry's attitude towards Br. Müffelmann — that martyr of Freemasonry, the then Grand Master, to whom many lodges and Grand Lodges at the time denied the brotherly hand — was fundamentally transformed after the experience of the Hitler years.

This step into so-called irregularity was made easier for the lodge „Beethoven" by the fact that, thanks to the self-sacrifice of its brethren, it had been able to create its own home at Bernauerstraße 54 in Bonn. Although the lodge „Beethoven" had to close its doors in 1935, the temple, with its entire furnishing, survived the years of prohibition unchanged until the end of the war. After the war, in 1945, the remnant of former brethren had dwindled. Bonn and its Rhenish surroundings experienced the occupation by foreign troops for the second time. Characteristic of the British occupation, however, was that Br. Willi Dünwald, as early as 3 July 1945 — not yet two months after the capitulation — applied to the military government for the re-admission of the lodge, and obtained it on 21 July.

The lodge „Beethoven" was thus probably the first lodge in Germany to be permanently re-established after 1945. As the responsible Commanding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel D.G. Pirie decreed: „You are hereby authorized to reopen your freemasons lodge and to resume your meetings.." — restricting it, of course, to „freemasonary in the strict sense of the word". And indeed, Freemasonry in the strict sense of the word, and nothing else, had always been the sole concern of the lodge „Beethoven zur Ewigen Harmonie". At the first Paulskirche Convent — 1949 — „Beethoven" was likewise represented, yet did not join the new Grand Lodge (VGLvD, see below) constituted there. To debate the reasons here would be to tear open old trenches. The historically interested brother may read them in the proclamation of the founding convent of the „Bruderschaft zu den Alten Pflichten" of 15 January 1949, drafted and signed by the then Master of the Chair, Willi Dünwald. Once again the lodge was deemed irregular.

In this it did not stand alone. Out of a rather unhappy occasion — one which at the time compelled the Federal Directorate of the Grand National Mother Lodge (GNML) „Zu den Drei Weltkugeln" to turn to the then Minister of Justice, the unforgettable Br. Thomas Dehler — the workshop came almost by chance into closer contact with the oldest German Grand Lodge. The surviving correspondence following that first encounter, between the then National Grand Master, Br. Sasse, and the then Master of the Chair, Br. Willi Dünwald, suggests that the two found one another quickly, because they had come to value one another as men, as personalities, and as Freemasons. Both also recognised quickly that it must be advantageous both for the GNML — which had likewise lost many daughter lodges in the West — and for the lodge „Beethoven", which lacked affiliation to a Grand Lodge and thus legitimacy, to come together. It did cause difficulties for some brethren of the lodge „Beethoven" that they in particular — who, to use a term for the situation now outdated, were so to speak extreme-humanitarian — should now become a daughter lodge of one of the Christian Grand Lodges of old-Prussian tradition. Only by the narrowest of majorities did the body of Masters pass this resolution, after the Federal Directorate and the Mother Lodge had conceded the retention of its rituals and customs. Thus the Bonn workshop „Beethoven", since its acceptance on 18 June 1950, has been the only daughter lodge that does not belong to the ritual community of the GNML.

To our knowledge, today — apart from the lodge „Beethoven" — only two former daughter lodges of the „Symbolic Grand Lodge" of Germany still work within the brotherhood of German Freemasons: namely the St John's lodges „Zur Leuchte im Norden" in the Orient of Flensburg and „Zur Erkenntnis" in the Orient of Hamburg. To our knowledge, only the lodge „Beethoven" has preserved its ritual from that time. The distinctive character of the lodge, of course, also imposes obligations upon it. It goes without saying that voting members of the lodge within the Mother Lodge must always abstain whenever questions of ritual and custom are to be decided. On such matters they cannot and do not wish to have a say. Yet they vote when fundamental questions of Masonic work are at stake — should any matter ever (as is indeed unthinkable) stand in contradiction to the „Alten Pflichten" and the „Basic Principles", which are the indispensable ground-laws of Masonic work. To all brethren unfamiliar with the works and rituals of the lodge „Beethoven", much of it appears strange. The beauty, deeper meaning and even modernity of the ritual disclose themselves only gradually.

