Lodge "Friedrich-Leopold zur Markanertreue", Witten

In 2023, a book from the library of the St. John's Lodge Friedrich-Leopold zur Markanertreue from Witten could be returned. The return was made to the library of the German Masonic Museum in Bayreuth.

The lodge was founded in 1896 and was situated under the umbrella of the Great National Mother Lodge of the Prussian States, Zu den 3 Weltkugeln. A clubhouse was maintained in Körnerstraße in Witten an der Ruhr, at the corner of Steinstraße.

In 1934/35, the remaining small circle of brothers was forced, like all other masonic lodges, to liquidate. The lodge house was sold to the Verein für Orts- und Heimatkunde der Grafschaft Mark in 1935/36.  The lodge never received the proceeds. Even before the sale, members were forbidden to enter the lodge house and thus there was no possibility to get the furnishings and any objects out of the house.

In 1949 the Lodge re-established itself under the umbrella organization of the United Grand Lodges of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Germany ("Vereinigte Großlogen der Alten Freien und Angenommenen Maurer von Deutschland", AFuAMvD). Since at least 1986 the Lodge has been dormant, i.e. it has ceased its activities and has given all its masonic paraphernalia to the umbrella organization for preservation. The library of the German Masonic Museum in Bayreuth, also a member of the AFuAMvD, has agreed to include the book in its holdings in the spirit of a fair and just solution.

The access route of the book into the stock of the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek is unknown, it contains no accession numbers or other traces pointing to suppliers and originates from unprocessed storage stock of the Berlin City Library.