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Compass, Square and Swastika

COMPASS, SQUARE AND SWASTIKA: FREEMASONRY IN THE THIRD REICH

A Dissertation

by

CHRISTOPHER CAMPBELL THOMAS

Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

August 2011

Major Subject: History COMPASS, SQUARE AND SWASTIKA: FREEMASONRY IN THE THIRD REICH A Dissertation by CHRISTOPHER CAMPBELL THOMAS

Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

Approved by:

• Chair of Committee, Arnold Krammer
• Committee Members, David Vaught
• Robert Shandley
• Adam Seipp
• Head of Department, David Vaught

August 2011

Major Subject: History

ABSTRACT

Compass, Square and Swastika: Freemasonry in the Third Reich. (August 2011)

Christopher Campbell Thomas, B.A., Arizona State University; M.A., Texas A&M

University

Chair of Advisory Committee: Dr. Arnold Krammer

Nazi persecution was not uniform and could be negotiated by the groups being targeted based on a number of factors including the racial status of the group being persecuted, the willingness of the group members to cooperate with the regime, the services and skills the group had to offer and the willingness of the regime to allow cooperation.

The experience of Freemasons under the Third Reich provides an example of the ability of targeted groups to negotiate Nazi persecution based on these factors.

As members of the educated and professional class, Freemasons belonged to the demographic that most strongly supported Hitler from the late 1920s until war’s outbreak in 1939.

For Hitler, the skills these men possessed as doctors, lawyers, businessmen and bankers were essential to the success of the regime. So what would have otherwise been a mutually beneficial relationship eagerly sought after by both parties was prevented by the fact that the men were Freemasons and thus had ties to an organization whose ideology stood in complete contrast to that of National Socialism.

However, because the identifier “Freemason” was not one based on biology or race, Freemasons had the ability to shed their identity as Freemasons by leaving the regime, an ability that they willingly and eagerly exercised. In return, the Nazi Party had to decide to what extent former Freemasons, whose professional skills and talent were so essential, could be allowed to work with the regime.

Thus began the complex dance of compromise as each side tested the limits of what it could and couldn’t do in order to cooperate with the other. For former Freemasons, the goal was trying to prove loyalty to the regime in the face of their previous lodge membership. For the regime the goal was finding a balance between ideological purity and practical necessity. Though the Nazis destroyed Freemasonry as an institution, the success of former Freemasons in aligning with the party as individuals shows the ability of Germans, even those in targeted groups, to escape persecution and even benefit from the regime that had previously targeted them.

NOMENCLATURE

AMI L’association Maconnique Internationale
BArch Bundesarchiv
ERR Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg
GStA PK Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preussicher Kulturbesitz
DAF Deutsche Arbeitsfront
DDP Deutsche Demokratische Partei
DVP Deutsche Volkspartei
KSCV Kösener Senioren-Convents-Verband
NARA National Archives and Records Administration
NSDAP Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei
NSDStB Nationalsozialistische Deutscher Studentenbund
NSV Nationalsozialistische Volkswohlfahrt
OKH Oberkommando des Heeres
OKW Oberkommando der Wehrmacht
RFSS Reichsführer-SS
RM Reichsmark
RMdI Reichsministerium des Innern
RSHA Reichsicherheitshauptamt
RuPrMdI Reich und Preussicher Ministerium des Innern
RUSchlA/USCHLA Reich Untersuchung und Schlichtungs-Ausschuss
SA Sturmabteilung
SD Sicherheitsdienst
SGvD Symbolische Großloge von Deutschland
SPD Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands
SS Schutzstaffeln
IOBB Independent Order of B’nai B’rith
USHMM United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
VB Völkischer Beobachter

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page
ABSTRACT.............................................................................................................. iii
NOMENCLATURE.................................................................................................. v
TABLE OF CONTENTS.......................................................................................... vii
CHAPTER
I INTRODUCTION................................................................................ 1
II WHO WERE THE FREEMASONS, REALLY? ................................ 21
III LODGE CLOSURES AND REACTIONS.......................................... 48
IV DEFINING “FREEMASON” .............................................................. 82
V LOOTING LODGES, LOOTING LIMITS ......................................... 117
VI THE STRANGE CASE OF DR. SCHACHT AND MR. HITLER..... 144
VII EPILOGUE AND CONCLUSION...................................................... 176
REFERENCES.......................................................................................................... 190
APPENDIX ............................................................................................................... 201
VITA ......................................................................................................................... 209

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Hitler based his hatred of Freemasonry on the belief that through it, Jews sidestepped the racial and legal barriers that marginalized them in European society.1 Consequently, one of Hitler’s first acts after seizing power was to shut the lodges down; a task that was completed in just two years. When war broke out four years later, Hitler’s anti-Masonic attitude spread along with his invading armies, prompting Sven Lunden, a correspondent with the American Mercury, to proclaim that “there is only one group of men whom the Nazis and the Fascists hate more than the Jews.

They are the Freemasons.”2

Though an intriguing declaration, to be sure, Lunden was wrong; the Nazis did not hate Freemasons more than Jews. In fact, Nazis didn’t hate Freemasons at all; the Nazis hated “Freemasonry,” but not necessarily “Freemasons.” The ideology was what the Nazis hated, not the men. On the contrary, the men who made up the bulk of the German Masonic lodges were very people that had increasingly gravitated toward the regime during the Weimar Republic and supported it after the seizure of power. They were established, educated, middle-class and professional men of good Germanstock. The only thing keeping the Nazis from welcoming these men was their This dissertation follows the style of American Historical Review.

1 Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939), 433.

2 Sven G. Lunden, “Annihilation of Freemasonry,” American Mercury, February, 1941, 184-190.

VITA

Christopher Campbell Thomas received his Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Arizona State University in 2004. He entered the graduate program at Texas A&M University in September 2004, receiving his Master of Arts in history in May 2007 and his Doctor of Philosophy in history in August 2011. His research interests include modern Europe, modern United States and history and film. Mr. Thomas may be reached at the Department of History, Melburn G. Glasscock Building, Room 101, TAMU 4236, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843.

His email address is

cthomas142@gmail.com.

See also

• En: Freemasonry under the Nazis