THE
FORGET-ME-NOT
(Das Vergissmeinnicht)
The Story
Behind This Beloved Emblem Of The Craft in Germany
In Early
1934, soon after Hitler's rise to power, it became evident that Freemasonry
was in danger. In that same year, the "Grand Lodge of the Sun" (one of the
pre-war German Grand Lodges, located in Bayreuth) realising the grave dangers
involved, adopted the little blue Forget-Me-Not flower as a substitute for the
traditional square and compasses. It was felt the flower would provide
brethren with an outward means of identification while lessening the risk of
possible recognition in public by the Nazis, who were engaged in wholesale
confiscation of all Masonic Lodge properties.
Freemasonry
went undercover, and this delicate flower assumed its role as a symbol of
Masonry surviving throughout the reign of darkness.
During the
ensuing decade of Nazi power a little blue Forget-Me-Not flower worn in a
Brother's lapel served as one method whereby brethren could identify each
other in public, and in cities and concentration camps throughout Europe. The
Forget-Me-Not distinguished the lapels of countless brethren who staunchly
refused to allow the symbolic Light of Masonry to be completely
extinguished.
When the
'Grand Lodge of the Sun' was reopened in Bayreuth in 1947, by Past Grand
Master Beyer, a little pin in the shape of a Forget-Me-Not was officially
adopted as the emblem of that first annual convention of the brethren who had
survived the bitter years of semi-darkness to rekindle the Masonic Light.
At the first
Annual Convent of the new United Grand Lodge of Germany AF&AM (VGLvD), in
1948, the pin was adopted as an official Masonic emblem in honor of the
thousands of valiant Brethren who carried on their masonic work under adverse
conditions. The following year, each delegate to the Conference of Grand
Masters in Washington, D.C., received one from Dr. Theodor Vogel, Grand Master
of the VGLvD.
Thus did a
simple flower blossom forth into a symbol of the fraternity, and become
perhaps the most widely worn emblem among Freemasons in Germany; a pin
presented ceremoniously to newly-made Masons in most of the Lodges of the
American-Canadian Grand Lodge, AF&AM within the United Grand Lodges of
Germany. In the years since adoption, its significance world-wide has been
attested to by the tens of thousands of brethren who now display it with
meaningful pride.