In the wake of Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol comes a new novel by Welsh author Scott Mariani. The Mozart Conspiracy is the first of six thrillers in his series about British Special Air Services officer Ben Hope.

While Brother Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's official cause of death has long been blamed on rheumatic fever (or on Antonio Salieri as depicted in Amadeus), Mariani's new novel finds a different villain. You guessed it: the Freemasons. Or at least a vaguely Masonic group called the "Order of Ra." The tale goes that the brethren were peeved at Mozart for spilling Masonic beans in his opera "Die Zauberflöte" (The Magic Flute), and poisoned him. Apparently, Ben Hope is hot on the trail of this horrid conspiracy.

From the advance publicity for the book:

Ben is on his way home from a mission when he receives a message from Leigh Llewellyn, an old flame and international opera star, saying she needs his help. Leigh is the sister of Ben's late friend, Oliver, who was at work on a book on Mozart when he died under mysterious circumstances. When Ben takes Leigh to the English countryside to guard her, deadly thugs attempt to kill them both. A lost Mozart letter, written in 1791 shortly before the composer's death and first discovered by Leigh's father, implicates a shadowy European group known as the Order of Ra, which remains a powerful secret force in Europe today. None of this matters much to either Ben or the reader as he singlehandedly kills his way to the top of the evil cabal.

Don't get your history from novels and movies.

Mozart became an Apprentice in Vienna's "Zur Wohltätigkeit" ("Beneficence") Lodge on December 14th, 1784. He was passed to the Fellow Craft degree less than a month later. He was raised to the Master Mason degree sometime before April 22, 1785 in Lodge "Zur Wahren Eintracht" ("True Concord"), considered to be the most aristocratic lodge in Vienna, and the mother lodge of Ignaz von Born.

Mozart's Mother lodge, "Zur Wohltätigkeit" was forced to consolidate in 1785 with two other lodges because of a royal decree by King Joseph II on December 1st, 1785 (the Freimaurerpatent, or "Masonic Decree") that was issued in reaction to the the breakup of the Illuminati in Bavaria, and the subsequent scare throughout France, Austria and the German states. The capital city of each province was allowed to have just one lodge, and each one was forced to report its membership list to the secret police on a regular basis. Vienna was allowed just two. After Christmas, "Zur wahren Eintracht" Lodge merged with the "Zu den drey Adlern" and "Zum Palmbaum" Lodges to form the "Zur Wahrheit" Lodge.

Meanwhile, Mozart’s mother lodge "Zur Wohltätigkeit" merged with "Zur den drei Feuern" and "Lodge Zur gekrönten Hoffnung," under the new name "Zur Neugekrönten Hoffnung" (New Crowned Hope). Joseph's decree was lifted in 1789, but many members left, spooked about being associated with "secret societies" the King was suspicious of.

Mozart's father, Leopold, became a Mason in 1785, and Mozart wrote "Fellow Crafts Journey" for his father's second degree ceremony. His brother-in-law Joseph Lange was also a Mason, as were many of his friends and patrons.

Mozart was an incredible hypochondriac, and while it's largely accepted that fever killed him, there's also a theory that he might very well have over-medicated himself to death with a deadly patent medicine. Interestingly, in the last year of his life, Mozart's wife Constanze became alarmed that the chronically depressed composer believed he was being poisoned, and he told her he was writing his famous "Requiem," not for a commission, but for his own death. She persuaded her husband to set the depressing work aside and instead to complete the "Freimaurerkantate," a cantata he was working on for the dedication of a new lodge building for "Zur Neugekrönten Hoffnung" on November 15, 1791. He happily finished the Masonic work, but soon fell into depression again afterwards, when he returned to working on the "Requiem."

Mozart died at 35 on December 5, 1791 in his home at No. 4 Rauhensteingasse in Vienna. The building was demolished in 1849, but a plaque marks the spot today. His lodge met at Rauhensteingasse Number 3 near the corner of Ballgasse. There is a clothing store in the building today, but there is still a small Masonic rough ashlar hanging over the arched doorway in an iron frame.

Apart from the hoary theory about being killed for breaking his oath of secrecy by putting Masonic secrets in his opera, some have also suggested Mozart was in debt up to his eyeballs from gambling with lodge brothers, who may have gotten tired of waiting for repayment. But there is another Masonic conspiracy, of a sort, associated with Mozart's death. It seems he may have been dallying with Magdelena Hofdemel, the 23-year old wife of lodge brother Franz Hofdemel. The day after Mozart's funeral, Hofdemel slashed his wife with a razor, then cut his own throat and died. Magdelena somehow survived the attack, and gave birth four months later to a bouncing baby boy, whom she named after both her dead husband and Brother Mozart. But the rumor was that Franz Hofdemel discovered the affair, and then poisoned Mozart as Step One of his murder/suicide plot. Magdelena's child was a walking billboard for Mozart's purported indiscretion, and Ludwig Von Beethoven, reputed to be a Vienna Freemason as well, refused to play in any venue Magdelena was attending.

