The Misunderstood Forget-Me-Not (Das Unverstanden Vergissmeinnicht)
BY W BRO. NEIL MARPLE, P.M. - Past Master of Elmer Timberman Lodge No. 54 and A. Douglas, Jr. Lodge of Research No. 1949 in the Grand Lodge of Virginia; Member of George Washington Lodge No. 820, Zum Felsenstempel No. 424 and Alt Heidelberg Lodge No. 821 in Germany, and Kemper-Macon Ware Lodge No. 64, also in Virginia
All of us have heard the story of the German forget-me-not lapel pin. We have heard that it was used by German Masons to as a means of recognizing each other and to fool the S.S. and other National Socialist (Nazi) organizations in World War II. You can go to various Grand lodge web sites such as the one for the Grand Lodge of Maryland or supposed Masonic research sites, such as Phoenix Masonry and find this exact story. And, you can also go to the George Washington Masonic National Memorial gift shop, or even to Amazon.com and you will find the same story imprinted on a card that accompanies the small lapel pin. This story is particularly significant to me in that I was raised in a lodge under the American and Canadian Grand Lodge in Germany, and at that time was given one of these pins with the card and told this story. A story that is heart-warming to all masons. Well, maybe not to all. When I was first initiated an Entered Apprentice in Germany, I was very surprised in that half of the lodge was filled with Germans that I knew but did not know them to be Masons. Afterwards, I often attended the Zum Felsen Temple lodge No. 424 in Idar Oberstein. Each time that I attended the lodge I dutifully wore my little forget-me-not pin.
42 The Voice of Freemasonry SUMMER 2018
After several visits, one of the brothers presented to me another pin and asked if I knew the forget-me-not story, immediately explaining - it did not happen. What?! How could this be?! How could this so beloved story, symbolic of the challenges of German Masonry not be true? Now, like Paul Harvey, here is the rest of the story… Hilter had written in his manifesto, Mein Kampf, that “…the general pacifistic paralysis of the German national instinct of selfpreservation was begun by the Freemasons.” Further, he claimed that Freemasonry was one of the causes of the German defeat in World War I. The president of the Reichstag, Hermann Göring, proclaimed that “In the National Socialist State, there was no place for Freemasonry.” And on January 8th, 1934, the German Ministry of the interior, using powers granted under the Enabling Act (Ermächtigungsgesetz) of 1933, ordered the disbandment of Masonic lodges in Germany and confiscation of all property. On August 8th, 1935, Adolf Hitler announced (in the Nazi Party Paper, Voelkischer Beobachter) the final dissolution of all Masonic lodges in Germany. In fact, some of the older members of the lodge I often visited, Zum Felsen Temple, had been members of that lodge in 1935 when it was broken into by the Schutzstaffel
