THEODOR REUSS

Irregular Freemasonry in Germany, 1900-23

BY BRO. ELLIC HOWE AND PROF. HELMUT MOLLER
(GOTTINGEN)

AQC (16 February 1978)

1. PREFACE

IN ORDER TO introduce Theodor Reuss we can do no better than to quote

what his erstwhile but now disillusioned friend August Weinholtz wrote
about him in the French masonic periodical L'Acacia in 1907:

This man's cleverness and extraordinary activities, his sophistries, his knowledge of
languages, his ability to play no matter what role, make him a real international
menace. In some respects he reminds one of Cagliostro, the most brilliant of all
masonic charlatans, who successfully contrived to dupe his contemporaries ... Reuss
uses more up to date methods to make people believe in his connections with
powerful masonic bodies and, in accordance with the spirit of our age, places
sexuality in the foreground ... From a journalistic point of view Reuss is rather an
interesting figure. In him we encounter the kind of adventurer portrayed by 17th- and
18th-century writers. But he is a child of our time and social conditions. What is
lamentable is that at the threshold of the 20th century it is necessary for the masonic
world to be warned anew against a Cagliostro, also that there are men who publicly
dare to defend such a person.[1]

It is necessary to explain why the authors of this paper decided to investigate

Reuss. In relation to the history of ideas we have both specialized in the study of
so-called 'underground movements', i.e. the multifarious sects which have proliferated
in Europe since the era of the Renaissance. In the case of Reuss we were aware that
he had been active as a promoter of irregular or pseudo-masonic rites in Germany
during the early 1900s, also that vestigial survivals of some of his foundations still
exist today in Germany, Switzerland, Great Britain and the United States of
America. Reuss, however, cannot be easily fitted into any of the sectarian patterns
with which we have become increasingly familiar. His fields of activity were so
varied that we cannot identify him as a typical promoter of irregular masonic rites,
typical member of revolutionary socialist circles (in London during the 1880s), typical
concert promoter, Prussian police spy, journalist, occultist, protagonist of women's
liberation, gnostic 'Bishop' and so on. There would be no very urgent reason for
spending time examining Reuss's career except for the fact that there are a fair
number of references to his activities in masonic literature and that many of them are
inaccurate, so a biographical sketch may not be superfluous. It remains to add that the
text printed below is a consideration of a book-length preliminary study and many
details have been omitted.

2. EARLY YEARS, 1855-85

Albert Karl Theodor Reuss, the son of Franz Xaver Reuss, an inn-keeper,
was born at Augsburg on 28 June 1855. He was educated locally and
attended a school which equipped youngsters for modest careers in
commerce. For a period after 1872 (at. 17) he was possibly employed in a
druggist's shop. He was in London three months after his 21st birthday in
1876 and was initiated on 8 November 1876 in the Pilgrim Lodge No.
238. Its members were of exclusively German origin and, then as now, it
worked in the German language. According to the minute book he was a
'businessman from Augsburg'. He was passed to the degree of Fellow Craft
on 8 May 1877 and raised on 9 January 1878. No further attendances at
lodge meetings are recorded and he ceased to be a member on 1 October
1880 when he was excluded, probably because he had not paid his
subscription. It is possible that he had been proposed for membership by
Heinrich Klein, a dealer in sheet music at 3 High Holbom, who had become
a joining member in 1872 and was Director of Ceremonies in 1872-3. He
was to become involved in Reuss's later masonic activities.

In his youth Reuss must have had a reasonably good bass voice. He claimed
to have met Richard Wagner for the first time in 1873 (at. 18)[2]. He was a
professional singer, mainly in Germany, during the early 1880s. He claimed
to have taken part in Angelo Neumann's English tour in 1882 and to have
sung the role of the god Donner in Das Rheingold and to have subsequently
performed at Amsterdam, Munich and Quedlinburg. Reuss wrote that he
began his career under the auspices of the late Richard Wagner, who
selected him while still a student to take part in the first performance
of Parsifal at Bayreuth [in 1882]'.[3] He may have sung in the chorus. He
was in London again early in 1885 and active both as a singer and a
journalist. He now appears on a curious political stage.

3. MEMEBERSHIP OF THE SOCIALIST LEAGUE[4]

William Morris together with Edward Avering and his common law wife
Eleanor (Karl Marx's daughter "Tussy') broke away from the Social
Democratic Federation after a quarrel with H. M. Hyndman at the end of
1884 and founded the Socialist League. This was fifteen years before Keir
Hardie and J. Ramsay Macdonald founded the Independent Labour Party.
The League was in contact with a number of emigre German social
democrats, anarchists and communists who had found asylum in London
from the unwelcome attentions of the Prussian political police, Reuss, who
used the pseudonym Charles Theodore, joined the Socialist League soon
after he arrived in London in February or March 1885. He gained
admittance by falsely stating that he was a member of the International
Workers' Education Association, and to the latter by claiming that he was
already a member of the Socialist League. In the Socialist League he was
forthwith appointed 'Lessons Secretary' and in that capacity taught the
German comrades English. Thus he cultivated the acquaintance of men who
were deeply involved in the activitlc of extreme left-wing groups. He had
close contacts with professed anarchists. The latter, with their connections
with colleagues in Belgium who smuggled subversive literature and
explosives into Germany, were naturally of particular interest to the Prussian
political police.

Later, when Reuss was no longer active in the Socialist League milieu,
individuals who had encountered him in 1885-6 recorded their recollections
of him. Max Nettlau, for instance, recalled his 'harsh voice and hasty,
pushing manner'; Josef Peukert characterized him as 'a platonic socialist,
like so many liberal bourgeois', while Victor Dave wrote that he 'appeared to
enjoy a sort of half-digested bourgeois culture'. Another remembered that
'in the opinion of 'most of the comrades he was a rich chap who had a lot of
money and wasn't stingy when he was asked to support revolutionary
propaganda'. Reuss said that his money was provided by a well-endowed
wife. While he may have married in London in 1885 nothing is known
about the lady. Many years later it emerged that she bore him a son. With
hindsight many of his former socialist and anarchist connections had come
to the conclusion that he was an unreliable person.

During 1885-6 he combined his activities in the Socialist League and

International Workers' Association with his career as a singer. According to
a publicity leaflet which he had printed in 1885 he appeared at a concert
given by the Literary and Artistic Society at which he sang arias from the
Magic Flute. He also sang at a Ballad and Operatic Concert at the St
James's Hall and the Musical Review critic predicted that he would have 'a
good career in this country'. Tussey Aveling, on the other hand , had a low
opinion of his artistic taste and complained bitterly about the vulgarity of
the songs sung at a Socialist League concert which Reuss had organized.[5]

His journalistic career may have begun in 1885. The editor of

the Suddeutsche Presse at Munich wrote to him on 3 November to say that
he would soon publish his 'interesting and clear article about the state of the
English political parties' and would gratefully accept further
contributions.[6]

If the Musical Review critic's assessment of Reuss's prospects in England

was sanguine, his optimisim was not shared by the colleague who reported
on a recital given by Reuss and his friend Madame Sanderini at the Kurhaus
at Aachen on 15 May 1886. Reuss's advance publicity had identified him as
'the famous conductor of the Popular Wagner Concerts and basso at Her
Majesty's Theatre in London'. The local critic referred to his flat-sounding
voice, his over-confident entrance and his peeved expression 'which seemed
to express his unfulfilled expectation of fat financial receipts'. The writer
advised him to seek his further fortune on the other side of the English
Channel. Madame Sanderini's voice was described as being past its best.
His conclusion was that 'the pair have little hope of enhancing the reputation
of Her Majesty's Theatre in Germany'.[7]

When Reuss was in London again a few days later he learned that, at a
meeting of the Socialist League held during his absence, he had been
expelled from the League on the grounds that he had 'furnished information
to a foreign government and the bourgeois press'. In other words, it was
supposed that he was working for the Prussian political police. In this
context the evidence against him was never better than circumstantial and
the present writers cannot prove that he was a police spy. On 5 October
1887 the London Evening News published an article by him on the
machinations of London anarchist circles which can only have confirmed
suspicions which were already current. On 7 January 1888 William Morris
printed an extensive list of alleged Prussian police spies in The
Commonweal. Reuss was described as 'now Bismarck's political agent on
the Central News of London; contributor to the Suddeutsche Presse at
Munich and the Berliner Zeitung at Berlin.'

