Les Vrais Amis de l’Union et du Progrès Réunis, Brussels

In 2025, a book from the library of the masonic lodge Les Vrais Amis de l'Union et du Progrès Réunis was restituted to the documentation centre Centre d’Etudes et de Documentation Maçonnique | Maçonniek Studie- en Documentatiecentrum (CEDOM-MADOC).

The lodge Les Vrais Amis de l’Union et du Progrès Réunis (‘United True Friends of Harmony and Progress’) is one of the oldest Masonic lodges in Belgium. It was formed in 1854 through the merger of the Brussels lodges ‘Les Vrais Amis de l'union’ (founded in 1782) and ‘Les Amis du progrès’ (founded in 1838).

Like all Masonic property in Belgium, the lodge's property was confiscated and seized from 1940 onwards by Nazi organisations such as the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), the Reich Main Security Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA), the Sonderkommando Künsberg and the military library protection unit (Bibliotheksschutz des Militärs).

La Liberté was re-established after the end of the war. After 1945, looted archive material from various Belgian lodges, including La Liberté and Les Vrais Amis de l'Union et du Progrès Réunis, was taken from Berlin to Moscow by the Soviet trophy commission.

In 2002, this material was returned to Belgium, and the various Belgian lodges decided to hand it over in its entirety to CEDOM-MADOC, which had been founded in 1968 by the Grand Orient de Belgique.

The book from the library of Les Vrais Amis de l’Union et du Progrès Réunis in Brussels was added to the collection of the Berlin City Library (Berliner Stadtbibliothek, BStB) in 1947 as a ‘gift’. It was supplied by the Salvage Office for Scientific Libraries via salvage order no. 161 ('margarine bunker, Hohenzollerndamm’). The accompanying short report states: ‘The margarine bunker served the Wilmersdorf district office as a collection and sorting point for libraries [...]’. The Salvage Office report also mentions that books from the Hünfeld monastery in Hesse were identified there. This provenance has been recorded several times in the ZLB 's stock. Other clear examples of Nazi looted property bearing the salvage number ‘161’ include books from the Jewish Community of Opava and the Austrian Theosophical Society.

Based on current knowledge, it is very likely that the book was first taken to Berlin to build up the RSHA's central library. This library was partially removed by the Salvage Office and given the salvage number ‘15’. This is supported by provenances with the salvage number “161”, some of which also have the salvage number ‘15’, such as the aforementioned libraries from Hünfeld and Opava.

The ZLB would like to thank Michel Vermote for his extraordinary support in this restitution.