Lodge "Zur Wahren Eintracht" Schweidnitz

In 2017, a book from the library of the St. John’s Lodge ‘Zur Wahren Eintracht’ in Schweidnitz could be returned to its mother lodge, Royal York, in Berlin.

The St. John’s Lodge ‘Zur Wahren Eintracht’ in Schweidnitz (in Silesia, today Świdnica), founded in 1788, was dissolved and expropriated by the Nazis in 1935. It was not re-established.

The number 15, which is written in the book, refers to the Salvage Office (Bergungsstelle), and makes it clear that the book originated from a depot of the Reich Security Main Office (Reichssicherheitshauptamt, RSHA) at Eisenacher Str. 11–13 in Berlin-Schöneberg. The RSHA had gathered looted books from across Europe at that location. After the war ended in 1945, parts of these books were distributed by the Salvage Office to libraries throughout Berlin.

The ZLB would like to express its sincere thanks to the German Museum of Freemasonry in Bayreuth for its support in facilitating this restitution.