When Reuss realized that the quality of his voice would not qualify him to
pursue a career as a singer he turned to a combination of journalism and
managerial and publicity activities in the theatrical and operatic worlds in
order to earn a living. He seems to have remained in London until 1889
when he moved to Berlin in his capacity as the Central News agency's
representative there. This connection lasted until 1897. He also represented
the London Daily Chronicle at Berlin. However, he was in London from
time to time. For instance in 1891 he devised and produced the 'Germania'
feature at the Earls Court Exhibition. This involved tableaux vivants
illustrating scenes from German history and required a cast of six hundred
and a hundred animals. He was present in a journalistic capacity at the
Chicago International Exhibition in 1894, covered the Bayreuth Wagner
season for the United Press in 1896 and was a regular chronicler of the
festivals which were held at Friedrichsruh in celebration of Bismarck's
birthday after 1894. He reported on the Imperial Manoeuvres for a number
of years after 1896 and in the spring of 1897 went to Greece and Turkey on
behalf of the Berlin Das Kleine journal to report on the current hostilities
between those countries. Thus on 23 February 1898 the Bavarian Minister
in Berlin wrote to inform him that H.R.H. the Prince Regent of Bavaria had
no objection to his accepting and wearing the 'silver war medal awarded to
you by His Majesty the Sultan as a memento of the Turkish Greek
campaign'. In 1902 Reuss described himself as a 'Knight of the Imperial
Ottoman Medjidie Order.'[8]

Reuss's first known literary production was published in 1887. This was an
eight-page pamphlet with the title The Matrimonial Question from an
Anarchistic Point of View[9]. According to Reuss: 'With the reorganisation
of society, with the social revolution, with the establishment of communism,
which we advocate, woman will be really free and man's social equal.' More
than half of this brief text consists of a literal translation from a chapter in
Max Nordau's The Conventional Lies of our Civilisation, which was a recent
best-seller in Germany.

While we know a fair amount about Reuss's life between November 1876,
when he was initiated in the Pilgrim Lodge, and his encounter with Leopold
Engel in Berlin in 1895 to which we shall immediately refer, there is no
evidence which points to any interest in Freemasonry during that period of
close on twenty years.

4. CONTACTS WITH OCCULTISM

An article by Reuss on 'Pranatherapie' will be found in the June 1894 issue

of the occult periodical Sphinx. It was published under the pseudonym
Theodor Regens. In it he described how he had cured an old lady's insomnia
by applying his hands to her head. The article's title suggests a familiarity
with Theosophical terminology. In 1914 he told A. E. Waite that he had
known Helena Petrovna Blavatsky well and had once held high office in the
German branch of the Theosophical Society[10]. Again, in his
pot-boiler Was ist Okkultismus und wie erlangt man okkulte Krafte? (What
is Occultism and how does one develop occult powers?), published under
the pseudonym Hans Merlin at Berlin in 1903, he referred to his friendship
with Madame Blavatsky and mentioned that he had been present at a
memorial ceremony at her house in Avenue Road a few days after her death
in May 1891[11]. As an 'occultist' Reuss seems to have been mainly
interested in yoga and the theoretical- connections between certain chakras
(nerve centres) and sexuality.

At this time during the mid-1890s he was meeting various people who were
preoccupied with various aspects of occultism. They were all to become
involved in his later masonic operations. One of them was Dr Karl Kellner
(1850-1905), an Austrian paper chemist and industrialist who had profitably
exploited a number of patents connected with paper-making processes. He
was one of the few contemporary Europeans with a detailed knowledge of
yoga theories and techniques and in 1896 distributed a privately-printed
paper on 'Yoga: a summary of its psycho-physiological connections' to those
who attended the Third International Congress for Psychology held at
Munich in 1896[12].

Reuss regarded Kellner as an Adept and in the 1912 (jubilee) number

of Oriflamme wrote:

In the course of his many and extensive travels in Europe,

America and the Near East, Bro. Kellner came into contact with
an organisation which called itself 'The Hermetic Brotherhood of
Light'. The stimulus which he received through his association
with this body, as well as other circumstances which cannot be
mentioned here, gave rise to Bro. Kellner's wish to found a sort
of 'Academia Masonics' which would make it possible for
questing brethren to become acquainted with all the existing
Masonic degrees and systems. In the year 1895 Bro. Kellner
had long discussions with Bro. Reuss in Berlin about how this
idea of his could be realised. In the course of talks with
Bro. Reuss he abandoned the proposed title 'Academia
Masonics' and produced reasons and documents for the adoption
of the name 'Oriental Templars'. At that time in 1895 these
deliberations did not lead to any positive result because Bro.
Reuss was then busy with his revived Order of the Illuminati and
Bro. Kellner had no sympathy for this organisation or for the
people who were active in it with Bro. Kellner.

So there was Dr Kellner wanting to found 'a sort of "Academia Masonics" '.
According to the only published record of his alleged membership of the
Craft he was initiated in the Humanitas Lodge at Neuhausl in
Austria. Recent enquiries have revealed that this lodge cannot be
traced. He called himself 'Herr Doktor Kellner' but we have not been able
to establish when and where he obtained his doctorate. No academic title is
mentioned in the Osterreichisches Biographisches Lexikon, 1815-1950
(1965).

In our opinion it would be a waste of time to try to investigate the

importance or otherwise of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Light. Nor is it
greatly significant that Reuss claimed to have talked about 'Oriental
Templars' as early as 1895. However, we must take note of the fact that he
was 'then busy with his revived Order of the Illuminati', also that Dr Kellner
had no use for the Order or the people who were then associated with
Reuss.

Adam Weishaupt's original Order of the Illuminati - it was not masonic

although it infiltrated Freemasonry -had been banned in Bavaria in
1784. Reuss claimed in 1914 that he had actually revived the Order at
Munich in 1880 but nothing is known about this[13]. Now we discover that
he was repeating the experiment at Berlin in 1895. There are no
contemporary documents but we can identify three of Reuss's contemporary
associates: August Weinholtz, Max Rahn and Leopold Engel. All of them
were occultists and according to Reuss it was Engel whom Dr Kellner
particularly disliked.

Weinboltz and Rahn were both at Berlin; Engel lived at Dresden. Rahn had
a job at the Borse (stock exchange) and Weinholtz owned a business which
supplied equipment for horse drawn carriages. Engel was an itinerant actor
who practised hypnotism and alleged naturopathic healing on the side.

In 1896 they were prominent members of the Verband Deutscher

Okkultisten (League of German Occultists). Rahn and Engel were its joint
secretaries and Weinholtz its treasurer[14]. Rahn and Weinholtz were
respectively the editor and publisher of the periodical Die Ubersinnliche
Welt (The Supernatural World) which was mainly concerned with alleged
psychic phenomena, animal magnetism and similar subjects. In his turn
Leopold Engel edited and published a tedious little periodical, Das
Wort (No. I, 1894), which reflected its proprietor's vague esoteric
preoccupations. Finally, in 1897-8 Rahn and Engel edited and published
an 'International Directory of Seekers after Truth' for the benefit of the
occult fraternity.

5. LEOPOLD ENGEL

Leopold Engel was born at St Petersburg on 19 April 1858. His father, Karl
Dietrich Engel (1824-1913) was a violinist and in 1846 became
Konzertmeister (leader) of the orchestra of the Imperial Russian
Theatre. When he returned to Germany he eventually settled at Dresden
and wrote extensively on the Faust legend. More importantly in the present
context he was a follower of Jakob Lorber (1800-64), also a musician, who
'heard voices' and accordingly produced his own Gospel according to St.
John in ten volumes and similar inspirational works by a process of
automatic writing. In 1891 Leopold Engel heard an inner voice which
commanded him to go to his desk and write and accordingly recorded the
text of an eleventh volume. Many years later (in 1922) he was to
commemorate his own father's utterances from beyond the grave but
forty-four pages rather than eleven volumes were sufficient for this
purpose[15].

