Rosenberg's Attack on the Lodges.
It was not until Hitler's era that this line was severed.
Unveiling the Dark Secrets: The Nazi Regime's Ruthless Assault on Freemasonry.
Even during the Weimar Republic, nationalist circles, particularly the couple Erich and Mathilde Ludendorff, strongly criticized Freemasonry.
Among the Nazis, it was Alfred Rosenberg who followed the same path. Although the chief Nazi ideologue dismissed some of Ludendorff's theses as "uncritical exaggeration," he was no less fervent.
Other Nazi officials also vehemently attacked the discreet society, often with anti-Semitic undertones, as can be read in the unique collection of sources titled "Im Kampf gegen die Logen – Freimaurerei & Nationalsozialismus."
Rosenberg, for instance, wrote in party publications about a "liberal-plutocratic lodge policy" that he believed was controlled by "Jewish finance."
The Silent Struggle: How Nazis Targeted and Suppressed Freemasonry in Germany.
Within German Freemasonry, he identified a "left-wing faction" that was "directly dependent on French-Jewish Masonry," while he claimed that the "national" and "Christian" wing merely camouflaged themselves but espoused the same ideas against the Reich.
Hjalmar Schacht and the Ban According to the Baltic German, the entire lodge system belonged to the "old intellectual trash, like other ideas of the 18th century that were expanded in the 19th." From this, Rosenberg concluded:
"The German freedom movement (NSDAP) has declared war on Freemasonry, and differences should not be glossed over but fought to a decision."
After the Nazi seizure of power, the lodges attempted to counteract this by showing servitude.
Even the "International Masonic Lexicon" acknowledges their humiliation and obsequiousness.
Testimony to this can be found in a congratulatory telegram sent by the grand masters of the three Prussian grand lodges to Hitler, who had just been appointed Chancellor, on March 21, 1933. It stated:
"Just as we have faithfully worked for the well-being of the German people according to our national and Christian traditions, we will continue to offer the most loyal support to the national government and employ all our available resources to contribute to the reconstruction of our beloved fatherland."
When their brother Hjalmar Schacht was appointed Reich Minister of Economics by Hitler almost a year later, they may have continued to hope. However, their hopes were in vain, as all German lodges were closed, and Freemasonry was banned in 1936.
Today, most reports on the National Socialists' policies towards Freemasonry are based on secondary literature and often consist of quotes taken out of context.
But now, everyone can form their own opinion because the book "Im Kampf gegen die Logen – Freimaurerei & Nationalsozialismus" brings together the most important primary source texts on Freemasonry from the Nazi era in their unabridged original form.
It also includes a highly explosive text on the involvement of Hitler's associates in Freemasonry, as well as introductory contributions to the topic.
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