Dispersed Nazi Records of Looted Art

The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany is supporting a series of projects aiming to make the Nazi records of cultural plunder during World War II publicly available. These projects have located and documented original files of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR), the primary Nazi agency responsible for looting cultural valuables in Nazi-occupied countries. The ERR's records include not only art objects, but also items taken from libraries, archives, Masonic lodges, and religious buildings in the occupied countries of Western and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Reconstructing the Record of Nazi Cultural Plunder: A Survey of the Dispersed Archives of the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg (ERR) by by Patricia Kennedy Grimsted has been published online at www.iisg.nl/publications/errsurvey.  In addition to the publication of the survey, the Claims Conference is supporting two additional initiatives. One is the ongoing imaging of the ERR files located in Kiev, Moscow, Vilnius, Berlin, Koblenz, Amsterdam, Paris, New York, and Washington. The other is the joint initiative of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to create a Database of Art Objects at the Jeu de Paume in Paris that brings together all documentation in a searchable form. The website was launched in October 2010 and can be found at: www.errproject.org/jeudepaume.

New publications

- Andrea Kroon/Audrey Wagtberg Hansen, Geheim Den Haag. Vrijmetselaarstempels en andere esoterische gebouwen in Den Haag rond 1900, De Nieuwe Haagsche, Den Haag 2011. Guide to masonic temples and other esoteric locations in the city of The Hague, the Netherlands, around 1900.

- Dr Ann Pilcher-Dayton, The Social Impact of Women's Freemasonry in England, 1903-1935, dissertation University of Sheffield (History), 2011.

- Manuel de Paz Sánchez, Masons in the Atlantic, 3 Vol, Editions Idea, Library Square and Compass (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), 2009-2010. Collection of essays on the history of freemasonry on the Canary Islands, includes biographies.

Online resources

An up to date list of English Constitution erased lodges is now available on the website of the Library and Museum of Freemasonry in London as pdf file.

The Library and Museum has also completed a survey of the whereabouts and types of material relating to freemasonry held by record offices around the country. The survey is available on line at: http://www.freemasonry.london.museum/resources/information-leaflets/

Conferences

- The Fifth Conference of the Association for the Study of Esotericism and Mysticism (ASEM) will be held in St. Petersburg, Russia on December 2-5, 2011. The conference theme is History and Discourse: Historical and Philosophical Aspects of the Study of Esotericism and Mysticism. The keynote speaker will be Professor Dr Wouter Hanegraaff from the University of Amsterdam. For more information about the call for papers please follow the link: http://asem.ucoz.org/index/call_for_papers_2011/0-31.

- Coinciding with the 130 anniversary of the creation of the National Grand Lodge of Romania (MLNR) the Romanian Institute for the Study of Freemasonry organizes an international conference on the theme: 'Freemasonry and Fraternalism under authoritarian regimes / dictatorships of the twentieth century', 15-18 September 2011 in Bucharest (Romania). Info: http://www.irsmf.ro/. Contact: Sorin Antohi, sorin.n.antohi@gmail.com.

Lecture series

- 'All’Oriente d’Italia. Unità, Massoneria e Saperi tradizionali', lecture series until 25 May 2011, Museo del Risorgimento, Milan, Italy, in cooperation with Università degli Studi di Milano (Dipartimento di Filosofia). Information: c.museorisorgimento@comune.milano.it

- 'História da maçonaria: Maçonaria e Política', lecture series until 20 Juni 2011, Centro de História da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal. Information: centro.historia@fl.ul.pt.

Conference: Knowledge to die for

The conference Knowledge to die for: Transmission of Prohibited and Esoteric Knowledge through Space and Time will take place on May 2-4 2011 at the Max-Planck-Institute for the History of Science in Berlin.
The conference deals with prohibited, heretical and esoteric knowledge, as attested in Mesopotamia and in ancient Jewish, Rabbinic, and Apocalyptic literature, as well as in Christian and Islamic contexts, pre-Islamic and later Iranian sources, and incorporating Judeo-Christian-Muslim heterodoxies.
Speakers will include: Michael Stone (Jerusalem), Boris Uspenskij (Naples), Gebhard Selz (Vienna), Tal Ilan (Berlin), Alexander Kulik (Jerusalem), James Russell (Harvard), Dimitri Gutas (Yale), Hans Kippenberg (Bremen), Angelika Neuwirth (Berlin), Antonio Panaino (Bologna), Maria Macuch (Berlin), Velizar Sadovski (Vienna), Jens Braarvig (Oslo), Desmond Durkin-Meisterernst (Berlin), Yuri Stoyanov (London), David Shankland (London), Matteo Martelli (Berlin).
Organiser: Prof. Dr. Florentina Badalanova Geller, fgeller@zedat.fu-berlin.de. Contact: Kirsten Koners, kirsten.koners@topoi.org.