6. THE REVIVAL OF THE ORDER OF THE ILLUMINATI IN 1895

Reuss claimed that he first met Leopold Engel in 1895, the year in which he
revived his Order of the Illuminati at Berlin, and that Engel joined the Order
on 9 November 1896. But then 'in 1897 Engel founded his own Order of the
Illuminati at Dresden but it was united with my Order in 1899'[16]. It is
unlikely that the Reuss-Engel 'Illuminati' managed to recruit many members
so in order to make the Order more attractive its chiefs resolved to give it a
masonic complexion. With the exception of Reuss there is no evidence that
any of those concerned had ever been initiated in a regular freemasons'
lodge. Indeed, Reuss himself does not appear to have been involved in any
regular Masonic activity since he had joined the Pilgrim Lodge in London in
1876.

Thus on 12 March 1901 'the Illuminati Theodor Reuss, Leopold Engel,

August Weinholtz, Max Rahn and Siegmund Miller, who were joined by
Max Heilbronner and Georg Gierloff ' met at Reuss's home in the Belle
Alliancestrasse at Berlin 'and resolved to re-open the (Ludwig) Lodge which
had been founded at Munich in 1880'[17]. According to the minutes the
dormant Ludwig Lodge was 'ancient and accepted', which infers an
ignorance of Masonic terminology. In any event, whatever the Ludwig
Lodge at Munich may or may not have been, it was certainly never
regular. The following officers were then unanimously elected.

Master: Theodor Reuss ('initiated in the Pilgrim Lodge, London, on 9

November 1876').

Senior Warden: August Weinholtz ('of Germania Lodge No. I' which cannot
be identified in Bro. Ernst-Gunther Geppert's Stammbuch der
Freimaurer-Logen Deutschlands 1737-1972 (1974)).

Junior Warden: Max Rahn.

Senior Deacon: Leopold Engel ('Orient St Petersburg'! Since Engel appears

to have returned from Russia when Leopold was still a boy this was an
extraordinary claim. In 1914 Reuss claimed that he himself made Leopold
Engel a freemason).

Junior Deacon.- Georg Gierloff (Reuss's future brother-in-law. He married

Gierloff's sister a few months later).

Treasurer: Max Heilbronner (described as 'Orient Paris', whatever that may

mean).

Since it appeared necessary to have a warrant the brethren had one printed
by Seydel & Co., at Berlin. It was issued by the Order of the Illuminati and
referred to the Order's specific authority to form masonic lodges. Reuss was
now accorded the sole right to found and consecrate masonic lodges
according to the Order's 'lodge regulations'. All masonic documents were to
be signed and sealed at the Order's office at Dresden. For some unknown
reason this document was backdated to 1 January 1900.

There was yet another warrant or its equivalent. According to Leopold

Engel it had been given to Adam Weishaupt when the latter was at
Regensburg on 19 November 1786 by 'the Prince of Rose-Croix
Bro. Louis-Gabriel Lebauche of Bazeille, near Sedan. It had always been
in the possession of Illuminati and is now in the custody of the Ludwig
Lodge.'[18]

The foundation of the Ludwig Lodge was duly announced in the

Rahn-Weinholtz periodical Die Ubersinnliche Welt, where it was stated that
'the Order of the Illuminati founds and warrants masonic lodges. However,
only master masons can be accepted in the high degrees or found
freemasons' lodges.... The Order has close connections with freemasons in
France, England and America.' It was also emphasized that the lodge was
masonically regular and worked a recognized ritual based upon an old and
genuine English exemplar. Apart from the three craft degrees there was also
a fourth St Andrew's degree. 'Master masons who are in possession of the
St Andrew's degree and wish to pursue occult studies can be received into
the Rosicrucian degree . . .'

The brethren soon began to hear objections that the Ludwig Lodge was
nothing more than an offshoot of the Order of the Illuminati and not
masonic'. A solution was easily found. On 3 July 1901 the lodge ceased to
have any official connection with the Order.[19]

In the meantime Reuss had fished around and netted some additional lodges
so that by the end of 1901 in additional to the Ludwig Lodge his new
'Obedience' included:

Adam zur Weisheit (Dresden)

Phonix zur Wahreit (Hamburg)

Zur hellen Morgenrote (Kattowirz.)

Zur aufbluhenden Rose der Bestandigkeit (Zittau)

Katharine zum stehenden Lowen (Rudolstadt)

None of them was recognized by any of the regular German Grand

Lodges. The Hamburg and Kattowitz lodges had previously been affiliated
to the Allgemeine Burgerloge at Berlin. The latter was a 'pseudo Grand
Lodge' operated at Berlin by O. Hemfler, a bookseller who sold masonic
pins and badges to the gullible. Some of the ABL lodges only had one or
two members.[20]

7. REUSS AND THE RITE OF SWEDENBORG

Reuss soon realized that the Grosse Freimaurer Loge fur Deutschland would
never be recognized by the old-established German Grand
Lodges. However, it was supposed that the new Grand Lodge's position
would be stronger if it could claim affiliation with a masonic body which
was not considered as irregular. The necessary link was contrived in a
curiously oblique manner. At an unknown date in 1901 he learned that Dr
Gerard Encausse who, under the pseudonym 'Papus', was the most
prominent French occultist, had received permission from England to work
the Rite of Swedenborg in France. Encausse was the head of the Martinist
Order which was not masonic. Nor was he a regular freemason. Indeed the
French masonic authorities regarded him with suspicion.

Encausse's authority to establish the Rite of Swedenborg in France derived

from John Yarker (1833-1913) of Manchester, who had imported it from
Canada in 1876[21]. It has been generally supposed that Yarker conducted
his various masonic enterprises - of these the Antient and Primitive Rite of
Memphis and Misraim was the most notorious - for his own financial
benefit. The available information suggests that this theory is incorrect. He
was merely an irascible eccentric who liked to run his own show. The
United Grand Lodge of England could hardly object if he chose to call
himself Grand Master of this or that because he was careful never to infringe
the latter's exclusive control of the Craft and Royal Arch degrees.

The Rite of Swedenborg with six degrees - the first three were never worked
in any English Swedenborgian lodge - had never been popular in
England. A year after Yarker received his Canadian warrant in 1876 there
were ten lodges and two more were established in 1879. Lodge No. 13 ('Eri')
was founded at Limerick in 1886. There were no further developments until
c. 1900 when Yarker gave Encausse permission to found I.N.R.I. Lodge No.
14 at Paris. The inference is that Encausse had told Yarker that he was not a
Grand Orient freemason but had failed to reveal that he had never been
regularly initiated.

Reuss knew about Encausse's Swedenborgian venture and wrote to him to

ask for further information. In due course Encausse replied in an undated
letter and told his T.'.C.'.F.'. (Tres Cher Frere) that he had been in touch with
the 'Messieurs' of the Swedenborgian Rite with regard to 'representation in
Berlin'. He advised Reuss to write in English to Dr William Wynn Westcott,
the moribund Rite's Supreme Grand Secretary[22]. (A. E. Waite remarked in
his 'Annus Mirabilis Redivivus' MS. diary on 10 October 1902 that Westcott
'is a man whom you may ask by chance concerning some almost nameless
Rite and it will prove very shortly that he is either its British custodian or the
holder of some high office therein').

So Reuss wrote to Westcott and in due course became aware that, apart from
controlling the Rite of Swedenborg, Yarker was also Sovereign Grand
Master of the combined Rites of Memphis and Misraim, also of the Cernau
'Scottish' Rite of 33 degree. As far as Reuss was concerned these were a
great deal more attractive than the Rite of Swedenborg because if he could
get hold of them he would be able to offer 'high grade' Freemasonry, which
was unknown in Germany. He asked Westcott to apply to Yarker for a
warrant for Memphis & Mismaim, etc., but Westcott was unwilling to
cooperate. While the Rites were tolerated in England the masonic
establishment and, in particular, the Supreme Council 33 degree of the
Ancient and Accepted Rite, regarded them as unwelcome
aberrations. However, he was willing to help Reuss as far as the ostensibly
innocuous Rite of Swedenborg was concerned.