If we now attempt, briefly, to make the ritual and custom of this lodge intelligible, it is not a matter of emphasising the many small deviations. To mention only one point: the renunciation of „Zackigkeit" (sharp, brisk crispness) in the movements of those acting within the temple — replaced by a dignified measuredness. Yet a few differences in principle should be addressed here. The idea of equality is ritually emphasised. The gavels of the three gavel-bearing Masters are interchangeable and may be exchanged. There is, and there shall be, no richly ornamented lodge gavel. The two Wardens do not receive the light from the Master of the Chair in order to kindle their flames, but rather kindle their candles together with the Master of the Chair at the three-flamed lodge chandelier. Equally foregrounded is the idea of fraternal equality irrespective of Masonic degree. Work in the Fellow Craft and Master degrees is, under the rituals, possible only at promotions and raisings. The creators of the ritual in no way wished to reject the traditional division of degrees, but deliberately placed the main weight of the temple work upon the Entered Apprentice work.

In the lodge „Beethoven" one looks for the sword in vain. This lodge has no line of tradition leading to the Order idea, and no memory of its own of the Strict Observance. Not least for this reason, the lodge as a lodge — and the „as a lodge" is to be emphasised — takes no cognisance of higher degrees. It is, however, a self-evident duty of tolerance and brotherhood for every Master of the Chair to show and smooth the way into those degrees for any brother who wishes it. It is also meaningful that the three Great Lights and the carpet are left open already at the beginning of the work, and remain uncovered at the end of the temple work. After the end of the temple work one does indeed close a Masonic assembly — but never Masonic work itself. The work upon ourselves does not end, and therefore cannot be closed! One peculiarity of custom may yet be mentioned: the lodge is markedly reserved — let us plainly say stingy or miserly — with honours, honorary memberships and honorary offices. Experience shows that here too there are inflationary developments, with the consequence of devaluation. To do a thing for its own sake, not in the hope of honours, seems once again a timely demand — indeed, very likely old-Prussian teaching.

Long journeys to the lodge are the rule, not the exception. This has been so from earlier days already. In this lodge, the Masonic spirit is pursued uncompromisingly and with absolute priority. Yet a glance must now also be cast at the specifically Rhenish setting, which differs fundamentally from that of Berlin or the large cities of northern Germany. The brethren are aware of the Prussian tradition of the GNML, and they respect it. For the brethren who built up the lodge, the specifically „Prussian" was not a value in itself. They were mostly brethren who had grown up in Rhenish families and in the doctrine of the Roman Church, but who considered that doctrine too narrow in its dogmas and separated themselves from it. Liberality in the spirit of 1848 — indeed, of 1789 as well — always had a secure home in the Rhenish bourgeoisie. To be sure, the Rhineland too was Prussian — from 1815 on — for exactly 130 years. But the region around Bonn and Cologne had stood half a century longer — for 180 years — under the rule of Elector-Archbishops from the House of Wittelsbach. And when brethren unfamiliar with the Rhineland see images of carnival events, they must bear in mind that the carnival corps, appearing there in uniform, arose as parodies of the military that took up its garrisons in the Rhineland in 1815.

That by way of aside, and perhaps also for better understanding. Freemasonry has certainly not had an easier time of it in the Rhineland by chance. On 16 October 1980 the lodge was obliged to give up the temple in the Bennauerstraße which it had used since the 1920s. Following the death of the widow of the long-serving Master of the Chair, Br. Willi Dünwald, the house in the Bennauerstraße passed into other hands. Since 22 November 1980 the lodge has shared the Bonn Lodge House in the Dyroffstraße.