Vacancy: Director of Research, London

A job opportunity for a ‘director of research’ at one of the largest study collections in the field of study - The Library and Museum of Freemasonry in London, was announced today. See the advert in The Guardian: http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/job/4283204/director-of-research/.

In memoriam: André Hanou (1941-2011)

We have received a sad, but not unexpected message: professor André Hanou has passed away on 8th February 2011. The many 'in memoriams' that have since appeared online, make it clear just what a remarkable inspiration this Dutch researcher, author and tutor was to students and colleagues. We would like to mention his many contributions to the study of freemasonry amongst an impressive body of work:

Hanou studied philosophy, theology and Dutch literature. In 1988 he defended his dissertation at the Nijmegen University: De Sluiers van Isis. Johannes Kinker als voorvechter van de Verlichting, in de vrijmetselarij en andere Nederlandse genootschappen (The Veils of Isis. Johannes Kinker as a campaigner for the Enlightenment in freemasonry and other societies). It marked the beginning of a specialisation in Dutch literature of the Enlightenment. 

Between 1992 and 1998 he published a series of articles on his research of 18th century lodge archives in Thoth, a research journal for freemasons, including the series ‘Beelden der vrijmetselarij’ ('Images of Freemasonry').

‘De loge parterre’ ('The ground floor lodge') appeared in: ‘Een stille leerschool van deugd en goede zeden’. Vrijmetselarij in Nederland in de 18e en 19e eeuw in 1995.  In this article, Hanou drew attention to the lack of standard sources and statistical data for the (new) field of study, such as a bibliography of 18th century masonic publications and publication of membership lists of lodges. This overview is still very relevant today.

Hanou worked at the University of Amsterdam for a long time, where he eventually became professor in 1989. Together with his wife, Rietje van Vliet, he founded Astraea Publishers in 1994, which published many 18th century studies, including Onder de Acacia. Studies over de Nederlandse vrijmetselarij en vrijmetselaarsloges (Underneath the Acacia. Studies on Dutch freemasonry and masonic lodges, 1997). Hanou also actively participate in many research societies, including one of the first on the subject of western esotericism, Aries. This is where the founders of the OVN Foundation first met.

In 2000 Hanou was appointed at the Radboud University as professior of early modern Dutch literature. He published: De Naakte Waarheyt der Vrije Metselaars. Teksten van de 18de eeuwse schrijver Jacob Campo Weyerman over de Vrijmetselarij (The Naked Truth about Freemasons. Texts by the 18th century author Jacob Campo Weyerman, 2004).

For some, becoming emeritus professor marks the end of their scholarly productivity. But when that moment arrived for Hanou in 2006, the steady stream of publications continued. In 2007 he started blogging on the Herkauwer blog, where he shared his expertise, exciting discoveries in libraries, and opinions on new books on an almost daily basis. The number of visitors shot up to nearly 35.000 hits. And when it became clear that an illness would soon make an end to his life's work, he still kept on blogging. It's characteristic for his love of research that he quickly wrote columns about notes found in his archive, in order to stimulate a new generation of researchers to pick up those subjects.

From the foundation of the OVN in 2001 Hanou was involved, as a speaker at conferences and member of the research grant committee. He declined our invitation to join as board member because of his very busy working schedule, until he finally found the time to do so in 2009. Our board members welcomed his stimulating input on the foundation's activities and especially the sense of humor he brought to our meetings. We will miss him dearly. Following Hanou's own initiative, the OVN will shortly publish a compilation of his articles on Dutch freemasonry. We sincerely hope that a translation of his work into English will be published one day, so his contribution to the field of study will be accessible to even more readers.

Freemasonry on Dutch television

The BBC-program 'Who do you think you are?', which researches the family trees of celebrities has a Dutch counterpart, called Verborgen Verleden (= Hidden Past). In 2010 the OVN Foundation was approached to cooperate on an episode about a Dutch celebrity whose ancestors included a male and female freemason. The Grand Lodges of the two Orders were also involved in the program. We are not allowed to say yet whose family tree is discussed, but we can tell you to watch on 13 februari 2011 or the online version which will be available afterwards...

Update Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica: core collection transferred

The Ministry of Culture of the Netherlands has transferred the core collection of the Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica to the National Library in The Hague. Talks about the fate of the collection as a whole are ongoing. Meanwhile, the online petition to save the collection, initiated by experts in western esotericism at the University of Amsterdam, has been signed by more than 5500 students, researchers and other visitors in less than a month. You can still add your signature!