Friedrich Ludwig Schröder
The Great Reformer of German Freemasonry
Early 18th century Germany was not a single country like it is today. At the time, all Germans — 16 million of them, to be precise — lived in a patchwork of over 30 kingdoms, grand duchies, duchies, principalities, city-states, and other statelets, constantly vying with each other for supremacy in a series of local wars. Most of these realms were ineffectively ruled by elites who were more interested in lavish palaces, expensive mistresses, and favorite hunting dogs than in any affairs of state. Many of them were also bishops, but they weren’t particularly religious — they just happened to be scions of noble families in good graces with the Catholic Church, the most powerful organization in Europe at the time, whose monasteries controlled massive wealth and vast land holdings throughout the continent. Although German artists and philosophers had already started producing classical works of the Enlightenment, upper classes still considered German culture inferior to French and so used French as the language of high society.
Dominant realm of the day was the Kingdom of Prussia. This large militant state covered parts of present-day Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium and the Czech Republic. Its capital, the city of Berlin, was more of a sprawling military base than a city, hosting a garison, an armory, and the largest teaching hospital in Europe. It was inhabited by about 75,000 souls, a third of which were soldiers and the rest mostly mechanics, engineers, armorers, and other craftsmen servicing the state’s war machine stationed here.
Our story begins here, in Berlin.
In 1734, Sophie Charlotte Biereichel (1714–1792), a local aspiring actress, married organist Johann Dietrich Schröder. Her husband was of lax morals and the couple’s domestic life was far from marital bliss. After just four years of marriage, frequent arguments over bad financial situation led to separation (but not divorce). Since there were few theaters in the 18th century and none of them were in Berlin, Sophie decided to move northwest to Lüneburg in 1740 to start her theatrical career.
She joined the troupe of famous actor and playwright Johann Friedrich Schönemann (1704–1782). Specialized in producing German adaptations of classic French works, this acting company was a magnet for talented thespians, including brilliant and much-beloved comic actor Konrad Ernst Ackermann (1710–1771), whom she met there. After they got into a particularly vicious argument with Schönemann, Sophie and Konrad left the troupe in 1742. Sophie decided to start her own theatrical company, which Konrad immediately joined. After a while, she also returned to her husband Johann Dietrich Schröder in Berlin. The troupe didn’t do well — it struggled for two years and finally disbanded in 1744. Sophie was already pregnant with the organist’s son when a tragedy struck — her husband died suddenly.
Friedrich Ludwig Schröder, truly a widow’s son, was born on November 3, 1744 in Schwerin, a picturesque town in North Germany surrounded by twelve freshwater lakes. The city was originally founded in the 11th century by a confederation of medieval West Slavic tribes led by chief Niklot, whose son Pribislav became the first Prince of the House of Mecklenburg in 1167. The Mecklenburg dynasty would go down in history as one of the longest-ruling families of Europe, acting as the lords of the region — and, at one point, Sweden as well — until 1918, when all German monarchies were permanently abolished at the end of World War I. At the time of Schröder’s birth, the Mecklenburgs were still in power and Schwerin was the capital of Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin.
Sophie took up a job here as a seamstress, hoping to support herself and her baby by embroidery. However, the lure of the stage proved simply too great for the young actress to ignore and so she joined another acting company, the Hilverdingschen troupe, with her baby. Touring eastern German states, Poland, and Russia over the next few years, her fame as an actress finally started to grow. Her path crossed again with that of her former colleague, Konrad Ernst Ackermann, and the two married in Moscow in 1749. The couple went on to form the Ackermann troupe, their own theatrical company, in Königsberg (today’s Kaliningrad) in 1751.
It was a good period for the young couple. Their first daughter, Dorothea, was born next year. Their theaterical productions became hugely popular throughout Eastern Europe and, in 1754, the Prussian government gave them a permission to do something previously unheard of — construct the first private theatre in all of the Kingdom. There was, however, one dark spot on the family’s happiness: Ackermann’s relationship with Sophie’s son from her first marriage. The stepfather had no love for the child and made sure the boy’s childhood was miserable. Not surprisingly, the boy didn’t love him back, either.
Year 1756 brought the Seven Years’ War, a major conflict between Great Britain and France which spilled into many different theaters of war across the world, including North America (where it’s better known as the French and Indian War). In Europe, the Prussian troops marched on Saxony, one of its small neighbors in league with Austria, causing the outrage across the continent. Fearing the greater war was coming, Ackermann fled Königsberg, where his eleven-year old stepson attended school, taking Sophie and their daughter with him. He did not bother to take his stepson, though.