Tales of an evil Salieri bent on destroying Mozart seem to be largely an artistic invention, as well. Salieri was a pallbearer and one of only five people at Mozart's burial. In fact, after Mozart's death, Constanze hired the composer to tutor her youngest son, Franz Xaver Wolfgang Mozart. Salieri was scarcely the hack he was portrayed as in Amadeus, and his many pupils included Beethoven, Franz Liszt and Franz Schubert.

Corky Back Then

It's hard to realize now, the condition that this country had reached after the Stock Market Crash of 1929. There was rampant unemployment and economic despair throughout the whole country. People were standing in long lines everyday to get a free bowl of soup that was distributed by churches and charitable organizations.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt had promised the people a “New Deal” to solve the problems of the Great Depression if he was elected,. In the early 1930's, three programs were initiated in an attempt to solve those problems.

The federal government had a fascination with initial names for programs even back in the 1930's. The three programs that meant the most for the people were the CCC, WPA and NRA.

The CCC was originally established by an act of Congress in 1933 as the Emergency Conservation Work Act to provide jobs and alleviate the nations suffering due to the lack of jobs during the Great Depression. Another act in 1937 changed the name to the Civilian Conservation Corps. When the CCC was formed they accepted young men from 18 to 25 who were physically fit, unemployed and unmarried. In 1935 the age requirement was change to from 17 to 28. The men were paid $30.00 per month, YES per month. $25.00 of that was sent home to the man's family and he received $5.00 for expenses.

The first 25,000 men were enrolled in 1933 and they had increased to 507,782 men by 1939. The average number of camps open at any one time was 1,600. The War Department administered the program and despite the “Civilian” part of it's name it was a military organization. That was probably where earned their nickname, “The Tree Army”. The men were grouped into companys which reported to District Headquarters which were associated with Army Corps commands. Its equipment was military in origin - one feature of the CCC was that the young men driving to and fro to projects in the backs of open bed Army trucks. Its officers too, were military men on active duty, Colonels and Captains and Lieutenants who had fought in the last war and would fight in the next.

During their time, they planted 2,356,000,000 trees. Yes, that's billions. A very large part of their projects were related to forestry and building camp grounds, hiking trails and roads in national forests and parks. Some of their more notable projects included the Skyline Drive in Virginia, the Pacific Crest Trail and the great Appalachian Trail.

Nellie's uncle Bill was in the CCC in the 30's. We still have some of the letters he wrote to his mother and father during that period. Like most men in the armed service, he was always broke and needed money for stamps if he was going to write letters home.

The WPA, which was established May 6, 1935, originally stood for the Works Progress Administration. The name was changed in 1939 to the Works Projects Administration. Its original purpose was to provide economic relief for the hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers during the Great Depression. Like the CCC money earned in the WPA was sent to the family. The men were paid from $15.00 to $90.00 per month, depending on the job he or she had. When the job required it, housing and food were included.

In 1943, after eight years, the program was phased out. During that time they built 651,087 miles of highways, repaired 124,087 bridges, constructed 125,110 public buildings, established 8,192 parks and 853 air strips. They built things like courthouses, schools, hospitals, playgrounds and libraries with many still in use. They did much more than put shovels in workers' hands and construct buildings however. The WPA provided free or inexpensive puppet shows, dance recitals, musical presentations, and dramas. They gave jobs to actors, directors, playwrights, scene designers, make-up artists, and orchestras-people who would have remained on breadlines. The WPA also provided jobs to musicians, historians, dancers, actors, cartoonists, writers, and artists.

I remember when the WPA built a community cannery in Montgomery, Texas. My grandmother used to work in the cannery during the summer while the crops were coming in.

The National Recovery Administration (NRA), sometime called the “Blue Eagle” because of the signs that businesses were required to post to show they were in compliance with the law. The NRA was supposed to establish codes for each industrial sector and, had it worked as such, would have caused a fundamental change for the role of government in business. However, the NRA did not bring this change.

Many people were opposed to the NRA because they feared set price levels would be too high. One reason it didn't work was that large business still continued to dominate the economy because they created most of the codes. At the same time, NRA labor agreements were unpopular with both small business, who feared rising costs, and labor, who felt the agreements did not go far enough. This almost universal opposition to the program, combined with the administrative problems, made it impossible for the agency to effect any fundamental changes. These problems were all solved however, when the Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional and shut it down.

One such lodge was called Loge Liberté Chérie (Beloved Liberty Lodge).

On 15 November 1943, seven Belgian and resistance fighters founded the lodge inside Hut 6 of Emslandlager VII. The name of the lodge was derived from the song La Marseillaise.

The original seven Freemasons of Loge Liberté Chérie were: Paul Hanson, Luc Somerhausen, Jean De Schrijver, Jean Sugg, Henri Story, Amédée Miclotte, Franz Rochat, and Guy Hannecart. They later Initiated, passed and raised, Brother Fernand Erauw, another Belgian.

According to M. Franz Bridoux, former prisoner in Esterwegen’s hut N° 6, the founding members of “Loge Liberté Chérie” were Messrs Rochat, Sugg, Hannecart, Hanson, Somerhausen, Degueldre and Miclotte.

