Adolf Hitler And The Freemasons

Several members of the forum have recently made the claim that Adolf Hitler, and members of his Nazi Party, were either Masons or pro-Masons. Although this has been covered before on the Secret Societies, I am gathering the facts concerning these assertions here in one place for easy reference, and hopefully benefitting the serious-minded members of ATS here in doing so.

One charge recently made was that Adolf Hitler was a member of the Thule Society. In reality, it seems that Hitler was never a member of the Thule Society, although Rudolf Hess and Alfred Rosenberg were members. There are several articles on the Internet that claim Hitler was a member, but this is speculation only, and is almost cetainly not true due to ther factors that too lengthy to go into here; interested readers are directed to "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" by William Shrirer.

The Thule Society was not Masonic, nor did it have any ties to Freemasonry. It was originally a Germanic re-hashing of the Theosophical Society, but began developing a racist character under direction of the notorious anti-Semite Alfred Rosenberg. Eventually, the Thule Society ceased being a mystical society altogether, and became just one of many white supremacist organizations, with a militant right-wing political agenda. The Society began to fall apart, but a couple of its members went on to join the fascist National Socialist Party, and eventually to take it over.

Several posters have seemed to claim that in German Masonry, there is a difference between "old Prussian Lodges" and "Lodges that admit Jews", although this claim is, to put it charitably, ambiguous at best. In reality, regular Masonic Lodges admit Jews, and always have since the formation of the first Grand Lodge of England in 1717. Masonry requires only a belief in a Supreme Being, and not that potential members follow a certain religion.

Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of the German Reich on January 30, 1933, and ordered that several anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic pamphlets be printed by the government and circulated among the citizenry. Among these official Nazi documents were "Annhilation of Freemasonry", "Freemasonry, Marxism, and Judaism: The Cause of War", and "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion". At this time, the Nazi Party began to take on the extreme characteristic of an organization of anti-Masonic conspiracy theorists.

In 1933, there were 638 Masonic Lodges in Germany with 79,000 members, working under authority of 9 Grand Lodges which all recognized each other. In 1934, Nazi Party hack Hermann Goering issued a decree dissolving the Lodges. The three largest Grand Lodges (Three Globes, All German Freemasons, and Royal York of Friendship) ceased to exist completely. There is evidence that other Lodges continued to meet secretly.

In order to combat any remains of Freemasonry, Goering ordered the establishment of an anti-Masonic fraternity called the Christian Order of Frederick the Great. Originally, the primary purpose of this organization was to oppose Freemasonry, but also soon became a place to instill Nazi ideology more heavily into its members. Similar to the Brown Shirts, the Christian Order of Frederick the Great were a paramilitary order, and it was they who were assigned the task of looting and destroying Masonic buildings in Germany.

The very name �Christian Order of Frederick the Great� was an anti-Masonic tool. According to the Nazi legend, Frederick, king of Prussia, became a Christian in his old age, and because of that, he renounced Masonry because of its Jewish and Kabalistic symbolism, and dedicated the rest of his life to right-wing nationalism and anti-Semitism. This Nazi legend, like all of their legends, was a pure lie. Frederick never renounced Masonry, and was buried with Masonic funeral rites. He had served as Grand Master of both Symbolic Masonry and the Rite of Perfection. He was a life-long Deist and never became a Christian. And he was the first Prussian monarch to grant full equal civil rights to that nation�s Jewish and Muslim minorities. The Nazis� �Christian Order of Frederick the Great� is a perfect example of a group of conspiracy theorists rewriting history in order to control their dupes through propaganda.

There were indeed several former Masons who were members of the Christian Order of Frederick the Great; however, it was required that any former Mason who joined would publicly denounce Masonry, and accept, in its place, �the gospels of Christianity and National Socialism�. Needless to say, not only was the society not Masonic, but it wasn�t Christian either.

On August 8, 1935, Adolf Hitler signed a decree demanding the immediate arrest and imprisonment of all persons who had not resigned from Masonic societies. The military corps of the Christian Order of Frederick the Great, along with the SS, raided the homes of suspected Masons on this night; all who were suspected of being Masonic leaders were executed, while mere members were jailed. Eventually, most were shipped to concentration camps, where they were gassed.