Abandoned by his parents, the poor boy found shelter with a cobbler, from whom he started learning the shoemaking trade as an apprentice. He was soon also accepted to Collegium Fridericianum, a prestigious royal gymnasium. Schröder spent his free time learning dancing and public speaking. He soon abandoned school and embarked on a career path of a dancer. When he became friends with a couple of traveling English acrobats, they introduced him to Shakespeaere’s work. Schröder was so impressed with the Bard’s writings that he decided to abandon dancing and become actor like his parents. A fascinating autodidact, the boy was already well-versed in many sciences, including astronomy and biology. In Lübeck, he briefly served an apprenticeship with a draper, where he learned about finance and accounting.
In 1759, the fifteen-year old young man decided to seek out his family again. He learned the Ackermann’s troupe was in now based in Solothurn, Switzerland and so he traveled there. He reunited with his family and joined its acting company as a new actor. The relationship with his stepfather was still a tense one, with frequent violent confrontations. At one point, trying to protect himself from Ackermann who wanted to hit him, Schröder even drew his sword on his stepfather. After this incident, as revenge, he stole money from the stepfather’s desk, vomited in his mother’s luggage, and ran away, earning living for a few months as a professional billiard player before finally returning to the family.
When Schröder was 20, the Ackermann company moved to Hamburg, one of the Free Imperial Cities of the Holy Roman Empire. The family took over the ownership of the National Theater, a building on the site of the former opera house, now expanded to 1,400 seats. Schröder started out here first playing leading comedy parts, which he soon traded for the tragic roles which made him famous. Unfortunately, altercations with his stepfather continued. By 1767, tired of it all, Schröder left the city and moved to south Germany.
By this time, he had already made his first contacts with Freemasonry. The initial interest had been generated in Hamburg after the meeting with illustrious Freemason Johann Joachim Christoph Bode (1731–1793), the Worshipful Master of Absalom zu den drei Nesseln, the oldest Masonic Lodge in all of Germany, founded in 1737. Furthermore, Bode was one of the most important translators of German Enlightenment who would also go on to become a member, and later the chief officer, of the Bavarian Illuminati.
Finding himself in Brunswick and recalling the conversation with Bode, Schröder applied for degrees at local Lodge Jonathan. The Brethren blackballed him unanimously, taking stance that the Lodge was not a place for “a comedian”.
After Ackermann’s death in 1771, Sophie retired from her long successful stage career, entirely devoting herself to education of young actresses. Schröder returned to Hamburg and took over his mother’s role as the manager of the National Theatre. Over the following nine years, he rose to become the leading German actor of the period. Still enamored with Shakespeare, he presented the Bard’s plays to German audiences, himself playing the parts of Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, Falstaff, and others. He also staged early dramas written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), the author of “Faust”, the greatest of all German poets, and Freemason. Schröder wrote more than 20 of his own plays, too, which were warmly received by the public. He was also actively working on raising the reputation of actors, seeing the profession as less of a way to make money and more of a public service important to the society. He even started the first pension fund for actors.
Tall, dignified, and well-educated, young actor was adored by the public. In 1773, Schröder married his former student Anna Christina Hartl. Theirs would be a happy, but childless marriage.
It was during this period of his life that he finally became a Freemason. In 1774, he petitioned for degrees at Lodge Emanuel zur Maienblume, where he was vouched for by Bode, the man who had sparked his interest in Freemasonry. Having learned of the previous refusal of admittance by the Brunswick Lodge because of the prospect’s profession and wanting to spare him of the same disgrace again, the Emanuel Brethren waived the balloting requirement for the application. Schröder was initiated shortly thereafter.
Newly obligated Brother was so impressed with Freemasonry that he decided to start his own Lodge. Just six weeks after the initiation, still an Entered Apprentice, he founded Elise zum warmen Herzen, which he envisioned as a Lodge for actors. The Lodge was never recognized as regular and shut down quickly afterwards. It did not deter Schröder from continuing his Masonic journey and next year he was raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason at another Hamburg Lodge, Josua zum Korallenbaum. Six weeks later, he received the 4th degree of “Scots Master”.
