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Copyright © 1998-2000 - Paul M. Bessel - all rights reserved
The "Forget Me Not" Pin and Freemasonry
The following is taken from a presentation card issued by the American Canadian Grand
Lodge, AF&AM within the United Grand Lodges of Germany. Submitted By Wade A. Huffman
(Light of the Three Stars Lodge #936 AF&AM, Ansbach, Germany and Lancaster Lodge #57
F&AM, Lancaster, Ohio).
The Forget-Me-Not (Das
Vergissmeinnicht)
The Story Behind This Beloved Emblem Of The Craft in Germany
In early 1934, soon after Hitler's rise to power, it became evident that Freemasonry was
in danger. In that same year, the "Grand Lodge of the Sun" (one of the pre-war
German Grand Lodges, located in Bayreuth) realizing the grave dangers involved, adopted
the little blue Forget-Me-Not flower as a substitute for the traditional square and
compasses. It was felt the flower would provide brethren with an outward means of
identification while lessening the risk of possible recognition in public by the Nazis,
who were engaged in wholesale confiscation of all Masonic Lodge properties.
Freemasonry went undercover, and this delicate flower assumed its role as a symbol of
Masonry surviving throughout the reign of darkness.
During the ensuing decade of Nazi power a little blue Forget-Me-Not flower worn in a
Brother's lapel served as one method whereby brethren could identify each other in
public, and in cities and concentration camps throughout Europe. The Forget-Me-Not
distinguished the lapels of countless brethren who staunchly refused to allow the symbolic
Light of Masonry to be completely extinguished.
When the 'Grand Lodge of the Sun'
was reopened in Bayreuth in 1947, by Past Grand Master Beyer, a little pin in the shape of
a Forget-Me-Not was officially adopted as the emblem of that first annual convention of
the brethren who had survived the bitter years of semi-darkness to rekindle the Masonic
Light.
At the first Annual Convent of the
new United Grand Lodge of Germany AF&AM (VGLvD), in 1948, the pin was adopted as an
official Masonic emblem in honor of the thousands of valiant Brethren who carried on their
masonic work under adverse conditions. The following year, each delegate to the Conference
of Grand Masters in Washington, D.C., received one from Dr. Theodor Vogel, Grand Master of
the VGLvD.
Thus did a simple flower blossom
forth into a symbol of the fraternity, and become perhaps the most widely worn emblem
among Freemasons in Germany; a pin presented ceremoniously to newly- made Masons in most
of the Lodges of the American-Canadian Grand Lodge, AF&AM within the United Grand
Lodges of Germany. In the years since adoption, its significance world-wide has been
attested to by the tens of thousands of brethren who now display it with meaningful
pride.
What follows is another view - written by a Brother Mason, not by me
The origin of the information is an article in TAU 2/95 p.95f (the German Quatuor Coronati
periodical), a "letter to the Editor" which appeared in TAU 1/96 in reply to
that article, and additional research and conversations with old German Masons over the
last few years.
In the years between WW1 and WW2
the blue forget-me-not was a standard symbol used by most charitable organizations in
Germany, with a very clear meaning: "Do not forget the poor and the destitute".
It was first introduced in German Masonry in 1926, well before the Nazi era, at the
annual Communication of the Grand Lodge "Zur Sonne", in Bremen, where it was
distributed to all the participants. That was a terrible time in Germany, economically
speaking, further aggravated in 1929 following that year's "Great Depression".
That economic situation, by the way, contributed a lot to Hitler's accession to power.
Very many people depended on charity, some of which was Masonic. Distributing the
forget-me-not at the Grand Lodge Communication was meant to remind German Brethren of the
charitable activities of the Grand Lodge.
In 1936 (Hitler was already in
control since 1933) the "Winterhilfswerk" (a non- Masonic winter charity drive)
held a collection and used and distributed the same symbol, again with its obvious
charitable connotation. Some of the Masons who remembered the 1926 Communication --and the
forget-me-not-- possibly also wore it later as a sign of recognition. We have no evidence
of that and its general signification still was charity, but not specifically Masonic
charity. Moreover it rapidly became quite impossible to risk wearing anything but Nazi
pins. So there were probably only a very few Brethren wearing the forget-me-not, and
probably only for a brief time, until wearing any non-Nazi pins became suspect. There is
absolutely no record of the pin, or the flower, ever having been worn during the war (that
is after 1939), even less in concentration camps, as the legend also goes.
In 1948 Bro. Theodor Vogel, Master
of the Lodge "Zum weißen Gold am Kornberg", in Selb (then in Western-occupied
Germany), remembered the 1926 and 1936 pin, had a few hundred made and started handing it
out as a Masonic symbol wherever he went. When Brother Vogel was later elected GM of the
Grand Lodge AFuAM of Germany and visited a Grand Masters' conference in Washington, DC, he
distributed it there too, and this was the way it first came to the USA.
Its sudden popularity caused many
manufacturers, some Masonic, some not, to pounce upon the occasion and sell the pin all
over the world, with a variety of rather contrived and imaginative notes of explanation.
The pin is nowadays quite well-known, as are the legends written about its origin, purpose
and use... Which does not deter after all from the new message it carries today, through
its authors' imagination if not through rigorous historical record...
And since we are mentioning the
forget-me-not, it is any of about 50-odd species of the genus Myosotis, family
Boraginaceae, carrying clusters of blue flowers and native to temperate Europe, Asia and
North America.
Other sources to check:
The Philalethes magazine Aug 1969, A
Mason Visits in Europe
Dec. 1970, Forget Me Not... Feb. 1978, Callaway
DEc. 1978, Third Reich... June 1984, President's Corner
Feb. 1986, Vrooman... Apr. 1987, Das ...
Oct. 1987, Das ... Apr. 1988, Case
June, 1988, Roberts... Feb. 1990, Smith
Apr. 1990, p. 11... Apr. 1990, p. 24
Aug. 1990, McGaughey... Feb. 1992, Marsengill
Apr. 1992, p. 41... June 1993, Smith
Aug. 1994, French... Feb. 1996, p. 10
Seekers of Truth, pages 11, 204, 205
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