After the beginning of World War II, the Nazis banned Freemasonry in each country they conquered. The Christian Order of Frederick the Great organized the infamous �Anti-Masonic Exhibit� at Belgrade in the early 1940�s. The Center For Holocaust Studies has images of the exhibit�s posters on its website here;

www.chgs.umn.edu

At Nuremberg, the Allied prosecution introduced large stacks of Nazi documents, proving Nazi genocide against Freemasons. Among these documents was the official Nazi Party policy concerning Masonry called �Freemasonry Ideology� by SS Reichsofficer Dietrich Shwarz. Naturally, the handbook calls for the complete annhilation of Masonry and Masons, of every Rite.

This booklet has been translated into English, and is available on several neo-Nazi and white supremacist websites.

www.third-reich-books.com...

Mod Edit: Reduced Link Length.

[edit on 15/5/2007 by Mirthful Me]

Hitler was a Catholic, as was Himmler. Hitler referred to Himmler as "our Ignatius of Loyola." After Hitler was finished with killing the jews the Masons were next. Even the german Masons were scared of this thus they started wearing a blue forget me not inside there lapel fearing of this being seen they were in trouble. Hitler was anti masonic this probably being fuelled by his catholic heritage and close ties with the vatican during the holocaust when they were helping him and fascist Italy www.remnantofgod.org...
Hitler himself was gathering intelligence on all top ranking masons in Scotland and other countries so he could kill them when he was finished with the jews, thus effectively wiping out all the people the vatican called heretics in one swoop afterall they helped build and fund his war machine!

And i was just getting ready to practice my goose step for the next function......


Next accusation will be along the lines of Charles Manson and Jack the Ripper were masons, I have actual facts, if you watch the movie from hell....


I'm doing my best not to get angry with the person directly responsible for these ridiculous lies, however it's growing more and more annoying by day...


Regards

The Wiz

Hitler was raised as a Catholic, but was not a practicing one. In reality, he adopted a "Nazified" version of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and was, for all practical purposes, an atheist.

See "Mein Kampf".

Further, the Nazis persecuted the Roman Catholic clergy in Germany also, especially toward the end of the war. This was when the Nazis took the hardline step that all Christianity (including Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodox) were based on Jewish myths, and were therefore the enemy of the state.

www.nazis.testimony.co.uk...

Originally posted by Masonic Light
Further, the Nazis persecuted the Roman Catholic clergy in Germany also, especially toward the end of the war. This was when the Nazis took the hardline step that all Christianity (including Catholicism, Protestantism, and Eastern Orthodox) were based on Jewish myths, and were therefore the enemy of the state.

Interesting theory, but the real role of the churches in the nazi empire remains shadowy as of today. Hitler alledgedly read the Avesta instead of the evangels (they have same content), and certainly had some pagan esoteric beliefs very en vogue throughout the beginning of the 20th century. So he can certainly be described as an "enlightened" person. That is perhaps where the myth of his connection to freemasonry comes from. His de-facto opposition to freemasonry, however came from two sources : firstly, all former "power circles" in Germany had to be deposed, and secondly the close traditional association between freemasonry and jewry was probably the determining factor in the persecution of freemasons.

Great post ML. You got my vote.

Here are some more links to show how Hitler felt about Freemasonry.

freemasonry.bcy.ca...

www.freemasons-freemasonry.com...

www.bessel.org...

www.bessel.org...


And testimony from a British POW in Germany.


www.naval-history.net...

"So the next Monday morning we mustered to the call of Firma Winkler. The next part may be humourous now, but at the time was not so comical. When mustering inside the barrier gate, the fussy German corporal, who seemed to be always querying and poking his nose into whatever was going on, asked me if I was a Maurer and when I replied in the affirmative he followed up with the question: "Bist Du Freimaurer?" To me it was all the same, so once again I answered yes. At this he began to slash me across the face with his gloves and for a moment I could only stand flabbergasted. Then I let out a roar and called him a good few Anglo-Saxon lower deck titles. With this uproar going on we were soon surrounded by armed guards, who must have thought that I was attacking the silly sod. This was enough to draw the solid oak Feldwebel to the scene, accompanied by Dolmy. There followed screaming questions and screaming answers until Dolmy was able to intervene. It seems that being a mason was acceptable, but being a Freimaurer meant that I was a Freemason and an abomination in the sight of Hitler and his cohorts, about on par with Jews. The only thing I knew about Freemasonry was that Uncle Stan and Uncle John had been members."


