Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
gave the reasons , which were related to the situation in the country :
The meeting ( tenue ) [ ... ] has become much less certain given the general situation . [ ... ] It is feared that , from now until August , the situation will worsen to the point of making the congress if not completely impossible , at least very difficult . For these reasons , several Br :. have excused themselves , preferring to follow our work from a distance rather than to expose themselves to trouble by traveling to Berlin .
Everything deteriorated quickly in Germany : In the legislative elections of July 31 , the National Socialist Party became the largest party in the Reichstag . 18
In the end , a meeting of the administrative council of the ULF was held in Basel instead of a congress . There , President Uhlmann presented a report that was by no means optimistic : The work “ is not absolutely gratifying , but it seems that we are now used to it in masonic circles .”
The situation did not improve in the following months , but the ULF intended to uphold its statutory meetings and prepared the 1933 congress to be held on September 1 – 3 in the Hague . Were some brothers besieged by doubts ? It may seem so from reading a letter sent on August 5 by Henri La Fontaine to Brother Reichl (?), secre- tary of the ULF practical action group for peace :
[ ... ] As for me , I admit that I am very discouraged ; the general state of the world is affecting the most well-intentioned people , and people are hiding behind the most pathetic indifference . [ ... ] What has occurred in Germany has not improved the situation . What will happen in the United States ? What role can Masonry play in the global drama ? I plan to come to the Hague in particular to learn what people in our environment are thinking and to discover , with my brothers , what endeavors are possible .
I see the problem as primarily an economic one . It is the antagonism of the interests of a tiny minority of financiers who each want to maintain or rather to regain the preeminence they had achieved before and during the war and also after it , which is the reason for the disturbing situation where the masses , and increasingly the majority of the middle class , are the victims . And if they believe a new war will be profitable for them , they will not hesitate to start one . Their press is powerful enough to mislead people and persuade them that this war will be good for them . When we see how Hitler was able to incite and above all unite
18 A few months later , in January 1933 , Hitler became chancellor of the country . In his book , L ’ Europe sous l ’ acacia ( Paris : Dervy , 2016 ), Yves Hivert-Messeca describes the situation of German Freemasonry throughout this period ( 207 et seq .).
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