Here, we have to to take a step back to better understand the context. Speculative Freemasonry became very popular in the late 18th century. New lodges were springing up like mushrooms throughout German states, usually attracting members of wealthy upper classes. All that enthusiasm soon drew quite a few dubious characters into the Craft, many of which were just looking to make a quick coin at expense of their affluent fellows. Perhaps the most colorful example was flamboyant Sicilian con artist and adventurer Giuseppe Balsamo (1743–1795), better known as Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, who, among numerous other things, claimed to possess the alchemical recipes for the elixirs of Youth and Immortality. To people like him, simple and dignified rituals of the Blue Lodge offered very little opportunity for personal gain, so they started coming up with ever more complex systems of “high degrees” and quasi- Masonic orders they could exploit for profit. Their ceremonies were richly costumed affairs which conferred grandiose titles and claimed ancient roots, but were in most cases just products of wild fantasy. Most such high degree systems were also run as modern business franchises, with their creators selling expensive degrees and patents for establishment of the high degree lodges. German Freemasonry got hopelessly corrupted by invention of an almost inumerable appendant and concordant bodies.
One of few organizations in Germany with a somewhat better claim to legitimacy than most of these was the Rite of Strict Observance, a seven-degree system introduced by Baron Karl Gotthelf von Hund (1722–1776). It was one of the most popular high degree systems, practiced in about 50 lodges throughout German states. Its originator claimed that, while living in Paris, he had been initiated, by Scottish knights, into the Order of the Knights Templar and appointed by “Unknown Superiors” of the Templars the Provincial Grand Master of Province VII — that is, all of German states. He had gone on to introduce a modified version of the Scottish Rite to Germany, first renaming it “Rectified Masonry” and, later, the “Strict Observance”. And so, the 4th degree of “Scots Master” conferred upon Schröder was a part of this rite.
In 1780, Schröder left Hamburg to go on a grand tour with his wife. The two visited several German states, then traveled to Paris, and eventually settled in Vienna five years later, where he took up a position of Professor at the Imperial Court Theatre.
Meanwhile, a huge crisis was brewing within European Freemasonry. Facing increased pressure and scrutiny by the members of the Strict Observance, Baron Karl Gotthelf von Hund was forced to prove his claims that the organization was really descended from the Templars and governed by “secret masters”. Alas, aside from an encoded “military chief patent” he owned (which, curiously, remains undeciphered to this day), the Baron couldn’t produce any other tangible proof. Furthermore, all his previous attempts to communicate with the “Unknown Superiors” had proven unsuccessful. His credibility was in tatters and the situation culminated in the Convent of Wilhelmsbad in 1782.
What started out as a convention about the future of the order, quickly escalated into a political showdown between two dominant currents in the organization — the German mystics and the Martinists. Thirty five assembled delegates proceeded to vote on the motion of renouncing the alleged Templar origins of the Rite of the Strict Observance. The motion passed and so the assembly abandoned the rite’s origin myth and abolished higher degrees, all of which cascaded into numerous other consequences outside the scope of this paper.
Aside from the political dimension, the vote to sever the Templar ties — be they real or fictional — was also very much the zeitgeist of the Age of Enlightenment. Back then, image of an armored white-clad knight didn’t summon ideas of honor and romantic chivalry like it does today. To many of the German Brethren assembled on that gloomy October day in the sleepy spa town of Wilhelmsbad, knights were a symbol of feudal society, an obsolete and brutal social system whose time had passed.
The vote effectively ended the Strict Observance, which was consequently abandoned by most lodges, giving them greater self-governance and, ironically, pushing German Freemasonry into an even deeper crisis. After the dissolution of the Strict Observance, most lodges were now hopelessly lost in a bizzare mix of different rites and rituals, cobbled together from various sources, often of questionable origin.
Faced with this chaotic situation, a counter-movement led by prominent Freemasons sprang into being. Schröder welcomed the initiative, calling upon the Fraternity to restore the Craft to the old English style, but he was largely ignored.
Tired of Vienna, Schröder returned to Hamburg in 1787. He immediately took up work as the manager of the National Theatre again, a position he will hold for another 13 years, and also resumed his Masonic labors in the Fraternity. The Brethren of the Emanuel Lodge elected him the Worshipful Master of the Lodge.
When five lodges of Hamburg assembled a committee which was supposed to rewrite the laws of the Craft of the city, Schröder was placed on it.