What Hitler thought of Catholicism:

www.geocities.com...

www.bede.org.uk...

to masonic light and leveller is the forget me not story that i posted true, i have heard this on many occassions but wish to know if fellow masons have heard the same story?

Yes, it is true.
I actually wear one myself. It was the first masonic pin that I ever received and had a little card attached to it with the story.

I believe that in Germany they are still presented to a Brother when he is raised.

ok leveller thanks for that i just didnt want my info to be from a bad source as maybe some recent info has, regards david

Originally posted by krotzkrotz
Interesting theory, but the real role of the churches in the nazi empire remains shadowy as of today.

According to William Shrirer, an American journalist who lived in Berlin and was an eyewitness to the Nazi culture, the Nazis originally played on "Christian" anti-Semitic sympathy, but eventually replaced Christian churches (of all denominations) with Nazi ones. Crosses and crucifixes were taken down, replace by the swastika. Shrirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" is usually considered the authoritative history, and the complete story can be found there.

Hitler alledgedly read the Avesta instead of the evangels (they have same content), and certainly had some pagan esoteric beliefs very en vogue throughout the beginning of the 20th century. So he can certainly be described as an "enlightened" person.

Hitler may have read the Zend Avesta, but I must strongly disagree that he was enlightened. I would go as far to say that he was one of the most unenlightened persons on the planet.

Originally posted by Masonic Light
According to William Shrirer, an American journalist who lived in Berlin and was an eyewitness to the Nazi culture, the Nazis originally played on "Christian" anti-Semitic sympathy, but eventually replaced Christian churches (of all denominations) with Nazi ones. Crosses and crucifixes were taken down, replace by the swastika. Shrirer's "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich" is usually considered the authoritative history, and the complete story can be found there.

I must confess i havent read that story, but, having had access to some original literature, i'm wary of stories where "everything of one type" was replaced by another. Accounts of the churches under national socialism generally omit the very widespread concept of "german church", seeing Hitler as a reformator.

Hitler may have read the Zend Avesta, but I must strongly disagree that he was enlightened. I would go as far to say that he was one of the most unenlightened persons on the planet.

That is certainly debatable. One should contend at least that Hitler's plan for reformation of christianity is still overdue today. Most historical accounts of national socialism focus on racist theories, while it is not at all certain that they were a dominating ideology. It is not even certain if antisemitism was a central theme of nazi ideology or was just used as a political tool. Most accounts omit that f.ex. a huge part of modern social , gender and environnemental legislations are due to nazi influence. Many modern culturalist theories (f.ex. Huntington, Clash) are copypasted from nazi ideologues. Central theme of nazi ideology was not the theme of a master race, but of "every culture in it's own way", which stands in contradiction with historical republican ideas, but is still widespread today.



[edit on 7-1-2005 by krotzkrotz]

I was told the Forget Me Not was worn by masonic Jews in the concentration camps. They wore it on the underside of their lapels to stay in contact with Masonry without being further persecuted.

I would imagine their are a number of variations of the story, but any of them shows Hitler was definetly not a mason.

Originally posted by krotzkrotz
Accounts of the churches under national socialism generally omit the very widespread concept of "german church", seeing Hitler as a reformator.

Most historical accounts of national socialism focus on racist theories, while it is not at all certain that they were a dominating ideology. It is not even certain if antisemitism was a central theme of nazi ideology or was just used as a political tool. Central theme of nazi ideology was not the theme of a master race, but of "every culture in it's own way", which stands in contradiction with historical republican ideas, but is still widespread today.

I have to disagree with you.
German nazism was not National Socialism in the way that it is normally defined, just as the Soviet Union was not a Communist regime. The impurities bastardized the concept and turned it into something completely different.
The German churches really had no choice but to see Hitler as anything else other than a reformer. They were put into a position where their hands were tied when Hitler put forward the 1933 concordat.