A PRIEST STOOD WATCH

Paul Hanson was elected to be Master. The Brethren met for Lodge Work in Hut 6 around a table, which was otherwise used for cartridge sorting. A Roman Catholic priest stood watch, to enable the Brethren to hold their meetings; and he protected their secrecy. Hut 6 was used for foreign Nacht und Nebel (“Night and Fog”), prisoners.

Altogether, 15 camps were established on the Netherlands border, with central administration in Papenburg.

These ceremonies (for whose secrecy they asked the community of Catholic priests for assistance, “with their prayers”), took place with a very simplified ritual. After the first ritual meeting, with the admission of a new brother, further meetings were prepared.

One was dedicated to the symbol of the Great Architect of the Universe, another “The future of Belgium”, and a further, “The position of women in Freemasonry”.

Sadly, due to the killings in the camp, the Lodge stopped “working” at the beginning of 1944.

The Old Tiler Talks

The Meanest Master
From the Old Tiler's Talk - by Carl H. Claudy, The Temple Publishers

We have the meanest Master in captivity!" stormed the New Brother to the Old Tiler.

"Softly, softly!'' cautioned the Old Tiler. "What has the poor man done now?"

"Refused to help me out of trouble!" answered the New Brother. "And he could have done it, just as easy. . . . "

"Tell me about it," suggested the Old Tiler. "Maybe there are extenuating circumstances!"

"That's just what I told him!" replied the New Brother, hotly. "At the funeral of Brother Picus, two weeks ago, I was a pallbearer. I was late, and didn't go to the temple to see the lodge opened, but drove my car directly to the church. There was a big crowd, of course; Brother Picus was much beloved. I couldn't find a parking space. I drove around the block and finally found one and backed in. When I came out of the church a cop was standing by my car and I had a hard time to keep him from taking me to the police station! I finally convinced him that I had to act as a pallbearer, but I got a summons to go to court the next day.

"I took it up with the Master. He knows the Captain of that precinct. All he needed to do was to see him, but he wouldn't move in the matter. I think that was mean and maybe un-Masonic."

"Sounds very bad, to me," answered the Old Tiler, noncommittally. "What did the cop say you did?"

"Parked in the wrong place," answered the New Brother. "I didn't see any sign!"

"That all?" asked the Old Tiler.

"No -- he said I had left my engine running and he had stopped it."

"Well, did you?"

"Why, yes, I did. I knew I'd only be a minute in the church. The old car starts so hard so I just let her run."

"Oh, you did. Well, now, that makes it look even worse!" grinned the Old Tiler.

"I don't think I understand . . . "

"You will in a minute!'' answered the Old Tiler, grimly. "The Master has a right to complain to me that you are a mean Master Mason! You go to a funeral and break two regulations; one of no, one of great importance. Then you ask the Master to intercede, ask that the police Captain elude his duty, all because you are a Mason! You try to make Masonry the father of special privilege and hide behind your apron, while a profane would have to pay the penalty of lawlessness! It looks very bad, my brother, but not for the Master."

"Oh, I say, Old Tiler! You are rough!"

"I haven't started yet," answered the Old Tiler. "Let me tell you . . . "

"But they were such little violations!" interrupted the New Brother.

"They were not!" answered the Old Tiler sharply. "You were a menace to society. Parking wrong is no crime; it is merely an inconvenience to others. But leaving your engine running is a serious offense because of the possibility of damage. Gear shift levers have been known to engage themselves. Small boys who want to drive a car like Dad have been known to get in cars with engines running and damage themselves and other people. I'm glad the Master had sense to let well enough alone. What did the judge say?"

"Well, he said pretty much what you said!" answered the New Brother, shamefacedly. ''He only fined me ten dollars, although he might have plastered fifty on me. Said he would have turned me loose for the wrong parking, considering the reason for my haste, but that there was no excuse for leaving the engine running."

''Sensible judge!" remarked the Old Tiler. "Masonry is no mother of special privilege. There is no reason why a Mason should be permitted to get away with anything his profane brother can't do. Masons are supposed to be the pick of the community. They are taught to revere their country and its laws. Oh, I know this is a mere police requirement. But police regulations are as necessary for comfort and safety as amendments to the Constitution. Of all people, Masons ought to observe them.

When a Mason breaks a regulation, he should take his medicine. Your Master showed good judgment not to interfere. Had he done so successfully, he would have taught you that you could break the law with impunity, because Masonry would 'square' it for you. Instead of being the 'meanest' Master, I am inclined to think we have the most intelligent Master in captivity."

"I suppose you are right. Somehow, I never see the things the same way after I talk with you. I guess I'll have to speak to him, after all." "Speak to who?" asked the Old Tiler.

''I had about made up my mind I wouldn't speak to the Master any more!"

"We sure did make a mistake!" answered the Old Tiler.

"Who did?" "We did. We took in a child, and the Masonic law requires us only to accept grown up men. grinned the Old Tiler. "Next you'll be sticking your tongue out at me, or slapping me on the wrist, or refusing to play in my anteroom!"

To his credit be it said, the New Brother blushed.

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