Reuss went to London in December 1901 and saw Westcott, whom he had
already met in Theosophical Society circles a decade earlier[23]. Westcott
wrote to him on 31 January 1902: 'I am in correspondence with Bro. Yarker
G[rand] Master on your subject and will get you what you want from him if
possible soon' - meaning a warrant for the Rite of Swedenborg. However,
there was a snag: 'Some of your German Masons are hostile: some German
Masonic journalist is trying to attack you and suggests that you want to
"make Masons clandestinely" - that is underhand - he has written to an
Official of the Grand Lodge of England for information.'

Anticipating the receipt of the Swedenborgian warrant Reuss and his friends
thereupon dissolved the Grosse Freimaurer Loge von Deutschland because
they had prospectively no further use for it. The Ludwig Lodge now became
the 'Grand Mother Lodge Ludwig'.

Westcott wrote again on 14 February 1902 and implied that Yarker would
allow Reuss to form a Swedenborg lodge, the Holy Grail No.15, at Berlin.

... Bro. Yarker is entirely within his rights to give you, a known Master Mason of
England, a Warrant for a Lodge but hesitates to give authority for 6 Lodges, which
your [Masonic periodical] Latomia says are not regular"[24]. I had got his permission
to make a Prov. Grd. Lodge of Germania for you, but now he hesitates - because he
does not want to have half the German Masonic world condemning him - as half the
English one would condemn him for the A(ntient) & P(rimitive) Rite.
A copy of the warrant, in Westcott's handwriting, dated 21 February 1902,
indicates that Reuss was now authorized to found the Swedenborg Lodge of
the Holy Grail No. 15 at Berlin, 'and to found subordinate Lodges at his
discretion'. According to the warrant: 'The following "Swedenborgian
Lodges" in Germania to include approved Master Masons are now desirable
for constitution'. In addition to 'Ludwig im O[rient] Berlin' he listed the
five lodges which Reuss had already 'captured' and added that they were
'accepted under the guarantee of Bro. Theodor Reuss'.

Reuss was Provincial Grand Master and most of the 'Illuminati' already
mentioned (but not Max Rahn) were appointed Grand Officers.

For good measure on 24 February 1902 Westcott also authorized Reuss to

form a High Council in Germania of the Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia,
with Reuss as its Magus and Engel as Magus Delegatus Primus. The S.R. in
Germania never had more than a handful of members and the High Council
in London declared it extinct on 11 July 1907.

Reuss and Engel finally parted company during the summer of 1902. On 3
July, according to Reuss, the officers of the Grand Mother Lodge Ludwig
resolved to expel Engel and his friend Siegmund Miller on account of
certain alleged misdemeanours and they were accordingly banished[25].

In 1906 Engel bitterly recalled his earlier association with Reuss who, he
wrote, had falsely claimed that he possessed the necessary authority to
revive the Order of the Illuminati and stated that he had already recruited an
impressive number of worthy individuals. According to Engel it was all a
sham, 'because all that was available was what second-hand booksellers
could provide' and the worthy individuals only existed on paper[26]. The
Order of the Illuminati continued to exist under Engel's direction and in due
course developed its own irregular Masonic affiliations.

Reuss's periodical Oriflamme commenced publication, initially as a monthly,

with the issue dated January 1902 although it cannot have been published
until a month later. According to its subtitle it was then the 'Organ of the
German High-grade Freemasons of the Swedenborg Rite and the Order of
the Rosicrucians', i.e. the Societas Rosicruciana in Germania. The majority
of the articles printed in Oriflamme are completely without interest but it is a
useful although seldom complete source of information about Reuss's
activities.

8. REUSS AND THE RITE OF MEMPHIS AND MISRAIN

Reuss soon rcalized that the Rite of Swedenborg would not be a success in
Germany, probably because the rituals for its three higher degrees created as
little interest as they had in England during the 1870s. Alternatively they
were never translated or worked. As a Provincial Grand Master of the Rite
he was now able to deal with Yarker without using Westcott as an
intermediary and during the summer of 1902 applied to him for a warrant
for the Rite of Memphis and Mismaim.

The Rite of Memphis and Mismaim was but one item in the extraordinary
collection of rites upon which Yarker metaphorically sat at
Manchester. Memphis and Mismaim already had a long and chequered
history in France and the before Yarker acquired it from a doubtful
American source in 1872. In the November 1884 issue of his
periodical The Kneph he announced that he had just obtained 'the authority
of the Cernau Councils of the Ancient and Accepted Rite'. This news can
hardly have pleased the Supreme Council 33 degree[27].

Yarker was willing to give Reuss a warrant for the Antient and Primitive
Rite of Memphis and Mismaim, also for the Cerneau (New York, 1807)
version of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. In connection with his
prospective 'high grade' operation Reuss recruited two gentlemen who had
not previously been associated with his masonic manoeuvres in
Germany. They were his old friend Heinrich Klein and Dr Franz
Hartmann. In order to give them the necessary status in or about September
1902 Yarker appointed all three of them to high office in his Sovereign
Sanctuary, the body which ostensibly controlled all the variegated
high-grade rites in his possession. The warrant, dated 24 September,
followed immediately. It authorized Reuss (as Sovereign Grand Master
General), Hartmann (as Grand Administrator General) and Klein (as Grand
Keeper of the Golden Book) to establish a Sovereign Sanctuary in Berlin
and, indeed, to do a great many other things.

According to Reuss in the December 1902 issue of Oriflanime: 'Thus the

Sovereign Sanctuary for the German Reich [i.e. for the M & M Rite] and the
Grand Orient in Germany [i.e. for the Cerneau 33º Rite] is entitled to found,
accept and consecrate Masonic lodges in the whole of Germany and to work
the collective degrees from the first (1 degree) to the last, the degree of
Grand Inspector General (33º - 95º), and to accept candidates (i.e. for
initiation] and advance them.' The important factor was that Reuss now
claimed authority to initiate freemasons and work the craft degrees in
Germany. As might be expected the German Grand Lodges who were
members of the Grosslogenbund (Union of Grand Lodges) did not recognize
either Reuss or his rites.

Reuss took the obligation as Grand Master General at a ceremony held at

Berlin on 11 November 1902. Once again there was one of those changes of
course which make this story so confusing. He announced that the Grand
Mother Lodge Ludwig and its handful of associated Swedenborgian lodges
had now ceased to exist. The new Sovereign Sanctuary proceeded to found
new lodges but these were simply the successors of the old ones. At Berlin,
however, the Lodge Zur siegenden Sonne was the former Ludwig Lodge
under a new name.

Reuss was also able to report that the Sovereign Sanctuary had already
exchanged representatives with various Sovereign Sanctuaries, Grand
Orients, etc., in Italy, Spain, Rumania and the Argentine. A few months
later he was able to add Cuba and Egypt to the list. Needless to say, none of
these bodies exchanged representatives with the United Grand Lodge of
England or the German Grand Lodges. In this context we encounter a
curious 'Memphis and Misraim' underworld.

According to the Sovereign Sanctuary's Constitution, published

in Oriflamme (December 1902), its craft lodges were to use the Pilgrim
Lodge's by-laws and the 'Hamburg (Schroeder) ritual as adopted by the
Pilgrim Lodge in 1852'.

