Dear readers of this website, I am delighted that you are interested in Freemasonry. On this website, we endeavour to answer all your questions to the best of our knowledge and belief. Should any questions remain unanswered, you can use the ‘Contact’ section to receive direct replies, ask us further questions or share your views.

When I am asked what our main concern is, I always put it this way: we are an association of men who, through our interactions with others, are dedicated to self-improvement with the optimistic aim of becoming better people, whilst fully aware that this is not always possible. We try to achieve this by fostering an understanding, through ritualised gatherings and discussions that are as free from conflict as possible, that every person thinks and feels differently and that our own sense of self is just one of many possible ones. I believe we succeed in this to some extent, at least when we do not place excessive demands on ourselves.
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Conversely, these few sentences also convey the message that we are not a political organisation, nor even an ideological one, apart from the fact that we reject extremism of any kind. And the fact that we only accept men is simply an old tradition, as is the case in other human communities. If you would like to find out more, I encourage you to have a look around our website.

Dr Georg Semler, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Austria

The Grand Lodge of Austria is the officially recognised representative body of Austrian Freemasons. It comprises 83 lodges across Austria with more than 3,600 members, nearly two-thirds of whom are based in Vienna.

The lodges operate independently – the Grand Lodge of Austria merely sets out their values and organisational rules.

Furthermore, we Austrian Freemasons are part of a ‘global chain’ that spans the globe. This not only gives us a sense of solidarity across all borders, but also grants us access to all meetings of lodges belonging to the 160 friendly foreign Grand Lodges with which the Grand Lodge of Austria has exchanged so-called letters of recognition – in selecting these, it follows the example of the oldest and most exemplary Grand Lodge in the world: the United Grand Lodge of England.

Conspiracy theories have been and continue to be spread about our aim as Freemasons. These notions are always nonsensical, whether they stem from hostility or mere ignorance. The truth is quite simple: our aim is to work on ourselves – or, as we say, to work on the ‘rough stone’, which is how we symbolically view ourselves.

If one pursues this goal, the primary focus is on the ability to understand oneself, to draw the right conclusions for one’s life from that understanding, and ultimately to become a better person.

“Become who you are” is the challenge we set ourselves. But – and this is crucial – this work takes place within a community of like-minded individuals who provide one another with valuable inspiration through their attitude, their feedback and their actions. And yet it remains a path that each person follows autonomously, in accordance with their own individuality and without adhering to dogmatic guidelines.

It may sound simple, we know, but it does require a great deal of personal initiative. If successful, being a Freemason becomes a personal principle of life, a guiding principle for thought and action. And all of this is entirely in keeping with our values, which have their origins in the Enlightenment of the 18th century and have lost none of their significance to this day: liberty, equality, fraternity (or as we might say today: liberalism, democracy, solidarity), tolerance and humanity.