GRAND LODGE OF ANCIENT, FREE & ACCEPTED MASONS IN GERMANY

Under the leadership of Theodor Vogel, the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons in Germany was originally founded on the 19th June 1949 in the Frankfurter Paulskirche as the United Grand Lodge of Germany (Vereinigte Großloge von Deutschland). It was the first crossover unification of German Freemasons Lodges after the initial failed attempts in 1801, 1872 and following the First World War.

From a pre-war total of 80.000 German freemasons, on the completion of hostilities in 1945, there remained a mere 5000. Following a failed attempt in 1945 to unite the numerous German Grand Lodges, Theodor Vogel, the then Grand Master of the Land Grand Lodge of Bayern (Landesgroßloge von Bayern), succeeded in 1947 in founding the Frankfurt Working Group of Freemasons Lodges in a further attempt at unification.

As a result, on the 19th June 1949 the United Grand Lodge of Germany (Vereinigte Großloge von Deutschland) was founded, with Theodor Vogel proclaimed as Grand Master. Celebrations included the return by Leo Müffelmann of the Light of the Symbolical Grand Lodge (Symbolischen Großloge) which in 1933 had been relocated to Jerusalem. Likewise, the Light of the Grand Lodge of Hamburg (Großloge von Hamburg).

Full unification between all the Grand Lodges took place in 1958 under the renamed United Grand Lodges of Germany - Brotherhood of Freemasons (Vereinigte Großlogen von Deutschland - Bruderschaft der Freimaurer). From this point on the former United Grand Lodge of Germany became known as the Land Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons in Germany, and from 1970 to the present day the Grand Lodge of Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons in Germany (Großloge der Alten Freien und Angenommenen Mauerer von Deutschland GL AFuAMvD).