It would be an exaggeration to suggest that there was a rush of applicants for

Reuss's motley collection of high degrees. A year after the reccipt of
Yorker's warrant the total membership of the Sovereign Sanctuary's lodges
and chapters amounted to no more than 132 brethren[28]. However, at least
a few of them were members of lodges which belonged to recognized
German jurisdictions. Thus when August Weinholtz went to Dr Robert
Gross's thermal establishment at Bad Finneck as 'Director of the Baths' in
the autumn of 1903, a certain Bro. Uhlmann, who had been initiated thirty
years earlier in the Lodge Zur den drei Kleeblattern (Grosse Landesloge)
acted as Deputy Master of the Lodge Zur siegenden Sonne. Dr.
phil. Gustav Diercks, who was a member of a 'Three Globes' lodge, was
briefly the Sovereign Sanctuary's Grand Secretary General for Foreign
Correspondence in 1903-4[29].

The list of the Sovereign Sanctuary's Grand Officers, published

in Oriflamme, December 1902, identifies the people who were then
associated with Grand Master General Reuss:

Deputy Grand Commander General: Bro. Franz Hartmann, Privatgelehrter

['private scholar'], proprietor of the Ligno-sulphite works at Hallein,
temporarily at Villa Maria, Florence'[30]. Hartmann was one of the most
prolific writers of his generation on Theosophy, magic and occultism.

Grand Keeper General of the Golden Book: Bro. Henry Klein, Proprietor of
the Polyphon [gramophone] Works at Leipzig and London. (According to
the London P.O. Directory for 1904 Henry Klein & Co., of 84 Oxford Street,
were 'musical instrument makers, dealers and repairers; suppliers of
polyphons, phonographs and all kinds of talking machines, organettes,
billiard tables.')

Grand Expert General: Bro. Robert Gross, physician and proprietor of the
Stahlbad Finneck. (He was formerly a member of the Order of the Illuminati
and a founder member of the Ludwig Lodge, Berlin in 1901. He was above
all an occultist.)[31]

Grand Director of Ceremonies General: Br. Rudolf Barth, director of the

municipal gas works at Rudolstadt.

Grand Treasurer General: Bro. Max Heilbronner (he was the proprietor of
an antiquarian bookshop ('by Royal Appointment') at Berlin with a branch in
Paris). Formerly a member of the Order of the Illuminati and a founder
member of the Ludwig Lodge at Berlin.

Grand Chancellor General: Bro. Reinhold Augsburg, businessman at

Berlin.

Grand Representative General: Bro. August Weinholtz (see above) and

Bro. Franz Held, director of the Pomril factory at Hamburg and master of
the Lodge Phonix zur Wahrheit there.

Whether there was already an 'Inner Occult Circle' at this time is not known,
although it existed in 1905. Nevertheless the Sovereign Sanctuary had an
official Patron in the person of Reuss's friend Dr Karl Kellner, who was a
dedicated occultist.

9. THE REGULARIZATION OF THE GROSSE FREIMAURER LOGE VON

DEUTSCHLAND (GRAND FREEMASONS' LODGE OF GERMANY) IN 1904

It was typical of Reuss's persuasiveness that in the spring of 1904 he was

able to stage-manage the alleged regularization of an unrecognized masonic
body which had a far larger membership than his own. This was the Grosse
Freimaurer Loge von Deutschland which had about thirty daughter lodges
and 700 members. Its headquarters were at Leipzig[32].

The GFLvD had its origins in the irregular Allgemeine Burgerloge which
was founded at Berlin in 1896. A number of ABL lodges broke away in
April 1899 and founded an independent ABL at Leipzig. The latter, with
twenty-one lodges, changed its name to the Matthai Logenbund in July
1900. There was another change of title in July 1903 when the MLB
became the GFLvD. By 1904 its aims and the work of its lodges appears to
have been regular in everything but name.
In 1914 A. P. Eberhardt, the GFLvD's Grand Master, explained why he and
his colleagues had approached Reuss. There had been frequent resignations
by individuals who had realized that they were not 'proper freemasons'.
Reuss offered a solution. For a fee of 800 Marks on 12 May 1904
he'rectified' the Grosse Freimaurer Loge von Deutschland and twenty-nine
daughter lodges with 702 members and declared them to be 'regular'. A
week later he wrote to the Grosslogenbund to the effect that the Sovereign
Sanctuary and Grand Orient of the United Scottish and Memphis and
Misraim Rites in Germany now included thirty-five craft lodges and 845
members. This communication did not attract even an
acknowledgment. However, a simple mathematical calculation indicates
that Reuss's masonic empire had previously consisted of six lodges with a
total of 143 members.

10. THE OCCULT CIRCLE AND DR KELLNER'S DEATH

In 1904 Reuss published a 32-page pamphlet with the title Historische

Ausgabe der Oriflamme ('Historical Edition of the Oriflamme'). It was
addressed to 'all who want to learn the truth and real facts of Masonic
historical research'. His intention was to demonstrate the historical
authenticity of his collection of rites on the basis of documentary
evidence. We now learn of a direct connection with the original Knights
Templer. In this context, according to Reuss, no documents could be
published because the initiated were well aware that Masonic bodies which
cultivated the Templer and Rosicrucian traditions had been forbidden to
make written records. 'Proofs of our connection with the Templers are
available,' he wrote, 'but they are not of a documentary nature. They are
only communicated to the initiated.' Finally: 'Our Order not only provided
the opportunity for acquiring a knowledge of all existing Masonic systems
but also of the secret knowledge and cults of all ages.' He included an article
on 'the Secrets of the Occult High Degrees of our Order' but did not reveal
anything.

The fact that there was an inner occult group was announced in the
November 1904 issue of Oriflamme.

To the Pupils of the Occult Circle

Our beloved leader Frater Karl Kellner is severely ill and hopes
for his recovery are small. All the Fratres of the Occult Circle
are thus asked to unite with us in their daily meditations in
thewish that our leader will on this earthly plane! AUM! Vienna,
4 November 1904 E.V.
The Inner Triangle

In March 1905 it was reported that Dr Kellner was in Egypt and that his
convalescence was progressing satisfactorily. However, he died at Vienna
on 7 June. According to the certificate his death was due to blood poisoning
but his medical advisers could not establish what caused it. Later various
lurid rumours about his illness and death were circulated, e.g. that in the
course of his arcane occult exercises he had attracted malignant forces[33].
Dr Franz Hartmann succeeded him as Honorary Grand Master General in
October 1905.

11. CRACKS IN THE FABRIC OF THE SOVEREIGN SANCTUARY

In August 1905 Reuss intended to go to London and remain there for an

apparently indefinite period. In the event his departure was delayed until 8
January 1906[34]. In view of his impending absence a number of important
decisions were taken at an Extraordinary General Meeting of 'Sovereign
Sanctuary of the Order of Ancient Templar Freemasons of the Scottish,
Memphis and Misraim Rites for the German Reich' held at Berlin on 27
August 1905. The designation 'Templar' now appears for the first time in
connection with Reuss's activities.

The main outlines of the scheme of reorganization arranged in August 1905

were roughly as follows. The Sovereign Sanctuary (i.e. Reuss) was to
receive specific fees for granting the 'high degrees' but otherwise the day to
day running of the Order was to be delegated to the Grand Orient of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite which had its headquarters at Hamburg
and the Symbolical Grand Lodge of the Scottish Rite for Germany at
Leipzig. The latter was the former Grosse Freimaurer Loge von
Deutschland which Reuss had rectified in 1904.

The Hamburg organization, with Franz Held as Grand Commander General,

had two subsidiary Grand Councils: one at Hamburg under Held and another
at Munich under Maximilian Dotzler. The Hamburg Grand Orient was
granted virtual autonomy as far as the control of four chapters and seven
craft lodges were concerned. The Sovereign Sanctuary (i.e. Reuss) no
longer received a capitation fee but was to charge 40 Marks for an
individual member's first 'high degree' certificate and 10 Marks for all
subsequent certificates up to 300. The ratification of these new
arrangements was made conditional upon the Hamburg and Munich
branches' refunding certain funds which had previously been advanced by
Reuss.

However, the Munich members refused to pay the 2,079 Marks which Reuss
claimed was due to him. Furthermore, the heads of the Grand Councils at
Hamburg and Munich (Franz Held and Maximilian Dotzler) were at
loggerheads. The Hamburg branch dissolved itself in December 1905 (only
four months after it was formed). Many of its members found their way into
regular lodges under the Obediences of the Grand Lodge of Hamburg and
the 'Old Prussian' Grosse Landesloge at Berlin. Their path in the direction
of regularity had been distinctly tortuous.

