Quatuor Coronati Lodge: Our Next Meeting
Quatuor Coronati Lodge meets five times a year on the second Thursday in November (Installation); third Thursday in February; second Thursday in May; fourth Thursday in June; and second Thursday in September. Lodge meetings are usually held at Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, London.
Thursday, 14 November 2019 at 4.00 pm
Installation Paper
The Borders of Masonic Cosmopolitanism
Dr Andreas Onnerfors
The Paper
In his installation paper Andreas explores the charged history of German émigré freemasonry to the US in the aftermath of the failed revolution of 1848. After the Napoleonic wars in 1815, European states engaged in increasingly authoritarian modes of governance. But the ideals of liberal reform together with growing social inequalities created pressures that over the ensuing decades erupted into fierce opposition, civic unrest, and a series of revolutions across Europe.
When one of these revolutions, that of 1848 in the German territories, failed, swathes of democratic revolutionaries emigrated to what they perceived as the paradise of liberty – the United States. Many of these ’forty-eighters’ were freemasons, but when confronted with the realities of American freemasonry at the time, their idealism was seriously frustrated. This related, in particular, to issues of racial exclusion and of a far more ‘constitutionalist’ masonic culture than they were accustomed to in Germany.
Some of these German émigré freemasons turned to their old (regular and recognized) Grand lodges and received patents to establish lodges in the US. But seen from the US-perspective, this was an unlawful intrusion of the principle of exclusive territorial jurisdiction.
In this paper, Andreas raises questions about the borders of the ethos of masonic cosmopolitanism over the issues of tolerance and inclusion / exclusion. The lecture is based on untapped archival sources on both sides of the Atlantic, explored here for the first time.
The Speaker
The incoming Master of the Lodge, Dr Andreas Önnerfors was raised in Trier, Germany. He studied at the University of Lund, Sweden, where he was awarded his BA and MA degrees in the History of Sciences and Ideas. Andreas afterwards studied for a PhD at Lund, taught History of Sciences, and worked as coordinator at the Centre for European Studies. Following post-doctoral work at the University of Freiburg (Germany) and the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis (France), he was contracted to the University of Sheffield in the UK where from 2007-10 he worked as Director of the Centre for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism, and as a Senior Lecturer in The Department of History. Following his return to Lund, he was awarded the title of Reader or Associate Professor in the History of Sciences and Ideas, and since July 2014 has taught History of Sciences and Ideas at the Universities of Gothenburg and Lund.
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Unlike other Delivery Papers, the paper given at the Installation meetings is delivered without questions to the speaker and is not circulated in advance. Please note that all papers are copyright QC/QCCC and should not be reproduced or circulated.
The Summons is available for download here: QC Lodge Summons, 14 November 2019.
We look forward to seeing members of QCCC at all our Lodge meetings and encourage everyone to stay to dine and chat informally with the speaker and members of the lodge.
Please click here for details and here to download the QC Dining-Form.