Basing his argument on the Anderson Constitution of 1723, Schröder started with the theory that Freemasonry originated in England and moved to continental Europe from there. Furthermore, it was meant to contain only three degrees, not countless high degrees. “With the Master, we come full circle”, he wrote, meaning that once the ritual journey is finished, it was time to apply in real life what had been learned in the Lodge. In his view, anything grafted onto the beauty and depth of simple symbolism of the first three degrees was a dangerous, superflous invention which had to be removed. Furthemore, he argued, a three-degree system could more easily meet the “German spirit”. To support his thesis, he published ample research in four volumes titled “Materials on the History of Freemasonry Since Its Creation in 1723”, as well as a handwritten manuscript titled “On Freemasonry Old and New”. In 1789, the committee was presented with his proposal for the reform of the Lodge regulations and return of Freemasonry to the three-degree system. The committee accepted the reform in 1791.
Using materials obtained from archives of a Lodge in south Germany, Schröder now set out to rewrite original English sources he had access to into a dignified ritual fit for use in Germany. The result would ultimately become known as the Schröder Ritual or Schröder Rite, but the name is really a misnomer. Schröder selected “Jachin and Boaz”, a well-known exposition of Ancient Craft Masonry, translated it in German, and remodeled it. He furthermore based parts of his rituals on two Masonic exposures: “Masonry Dissected” (1730) and “Three Distinct Knocks” (1760).
Striving to do away with what he saw as superflous, Schröder nevertheless did his best to keep the key symbolism intact. In his own words:
“To do away with symbols means to do away with Masonry… Even if old customs have no more value than the guild practices of the stone masons, even if the interpretations of them are entirely useless — enough, they are the basic material from which the great chain of brotherhood was formed and as long as we do not admit major changes, as long as we remain with the English system, so long will our meetings be absolutely safe from intrusion by mystics, illuminati and other dreamers.”
His first draft met with approval from the Provincial Grand Lodge.
Schröder was affiliated with Lodge Einigkeit und Toleranz in 1792; two years later, he was elected Deputy Grand Master of the English Provincial Grand Lodge of Lower Saxony. He also spearheaded the initative which led to opening of the Masonic Hospital in Hamburg next year.
After the death of his wife in 1798, he retired to an estate in Rellingen they had purchased together earlier. Drawing upon his previous studies of agriculture, Schröder set up the estate as a livestock and cereals farm, and then redoubled his efforts to finish the massive task of reforming German Freemasonry. He traveled to Weimar, where he successfully persuaded Goethe, a known opponent of high degrees, and Karl August, Grand Duke of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach to take interest in the new system supposed to return Freemasonry to its roots. Upon his return to Rellingen, he started intensive correspondence with Goethe, Herder, Wieland, and Schiller in Weimar and Meyer in Göttingen.
He was also busy working on another ambitious plan — forming an alliance of German grand lodges. The initiative culminated in the creation of Grand Masonic Association in 1801, which included the Provincial Lodge of Lower Saxony, the Grand Lodge of Hanover, and the Royal York of Berlin. Same year, he finally presented the final version of the Schröder ritual to the Provincial Grand Lodge. Once it was accepted, Schröder funded publishing of a comprehensive collection of the rituals with extensive commentary.
Soon thereafter, yet another major geopolitical event shook the continent. In 1806, after its defeat by Napoléon at the Battle of Austerlitz, the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved by Emperor Francis II. It was an important change for Hamburg, which at first became a sovereign state with the official name of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, but was then annexed to the First French Empire by Napoléon. The French occupation was a short one, from 1810 until 1814. Schröder returned to the city in the second year of the occupation, invited by the theatre he had used to manage, which had started falling into obscurity since his departure. At 65, he yet again triumphantly took to the stage until his final retirement three years later.
It was during the days of French occupation that Schröder started advocating for creating the independent Grand Lodge of Hamburg. His vision finally became reality when Russian forces freed the city in 1814 and Hamburg reassumed the city-state status it had until the French marched in. Schröder was elected to serve the newly formed Grand Lodge as the Grand Master, a duty he reverently fulfilled for two years.
On September 3, 1816, The Most Worshipful Brother Friedrich Ludwig Schröder departed to the Eternal Orient, leaving rich Masonic legacy behind. By then, the ritual he created had already firmly taken roots behind many a duly tiled door throughout German lands.
