An Eventful History

The history of our Grand Lodge is an eventful one, as Freemasonry in Austria has been banned twice since its inception in the 18th century: first for more than a century by the Habsburg reaction, and then again for seven brief but devastating years under the National Socialists.

Under the Habsburgs, the primary motive was likely their close connection with Catholicism, which was also very politically powerful at the time and remained opposed to the lodges until well into the 20th century. This was partly because it could not control them, and partly—which became more significant in the 19th century—because Romance Freemasonry tended increasingly toward atheism, and Italian Freemasonry, in particular, fought alongside other groups for the national unification of Italy and thus against the Papal States.

Although Austrian Freemasonry operated differently, it suffered what might be called collateral damage in the 19th century within the Catholic and by then very reactionary Habsburg Empire: it remained banned until the end of the monarchy in 1918.

The reason for the National Socialists’ hostility toward Freemasonry is easier to understand: totalitarian systems of any kind seek to maintain absolute control over everything. They cannot accept autonomous spheres of social life alongside themselves, especially when these spheres, like the Freemasons, advocate for fundamental human values.

However, since 1945, that era has also passed, and there has been continuous progress.

What follows is a chronological account of events, presented in three attempts that were necessary before Austrian Freemasonry reached its current state of prosperity.

First Attempt: The first lodge was founded in 1742

The foundations for the world’s first Grand Lodge were laid in London in 1717. Important states on the continent, such as France and Prussia, followed only a few years later.

In the Habsburg Empire, it took until 1742. Two years earlier, Archduchess Maria Theresa, still referred to as Empress by Austrians today, had taken the scepter of the great state. And although her husband, Francis Stephen of Lorraine—who became Holy Roman Emperor as Francis I in 1745—had been initiated by Freemasons in Holland in 1731 while still an unmarried prince, the sovereign remained skeptical. Researchers assume this was not only due to her Catholic faith but primarily because her opponent, King Frederick the Great of Prussia, who had taken Silesia from her, was a very dedicated Freemason. Consequently, she ordered the dissolution and banning of the lodge “Aux Trois Canons,” founded in Vienna in 1742, just a few months later.

Austrian Freemasons did not have it easy at first. Founding lodges remained difficult for some time, but things improved from the middle of the century onward. Several of the Regent’s important advisors were themselves Freemasons. This is hardly surprising: Freemasons were among the proponents of modernization, and the Empress was certainly reform-oriented. This continued under the reign of Maria Theresa’s son, Joseph II, and thus, in 1784, the first Austrian Grand Lodge was finally founded in Vienna, albeit with some delay.

The good times lasted only a few years: Joseph’s successor-but-one and nephew, Francis II/I, feared for his throne during the French Revolution and, from the early 1790s, banned everything that was inclined toward new ideas, including the Freemasons. From a broader political perspective, this stagnation was ultimately to last over a century. The Habsburg Empire slipped further and further into a defensive posture regarding development. Consequently, all these bans were maintained for as long as humanly possible—including the ban on Freemasonry: in the Austrian half of the empire, which was divided into an Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy in 1867, it remained in effect until the First World War and the end of Habsburg rule.

An Austrian Specialty: The Border Lodges from 1871 to 1918

Due to differing laws on associations, Freemason lodges were able to operate in the Hungarian part of the Habsburg Empire after 1867. Freemasons living in the Austrian part were initially members there, but from 1871 they found a solution to perform ritual work in their own lodges: the so-called “Border Lodges.” In Vienna, they gathered in non-political associations; near the border in the Hungarian part of the empire, they founded ritual-working lodges. The first was “Humanitas,” which is still active today; others followed from 1874—by the outbreak of the First World War, there were a total of 14 border lodges with 1,048 members, working mainly in Pressburg (now Bratislava).

During this period, Austria’s Freemasons made several attempts to gain recognition in the Austrian part of the empire but failed repeatedly. However, despite the adverse circumstances of the border lodge era, they achieved a great deal in social and educational terms. There was no mention of today’s welfare state back then—and a small layer of the wealthy and nouveau riche stood in contrast to a vast army of the poor and needy. Through their Viennese associations, the Freemasons therefore founded a series of pioneering medical and charitable institutions. Particularly noteworthy was the “First Austrian Children’s Asylum,” which existed from 1875 to 1931 and provided orphans with an education and a path into professional life.

Second Attempt: 1918 in the young Republic of Austria.

Following the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, the Austrian Freemasons in exile were able to move their lodges immediately to the newly founded democratic republic, which had established a modern law on associations, and to set up a Grand Lodge, the “Grand Lodge of Vienna.” This prospered from the very beginning. Within a few years, it comprised 24 lodges with nearly two thousand members.

Surprisingly, and unusually for dictatorial systems, the Austrofascist regime that came to power in 1934 did not issue a new ban. However, civil servants and other brothers working in state-affiliated sectors were required to disclose their membership, which led many to resign.

In 1938, Hitler ordered his military to march into Austria, followed by the annexation (Anschluss) of the country into Nazi Germany. For the Freemasons, this meant that everything had come to an end once again. Their ideals of freedom, humanity, and tolerance were completely incompatible with the totalitarian and racist ideology of the National Socialists.

Simultaneously with the military invasion, special SS commandos flew in from Berlin with orders to deport political opponents and dissolve all associations disliked by the National Socialists. This included the Freemasons. Their leading figures were interrogated, some were arrested, and the seriously ill Grand Master Richard Schlesinger—who had led the Grand Lodge since 1919—died in custody. Of the more than 800 Freemasons remaining in Austria after the resignations prompted by the Austrofascist regime, many now had to flee abroad, especially if they were Jewish. More than a hundred were murdered in concentration camps by 1945.

Third Attempt: 1945 at the beginning of the Second Republic.

A few weeks after the end of the Second World War, the few surviving Freemasons gathered in semi-destroyed Vienna and, independently, in Carinthia for a third attempt. The first lodges were founded, and soon the Grand Lodge, which had been eliminated by the National Socialists in 1938, could be re-established. All of this took place under the particularly difficult conditions of the early post-war years.

At that time, Austria was divided into four occupation zones, food was scarce, and there was a severe housing shortage. In order for Masonic labors—as the ritual meetings of the lodges are called—to take place at all, every brother had to bring heating material, fat, and bread rations during the first post-war years, and some meetings could not take place at all due to a lack of fuel. American lodges sent packages containing clothes and shoes to their Austrian brothers.

But just like the country itself, Austrian Freemasonry slowly began to recover. Almost every year, a new lodge could be founded: initially primarily in Vienna, and gradually in all other eight federal states. One good year followed another. In 1952, the “Grand Lodge of Austria” was finally recognized as regular once again by the “United Grand Lodge of England.”

At the turn of the year 1985/86, the Grand Lodge, together with the Viennese lodges, was able to move into its newly acquired building in Vienna’s Rauhensteingasse. In 2017, simultaneously with the “United Grand Lodge of England” and all other regular Grand Lodges in the world, it celebrated the anniversary of “300 Years of Modern Freemasonry.” And in 2018, just one year later, the “Grand Lodge of Austria” was able to celebrate its own 100th birthday: both times in the ballroom of the Vienna Hofburg with large ritual events, each attended by well over 1,000 brothers from all over Austria.