In the course of winding up his affairs in Germany Reuss also had to deal
with an unpleasant financial problem at Munich. When the Sovereign
Sanctuary met at Berlin on 25 September 1904 it was briefly reported that a
certain Bro. Hugo Hoffman had made the Order a gift of some real estate at
Munich. No further information about this generous action was published
until a year later. Reuss was in Munich on 4-5 September 1905 and
discovered that the house which Bro. Hoffmann had so kindly presented was
worth 173,000 Marks but saddled with a mortgage which would cost at least
241,000 Marks to redeem. Thus Reuss was obliged to take legal action to
renounce the gift and avoid paying interest on the mortgage.

12. THE EMERGENCE OF THE ORDER OF THE TEMPLE OF THE

ORIENT

Reuss moved to London in January 1906. He was now employed by the

Central Press news agency and appears to have been in charge of its German
wire service. Although he scarcely acknowledged the fact in Oriflame it is
evident that his masonic operation had been a failure. Furthermore he had
quarrelled with many of his followers. However, in 1906 when his masonic
empire had practically ceased to exist he grandiloquently described himself
as 'Sovereign Grand Master General ad vitam of the United Orders of the
Scottish, Memphis and Mismaim Freemasons in and for the German Reich,
Sovereign Grand Commander, Absolute Grand Sovereign, Sovereign Pontiff,
Sovereign Grand Master of the O.T.O. Freemasons, Supreme Magus Soc.
Frat. R.C., S I 33º, Termaximus Regens I.O. etc.'[35]

The Absolute Sovereign Grand Master, was able to publish only two
numbers of Oriflamme during 1906. Their contents are not of great interest
although they throw light upon his disputes with his former disciples. They
also indicate that he was now anxious to admit women to Memphis &
Misraim, that he was preoccupied with 'sexual yoga' (for want of a better
expression), and that his Order of the Templar of the Orient (O.T.O.) would
in due course take the place of his other rites.
He issued a warrant for a 'mixed' Memphis & Misraim Lodge in the spring
of 1906. The recipient was Dr Rudolf Steiner who had been Secretary
General of the German branch of the Theosophical Society since
1902. Steiner was never a Theosophist in the Blavatsky-Adyar tradition and
was already on uneasy terms with Annie Besant. He and many of his
followers broke away from the Theosophical Society in 1912 when he
founded the subsequently influential Anthroposophical Society. According
to the announcement in Oriflamme:[36]

Bro. Dr Rudolph Steiner, 33º, 95º, of Berlin and the Brothers and Sisters associated
with him have been granted permission to form a Chapter and Grand Council under
the title 'Mystica Aeterna' in Berlin. Dr Steiner has been appointed Deputy Grand
Master with jurisdiction over members already received or to be received by
him. Sister Marie von Sievers (later Steiner's wife) has been appointed General
Grand Secretary for the Lodges of Adoption.

(In his posthumous autobiography (The Story of my Life, 1928) Steiner

went to great lengths to minimize the significance of his previous
connection with Reuss and claimed that 'this symbolic-cultural section of the
anthroposophical movement came to an end in the middle of 1914.')

In the same issue of Oriflamme he published a letter from Maximilian

Dotzler of Munich who abjectly apologized for slandering him. The extent
to which contemporary readers understood the background is uncertain and
Reuss himself did not offer an explanation until 1914. It is evident that
Dotzler was responsible for disseminating an unsavoury legend about Reuss
which was remembered in German and Swiss masonic circles many years
later. The gist of the story was that Reuss had shown Dotzler a peculiar
yoga exercise - according to the widely-known version there was a phallic
element - at the Hotel Metropole at Munich in 1906. In 1914 Reuss stated
that he had given Dotzler some instructions relating to quite ordinary Hatha
yoga techniques in 1903 (and not at Munich at the Hotel Metropole) and that
the 'traditional legend' was completely untrue. There is no reason to
disbelieve this statement.

The same issue contained a long article by Reuss on 'The Marriage Question,
Sexual Reform and Women's Lodges'. While it might have surprised some
contemporary readers it would hardly cause a raised eyebrow today. The
only unusual feature was its publication in a periodical which was allegedly
masonic.

The next issue (July-December 1906) included a lengthy prepublication

review under the heading Lingam-Yoni or the Mystery of Sexual Religion of
Reuss's latest book. Lingam - Yoni by 'Pendragon' (i.e. Reuss) was
published in 1906 by the Verlag Willsson, Berlin and London. 'Willsson'
was Reuss! According to the title-page its author used 'old and secret
documents of an Order' but the book was hardly more than a translation
of Phallism: A Description of the Worship of Lingam-Yoni . . . and other
Symbols connected with the Mysteries of Sex Worship, privately printed at
London in 1889.

We cannot understand what induced Reuss to publish this tedious book but
suppose that its contents may have had some connection with the so-called
'inner teachings' of the Order of the Templars of the Orient. Much
connected with the early history of the O.T.O. is obscure. Reuss stated in
1914 that 'the constitution of the reorganised O.T.O. dates from January
1906', also that there had been an engraved brass plate with the inscription
'Sovereign Sanctuary of the Order of the Templars of the Orient' outside the
street level door of his home in the Belle Alliancestrasse, Berlin, in
December 1905. He also explained (in 1914) that the O.T.O. was Dr
Kellner's projected 'Academia Masonica' although the 'organisation' never
had any connection with Freemasonry[37]. It seems unlikely that the O.T.O.
was in any sense active as early as 1905-6 and we believe that it was not
effectively launched until 1912 when Aleister Crowley became involved.

The Oriflamme did not appear at all during 1907 but two issues were
published in 1908 (January and July). The latter contained a report of the
International Masonic Conference held in Paris on 9 June 1908. It was
organized by Dr Gerard Encausse ('Papus'), who was not even a Grand
Orient freemason. In the course of a lengthy discussion it was established to
the satisfaction of those present - they were all of French nationality with the
exception of Reuss - that neither the United Grand Lodge of Englad nor the
Grand Orient could prove their masonic regularity. Papus & Co. then
decided to constitute a Supreme Grand Council and Grand Orient of the
Antient and Primitive Rite of Memphis and Misraim in France and happily
accepted a warrant supplied by Reuss.

In the meantime we have lost sight of the Grosse Freimaurer Loge von
Deutschland which, having paid 800 Marks for its 'rectification' in May
1904 had pursued an independent existence. According to its Grand Master,
Paul Eberhardt, even then there were some who had their doubts about the
authenticity of any warrant supplied by Reuss and it was decided to achieve
an even greater measure of independence. This was effected on 24 June
1905. It involved a further payment of 600 Marks and a change of
name. Thus the GFLvD now became the Symbolical Grand Lodge of the
Scottish Rite in Germany, Orient of Leipzig. On 24 June 1909 Reuss
cancelled its warrant and transferred it to a Dr Carl Lauer, of Ludwigshafen
am Rhein. After lengthy discussions the former GFLvD liquidated its
affairs on 31 March 1911 and many of its members found their way into
recognized German lodges[38].
The contents of the 1912 'Jubilee edition' of Oriflamme were almost entirely
devoted to the O.T.O. Indeed, it was described as the 'Official Organ of the
Order of the Oriental Templars and the Sovereign Sanctuary of Ancient
Freemasons in Germany'. From this we learn that about 500 members had
been recruited in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and that two National
Grand Lodges had been constituted ' on 1 June 1912: one for Great Britain
and Ireland and the other for 'the Slav countries'. The Head of the O.T.O.
for England was 'the Most Holy, Most Illustrious, Most Illuminated, and
Most Puissant Baphomet, X degree, Rex Summus Sanctissimus 33 degree,
90 degree, 96 degree, Past Grand Master of the United States of America,
Grand Master of Ireland, Iona, etc.' who could be contacted at 33 Avenue
Studios, 76 Fulham Road, Kensington, London, SW. The Most Holy,
Illustrious and Illuminated gentleman was none other than Aleister
Crowley[39].

