Our Lodge

Until about 850 years ago – precisely: until 1180 – the County of Westphalia, in which Arnsberg later grew into a town, belonged to Saxony. With the dissolution of the Duchy of Saxony, the Archbishops of Cologne became Dukes of Westphalia. This territory was only a small part of Westphalia as we know it today, lying in its south, separated from Kurköln by the Counties of Mark in the north and Berg in the south, over which the archbishops of Cologne had little influence. The Cologne rulers thus lacked a land bridge to their new territory. This meant that the efficiency of their political and military efforts to gain a firm foothold in the Duchy of Westphalia was limited in the face of resistance from the local nobility and several powerful Westphalian towns. The dispute and struggle lasted about 400 years, until Archbishop Ernst of Bavaria, elected Elector in 1583, prevailed throughout the entire Cologne Electorate with the help of Bavarian troops. The constant wrangling presumably contributed to the fact that even today, some people – whether from the Rhineland or Westphalia – raise a thoughtful eyebrow when they learn of the Lodge Westphalia in Cologne, just as happens when someone in Düsseldorf boasts of drinking Kölsch, or someone in Cologne of drinking Altbier.

Arnsberg was compelled to change sides from time to time in the never-ending Rhenish-Westphalian tug-of-war.

As it became apparent that his marriage would remain childless and his inheritance would fall to the County of Mark or to Kurköln, Count Gottfried IV of Arnsberg acted on the principle of giving while one still can, and sold his territory in 1368 to the Cologne Archdiocese. In return he received 130,000 guilders and the right to be buried, as the only secular prince, in a high tomb in Cologne Cathedral. He then moved to Cologne together with his wife. The deal had been preceded by bitter military conflicts with the House of Mark, culminating in Arnsberg being besieged, captured and burned to the ground. As a result of the change of ownership, reconstruction took place on Kurköln soil and as a Kurköln residence town.

It is also worth noting that Cologne's rule in the 18th century left lasting traces in the collective Westphalian memory: the opulent court of the territorial lord Clemens August of Bavaria, who governed the Duchy from 1723 to 1761, placed a considerable burden on the state budget, and his participation in the struggle against Frederick II of Prussia – incidentally, on whose orders our Grand Lodge was founded – during the Seven Years' War from 1756 to 1763 led to enormous war burdens and thus ultimately to the economic ruin of the country, which persisted until the end of the Cologne Electorate, that is, until the end of that century.

The year 1794 changed everything. Napoleon's troops captured Cologne. Napoleon could not or did not wish to advance much further east at first, and the Duchy of Westphalia was left untouched. Henceforth, the liberal French laws applied in Cologne. Jews and Protestant Christians, for example, were granted equal status with Catholics. The citizens of Cologne apparently approved of all this greatly, for when Napoleon himself came to Cologne in 1804, he was greeted with great enthusiasm. Arnsberg too underwent important changes. The influence of the largely disempowered and tiresome Cologne rulers faded. In 1802, the Duchy of Westphalia fell to the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt, as compensation for its territorial losses on the left bank of the Rhine following occupation by Napoleon's troops. Arnsberg became a garrison and government seat for the province of the Duchy of Westphalia. In 1816, after the Congress of Vienna, the Duchy became part of the much larger Prussian Province of Westphalia – just as Cologne also henceforth belonged to Prussia – and Arnsberg became the seat of a regional president. In particular, owing to the influx of Prussian civil servants, the population of this administrative and bureaucratic town grew, and the town of Arnsberg expanded. A comprehensive system of education had just been established, and industrialization had begun.

For the early period of our Lodge, only a few records survive owing to the two long pauses in its history. Whether our masonic forebears had their old Duchy in mind when choosing the Lodge name – now absorbed into the much larger Province of Westphalia with its capital Münster – or perhaps the whole of greater Westphalia? Did they think of the political dimension, or was it the ancient cultural values they feared might be lost, submerged in the Prussian order? Was the addition Zur Eintracht – Towards Harmony – rooted in a desire for political unity, the dream of peaceful coexistence within the new Prussian constellation? Or was the intention to direct the Brothers' focus towards harmonious fellowship within the Lodge? We do not know. In all likelihood, our Brothers who founded the Lodge wished to leave possibilities open. Many fine Lodge names are open to interpretation, just as the symbols we work with in the Temple.

Against the backdrop of the centuries-long conflicts and disputes outlined here, the coming-home of Westphalia in Cologne stands for us, metaphorically and exemplarily, for the bringing-together and resolution of apparent opposites – a task that belongs, in many forms, to the work of our Lodges.

And finally … just as Westphalia is embodied in its coat of arms by a fine and powerful horse, we may also imagine Westphalia as a wise, beautiful and powerful manifestation of the eternal feminine, which, as we know, draws us upward (Goethe) and through which important truths are communicated to us – as illustrated on the home page.