As for racism being a major theme of German nazism? You only have to read Mein Kampf to see what a dominating factor this was.

Originally posted by Bondi
I was told the Forget Me Not was worn by masonic Jews in the concentration camps. They wore it on the underside of their lapels to stay in contact with Masonry without being further persecuted.

I would imagine their are a number of variations of the story, but any of them shows Hitler was definetly not a mason.

A few years ago, I was awarded the Order of the Blue Forget-Me-Not, and presented with a pin, certificate, and history. The pin was worn by Masons leaving under Fascist regimes, regardless of Jew or Gentile. The history can be read here:

www.bessel.org...

Originally posted by Leveller
I have to disagree with you.
German nazism was not National Socialism in the way that it is normally defined, just as the Soviet Union was not a Communist regime. The impurities bastardized the concept and turned it into something completely different.
The German churches really had no choice but to see Hitler as anything else other than a reformer. They were put into a position where their hands were tied when Hitler put forward the 1933 concordat.

I agree with you leveller, but i tend to differentiate between the official nazi propaganda/doctrines, which were more "humane", and the prussian militaristic reality of persecution and absolute social ordering.

Originally posted by krotzkrotz
I agree with you leveller, but i tend to differentiate between the official nazi propaganda/doctrines, which were more "humane", and the prussian militaristic reality of persecution and absolute social ordering.

Are you sure you've not got that topsy turvy, dude?

Hitler saw the Prussian mindset and way of running things as being outdated and lax. He believed that their system of government was open to abuse by "enemies of the state". His idea was to bring in a far more controlled order under his brand of Nazism.

www.mondopolitico.com...

As you can see, he saw Prussian propaganda as a sad joke that was ineffectual and damaging to it's own people through way of being not strong enough and sending out mixed messages.

Hitler wrote that it was the weak Prussian government who were responsible for Germany losing WW1. The interesting thing is that he didn't blame their defeat in war for the collapse of Germany afterwards. He saved that "honour" for the Jews and Marxists as they had manipulated the Prussian system.

www.mondopolitico.com...

He therefore sought to clear away the weak Prussian way of governing the country and to replace it with his own authoritarian brand of Nazism. It was a vastly more despotic and controlling force than anything that had gone before. It could be argued that some remnant of Prussian mentality remained in the Nazi Party once Hitler took power, but Hitler was known for surrounding himself with his own people. He cleared out most of those whom he saw as being of Prussian outlook precisely because he blamed them for being indirectly responsible for the failures of the past.

We then move onto his propaganda aims and how he intended to exert authority:

"Anyone who wants to win the broad masses must know the key that opens the door to their heart. Its name is not objectivity (read weakness), but will and power. The soul of the people can only be won if along with carrying on a positive struggle for our own aims, we destroy the opponent of these aims."


Hitler also claimed that propaganda had to be cruder. He claimed that propaganda could only be aimed at either the masses or the intelligensia, but that neither of these two sections of society could understand the propaganda aimed at the other. It was therefore better to just aim at one side and gain their following, than to risk losing both over a confused message. He chose the masses. Because he deemed them to be less intelligent, he believed that the message should be more brutal. Obviously, if you control the masses, you can control nearly everything, but by neglecting the intelligensia propaganda and giving out the wrong message to them, they became a possible threat. Not only that, but propaganda aimed at the masses was deemed to be easier to create. The intelligensia would analyse any message aimed at them, whereas a message thrown to the masses is generally short and sweet and once it catches on it spreads like a virus. A cruder message will be easily digestible as long as it is delivered properly.

This could be the main reason why Hitler decided to persecute Freemasonry. Freemason's Lodges were deemed to hold many intelligensia and they could see the Nazi propaganda purely for what it was - a means to gain control and restrict freedom of action and thought: everything that Freemasonry stands against.
It's an interesting fact that whenever a despotic regime takes over a nation, it normally starts out with a massive propaganda thrust at the masses and Freemasonry is normally one of the first organisations that is persecuted - the Soviet Union and the Middle East are just two examples. It seems that many later dictators learnt from Hitler's words. Pol Pot in Cambodia didn't take any such chances of dissent from the propaganda neglected side of society and went even further - he decided to execute all intelligensia and even the wearing of spectacles was enough to have you murdered.