Crowley proceeded to issue a printed Manifesto of the M.'. M.'.M.'., in

which he explained that 'the M.'. M.'. M.'. (Mysteria Mystica Maxima) is the
name of the British section of the O.T.O.', also that 'the O.T.O. is a body of
initiates in whose hands are concentrated the wisdom and the knowledge of
the following bodies':

1. The Gnostic Catholic Church

2. The Order of the Knights of the Holy Ghost

3. The Order of the Illuminati

4. The Order of the Temple (Knights Templar)

5. The Order of the Knights of St John

6. The Order of the Knights of Malta

7. The Order of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre

8. The Hidden Church of the Holy Grail

9. The Rosicrucian Order

10. The Holy Order of the Rose Croix of Heredom

11. The Order of the Holy Royal Arch of Enoch

12. The Antient and Primitive Rite of Masonry (33 degrees)

13. The Rite of Memphis (97 degrees)

14. The Rite of Mizraim (90 degrees)

15. The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Masonry (33 degrees)

16. The Swedenborgian Rite of Masonry

17. The Order of Martinists

18. The Order of the Sat Bhai

19. The Hermetic Brotherhood of Light

20. The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, and many other orders of
equal merit, if of less fame.

We also read: 'The O.T.O., although an Academia Masonica, is not a

Masonic Body so far as the craft degrees are concerned in the sense in
which that expression is usually understood in England, and therefore in no
way conflicts with, or infringes the just privileges of the United Grand
Lodge of England.'

Readers of Oriflamme (jubilee edition, 1912) were informed that 'our Order
is not a masonic order, pure et simple ... but every member of our Order,
man or woman ... must proceed through the craft degrees of Freemasonry,
also those of high-grade Freemasonry, before they can be illuminated and
initiated members of our Order.'

Now comes the great revelation: 'Our Order possesses the KEY which
embraces all masonic and hermetic secrets. It relates to sexual magic and
this teaching completely explains all Masonic symbolism and religious
teachings.' Now the cat was out of the bag!

13. THE FINAL DECADE

Reuss left London at the last possible moment before the outbreak of the
First World War in 1914 and immediately reported for service with the Red
Cross at Berlin. After a brief period spent working for German
Counter-intelligence on the Dutch border he moved to neutral territory at
Basle where he worked as a newspaper correspondent and taught English at
the local Berlitz School. He was now using a visiting card which described
him as A. C. Theodor Reuss, 'Honorary Professor at the High School for
Applied Medical Science (University of France)'[40]. This center for Higher
Learning was probably founded by the egregious Dr Encausse.

One of the strangest features of his Swiss period, which lasted for six years,
was the organization of an international 'Anti-National' Congress under
O.T.O. auspices at Henri Oedenkoven's extraordinary establishment close to
Ascona on Lake Maggiore. 'Monte Verita' had originally been founded
during the early 1900s as the contemporary equivalent of a vegetarian
'hippy' commune and was patronized by a typical clientele of 'simple lifers',
Theosophists and others with so-called 'progressive' views. The Congress
lasted for ten days during August 1917[41]. There is a reference to it in
Gottfried zur Beek's notorious Die Geheimnisse der Weisen von Zion
(known in its English translation as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion)
which was an immediate best-seller when it was first published in Germany
in 1919. Its author, whose real name was Muller von Hausen[42], quoted
from a letter which Reuss was alleged to have written to an unidentified
correspondent:

My secret aim for this congress is to bring together land reformers [meaning
people interested in rural communal settlements], vegetarians, Theosophists,
pacifists ... from Spain, Italy, Holland, Russia, France, etc. and convert their
hitherto poisonous anti-German sentiments into something more fair to
Germany . . . The 'Anti-Nationalist Cooperative Congress' flag and the draft
programme are naturally merely a camouflage... Germany should send two
masonic representatives who are men of the world and know the true (not
the orthodox) history of Freemasonry and its secret political working[43].

According to Robert Landmann's lively (but not always accurate) annals of

the 'Monte Verita' phenomenon Reuss's Congress assumed almost orgiastic
qualities. An O.T.O. lodge was founded, there were 'initiations' and Reuss
pocketed the money received from the sale of successively higher
degrees[44].

In 1918 he published his translation of Crowley's Gnostic Mass. This was

issued under O.T.O. auspices and copies of Ecclesiae Gnosticae Catholicae
Canon Missae: Die Gnostische Messe could be obtained from Prof. T.
Reuss-Willsson, P.O. Box 15268, Basle. The Professor was identified as the
'head of the Gnostic Neo-Christians and Oriental Templars: Carolus
Alberrus Theodorus Peregrinus, Sovereign Patriarch and Primate of the
Gnostic Catholic Church, Vicarius Solomonis et Caput Ordinis O.T.O.' The
source of the Patriarch's ecclesiastical preferment is unknown[45].

In 1919-20 Reuss resumed his former 'masonic' activities and on 25 May

1919 founded a 'Swiss Grand Orient for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish
33 degree Rite (Cerneau, New York 1807)' at Zurich. Daughter lodges were
soon constituted at Bellinzona, Bern, Chiasso (two) and Mendrisio. After
Reuss's departure some of them were regularized[46].

Reuss was also involved in the Congress of the International Masonic

Federation held at Zurich in July 1920. It is unlikely that a single regular
freemason was present. The proceedings appear to have been dominated by
the notorious Matthew McBlain Thomson, of Salt Lake City,
U.S.A.[47] Two years later he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment for
illegally using the U.S. mails for the sale of spurious masonic
degrees. Thomson subsequently wrote a lively account of his visit to
Zurich. It was published in his periodical The Universal Freemason
(September 1920):

I also met Bro. Reuss - he is a typical German, wanting his own way or spoil things. I
found that he had a patent from Bro. Yarker, empowering him to establish the Rite in
Germany, and on the strength of this had been charging a royalty on every candidate
entered. He wanted me to endorse this way of doing things, and on my refusing, got
mad and said he would allow no Englishman or Scotchman to interfere with his
private affairs. He then wanted to have two bodies separately in Switzerland
recognised as members of the Federation, viz.: The Grand Orient (from which he had
been drawing a royalty), and what he was pleased to call-the Sovereign Sanctuary of
the Memphis Rite. As the latter consisted of himself, I said that we could not
recognise any body unless it had a regular organisation.

Reuss took no further part in the proceedings after the first day (17
July). The current story was that McBlain Thomson paid –him 3000 Swiss
francs to stay away[48].

Reuss refurned to Germany in September 1921 and settled at Munich. He

died on 28 October 1923. The death certificate described him as 'Professor
und Propaganderchef [sic]'.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to thank Bro. Fritz Bolle (Munich) for searching through
old German masonic periodicals for references to Reuss, also Bro. Dr Karl
R. H. Frick (Bochum) for supplying a photocopy of Oriflamme, July I914.

[1] L'Acacia, IX, Paris, 1907, pp. 387-8.

[2] Hans von Schelling (pseud., i.e. Th. Reuss), Was muss man von Richard
Wagner und seinen Tondramen wissen?, Berlin, 1903, p. 73
[3] Herr Theodor Reuss: London Season 1885, printed leaflet at
International Institute for Social History, Amsterdam. This contains
the references to Angelo Neumann's English tour, etc.

[4] For Reuss's membership of the Socialist League and connection with
anarchist circles in London see Andrew R. Carlson, Anarchism in Germany,
Vol. I, 'The Farly 'Movement', The Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, New Jersey,
1972; Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels Werke, Vols- 37-39, Dietz Verlag, Berlin,
DDR, 1967-9.

[5] Chushiki Tsusuki, The Life of Eleanor Marx, 1855-98, A Socialist

Tragedy, Oxford, 1967, p. 123.