To illustrate how Hitler decided to neglect propaganda aimed at the intelligensia and his low opinion of them, we have these statements.

"The so called 'intelligentsia' always looks down with a really limitless condescension on anyone who has not been dragged through the obligatory schools and had the necessary knowledge pumped into him. The question has never been: What are the man's abilities? but: What has he learned? To these 'educated' people the biggest empty-head, if he is wrapped in enough diplomas, is worth more than the brightest boy who happens to lack these costly envelopes. And so it was easy for me to imagine how this 'educated' world would confront me, and in this I erred only in so far as even then I still regarded people as better than in cold reality they for the most part unfortunately are."

"What the intelligentsia - or those who today unfortunately often go by that name - what they need is not propaganda but scientific instruction."

"Once we understand how necessary it is for propaganda to be adjusted to the broad mass, the following rule results:
It is a mistake to make propaganda many-sided, like scientific instruction, for instance."

Hitler does seem to have discovered another problem with Freemasonry above. Freemasonry teaches it's members to study the hidden meanings of science and nature. In effect, to look beyond science - one of the effects of this is to actually create scientific theory as well as spiritual. Freemasonry has undeniably had members who have been in possession of some of the brightest scientific minds ever. It was therefore very hard for Hitler to find a way to educate people in a subject to which his "students" already had superior knowledge. So although Hitler may have had a plan on how to deal with the "public" intelligensia, it would have been a useless effort when implemented on the Masonic intelligensia. He had a society containing intelligensia who were immune to any coercion and aware of his plans of control - in effect, they were outside of his sphere of psychological influence. Therefore, the only safe way to deal with Freemasonry was to dispose of it.

"Propaganda must be adjusted to the broad masses in content and in form, and its soundness is to be measured exclusively by its effective result. In a mass meeting of all classes it is not that speaker who is mentally closest to the intellectuals present who speaks best, but the one who conquers the heart of the masses."

The brand of control used was not Prussian in it's origins. It was part of Hitler's concept of National Socialism and is highlighted by his statement:

"From the basic ideas of a general folkish world conception the National Socialist German Workers' Party takes over the essential fundamental traits, and from them, with due consideration of practical reality, the times, and the available human material as well as its weaknesses, forms a political creed which, in turn, by the strict organizational integration of large human masses thus made possible, creates the precondition for the victorious struggle of this world view."

Hitler saw victory only through strict control of the masses. Controlling them was the key to everything. The intelligensia could be concentrated upon once the obeyance of the masses had been gained. But he only had the means "instruct" some of the intelligensia and indoctrinate them, so the others outside of his power had to be disposed of before they created a threat to his dominance. It was therefore necessary to create a new propaganda and a new creed of social order and it did not reflect or directly draw upon anything that had gone before, as he believed that all the prior Prussian philosophies were indirectly responsible for Germany's sorry plight. He therefore created the philosophy we see in Mein Kampf and then put it into practice. And it was far more inhumane and controlling than anything that a Prussian mindset, society or government had ever inflicted on the German people, indeed the world, as many tyrants have put Hitler's philosophy into practice and destroyed millions of lives since. To control the people, Hitler believed that you had to control their minds - what could be worse than that?



[edit on 7-1-2005 by Leveller]

[edit on 7-1-2005 by Leveller]

hitler taking out the masons in germany is a real thought. seeing how rome let hitler run amuck killing the jews, taking out the next target seems to be lodigcal.

Well then would it be safe to say that Hitler was at least a Satanist? Or an extreme occultist? There is much info that suggest he was a Satanist.

Originally posted by TgSoe
Well then would it be safe to say that Hitler was at least a Satanist? Or an extreme occultist? There is much info that suggest he was a Satanist.

Hitler believed that satan was a Jewish myth (he believed the same thing about Christianity).

The Nazis followed a heavily revised version of the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, and espoused atheism. For further info, see Hitler's "Mein Kampf", which can be read online.