[6] For Reuss's journalistic career see the facsimile reprint of his
four-page summary of testimonials in Vol. II of Lady Queenborough (Edith
Starr Miller), Occult Theocracy, privately printed in France in 1933. (Her
Ladyship was a disciple of Nesta Webster, the author of Secret Societies
and Subversive Movements, 1924, and discovered a
Jewish-Bolshevik-Freemason under every bed.) For similar material about
Reuss's career as a journalist, etc., see also Oriflamme, July-Dec.
1906. The entries in Kurschners Deutscher Literatur-Kalender from 1895
onwards should also be consulted.

[7] Echo der Gegenwart, Aachen, Tuesday 18 May 1886.

[8] For all these activities see Lady Queenborough (see note 6
above). For his 'Knighthood' see Oriflamme, I, 11-12, December 1902,
where he also described himself as 'Chief Editor at Berlin and Press
Manager of the Prinz Regenten Theater at Munich'.

[9] The only known copy is at the International Institute for Social
History at Amsterdam. The pamphlet was published by Henry Seymour,
editor of The Anarchist: A Revolutionary Review.

[10] A. E. Waite, 'Ordo R.R. et A.C. The Testimonies of Frater Finem

Respice [i.e. Dr R. W. Felkin], Imperator of the Templum Stella Matutina,
transcribed in 1915'. Late Golden Dawn MS. in a private collection.

[11] Was ist Okkultismus was one of seven or eight short books which Reuss
wrote for the Hugo Steinitz Verlag, Berlin, under various pseudonyms
between 1901 and 1904. They include Br. Peregrinus, Was muss man von
der Freimauerei wissen?, 1901 (10th ed. 1931, 36th thousand!).

[12] The text was published by J. F. Lehmanns Verlag at Munich in

1896. It was known to William James who referred to it in a footnote
on P. 401 of his famous book The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902.
[13] See Oriflamme, July 1914, p. 9, where it is referred to as 'the
masonic lodge Ludwig'. See also Leopold Engel's periodical Das Wort,
January 1902, where he stated that the Ludwig Lodge was founded by 'master
masons and Illuminati'.

[14] See the announcement in Uriarte: Die Magie des XIX Jahrhunderts als
Kunst und als Geheimwissenschaft, 1896, pp. 175-7.

[15] See Im Jenseits, Kundgabe eines Jenseitigen, Jakob Lorber Verlag,

Bietigheim, 1922.

[16] See Oriflamme, July 1914, p. 7.

[17] Ibid., pp. 7-10, where there is a reasonably detailed account of

the contemporary transactions

[18] See Leopold Engel's periodical Das Wort, January 1902,

P. 37.

[19] See Oriflamme, July 19I4, P. 10.

[20] A. P. Eberhardt's Von den Winkellogen Deutschlands ...im letzten

Vierteljahrhundert, Leipzig, 1914, provides a detailed account of all the
contemporary irregular German Grand Lodges. See also
Bro. Ernst-Gunther Geppert's useful article 'Von der Winkelloge zur
vollkommenen und gerechten Freimauerei' in Quatuor-Coronate Hefte, No.
3, January 1966.

[21] For the Rite of Swedenborg see Ellic Howe, 'Fringe Masonry in England,
1870-85', AQC 85, 1972.

[22] Encausse's letter and Westcott's contemporary letters to

Reuss are reproduced in facsimile in Lady Queenborough's Occult

Theocracy (see note 6 above). She mentioned that Brigadier R. B.

D. Blakeney had supplied these documents. It seems that Mr

Gerald Yorke acquired them when he purchased F. L. Gardner's

'Golden Dawn' collection, which included many Westcott papers,

after Gardner's death. Mr Yorke told E.H. in c. 1969 that he

lent the Westcott-Reuss letters to the Brigadier, who failed to

return them.
[23] For the source of this statement see note 10 above.

[24] Nothing on these lines was published in Latontia in Jan.-Feb.

1902.

[25] Oriflamme, July 1914, p.10.

[26] " Leopold Engel, Geschichte des Illuminaten-Ordens Berlin,

1906, P. 466.

[27] "We cannot identify a reliable history (later combined) Rites of

Memphis and Misraim. References to them in Masonic encyclopaedias are
untrustworthy because successive compilers have been content to repeat
time-honoured research in the MS. department at the Bibliotheque
Nationale is still necessary. John Yarker published an historical
sketch in Constitution and General Statutes of the Sovereign Sanctuary
of the Antient and Primitive Rite of Mason 1875, but did not accurately
identify his French sources. See-also J[ean] Bricaud Historiques sur
le Rite Ancien et Primitif de Memphis-Misraim, 1923, revised edition,
Lyons, 1938 (16 pp.).

[28] Oriflamme, Sept. 1903, P. 83

[29] Ibid., p. 83

[30] The reference to Hartmann's 'Ligno-sulphite Works at Hallein

is obscure. He supposed that the fumes of the sulphite wood-pulp

used for papermaking relieved respiratory complaints and operated

some kind of sanatorium close to Kellner's industrial undertaking

at Hallein. Hartmann's career is briefly described in Ellic

Howe, Urania's Children, 1967, pp. 79-80.

[31] Reuss, who had quarrelled with Gross, later took care to

emphasize that the latter was a doctor juris and not a physician.

See Oriflamme, January 1908, p. 1

[32] For this transaction see Oriflamme, June 1904; and Eberhardt,

Winkellogen, op. cit

[33] For this story the principal source is Jean Pear, Weisse und

Schwarze Magie, C. 1920, P. 95. See also Maximilian Dotzler's

long undated letter to Franz Held and Emil Adrianyi in Oriflamme,

July-Dec. 1906, pp. 58-64

[34] There were rumours that Reuss had been obliged to leave

Germany precipitately because of an impending public scandal.

Reuss denied them and provided a detailed account of his

movements during the last half of 1905 in Oriflamme, July-Dec.

1906. p 119.

[35] See Oriflamme, July-Dcc. 1906, pp. 49-50

[36] Ibid., Jan.-June 1906, pp 4-5

[37] Ibid., July 1914, pp. 15-16

[38] See Eberhardt, Winkellogen, op cit

[39] For Crowley's association with Reuss at this time see his

Confessions, edited by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant, 1969

[40] See M. Kully, Die Wahrheit uber die Theo-Anthroposophie als

eine Kultur- Verfallserscheinung, Basle, 1926, pp. 260 ff.

[41] The Laban Archive, Addleston, Surrey, has a copy of the

programme.

[42] The author was Captain Muller von Hausen. In 1925 he initiated

a campaign to induce members of the National Union of German

Officers who were freemasons to resign from the Craft

[43] Die Geheimnisse der Weisen von Zion, p. 165

[44] See Robert Landmann (i.e. Werner Ackermann), Die Geschichte

eines Berges, 3rd ed., Ascona, 1934, P. 142 ff. This is not an
impeccable historical source. See also Jakob Flach, Ascona

gestern und heute, Zurich-Stuttgart, 1971, P. 11

[45] Reuss is not mentioned in Peter F. Anson, Bishops at Large,

1964, which is the best account in English of Episcopi Vagantes,

nor in F.-W. Haack, Die freibischoflichen Kirchen im

deutschprachigen Raum, Munich, 1976. There was probably an

'episcopal' connection of some kind between Reuss and Jean

Bricaud, the author of the 'Notes Historiques' about the Antient

and Primitive Rite mentioned in note 27 above

[46] For Reuss's 'masonic' activities in Switzerland see Fritz

Uhlmann, Leitfaden der Freimauererei (Bucherreihe der Allg.

Freimauerer-Liga No. 7d), Basle, 1933; Christian Schweizerkreuz

(pseud., i.e. Herbert von Bomsdorf-Bergen), Ein Welt-Betrug durch

Zeichen, Wort und Griff Zurich, pamphlet publication in two

parts, 1923-5. This is so-called 'exposure' material

[47] At the commencement of the proceedings the Secretary read the

minutes of the International Masonic Congress held at Paris in

1908 (see p. 11 above).

[48] C. Schweizerkreuz, Ein Welt Betrug, I, 1923, P. 135 (see note

46 above).