On 18th September 1842, through permission of the Great Mother Lodge “Zun den Drei Weltkugeln” a lodge was founded in Lippstadt. The founders chose the name “Zum Lebendigen Kreutz” (to the Living Cross). No reasons can be found for the choice of this name as all the documents were confiscated by the Gestapo.
Founder-Venerable Master was Friedrich Carl Freiherr Von Schauroth and his house, today the “Palais Schauroth,” became the official seat of the Lodge.
This house is located close to the “Dreifaltigkeist –Hospital” and today it hosts a library. The introduction of the Light was on 22nd January 1843 through the “Zum Hellen Licht” Lodge.

After a few years the Lodge was moved to the Hotel Koppelmann on the Lange Strasse. Ernst Walhert, Rector of the Hoheren Burgschule was the Venerable Master from 1846 to 1848. In 1852 the Light was off again for reasons unknown .
In 1855 a Masonic Union was founded under the auspices of the “Zur Bundeskette” Lodge i.O. Soest and work resumed.
From 1888 onward the Lodge would meet at the Sommerkamp-Alsen Restaurant in the Kluserstrasse close to the oriental end of the street.

All Masonic documentation was confiscated by the Gestapo in 1933. Part of the material was found after the unification of Western and Eastern Germany and it is kept today in Berlin at the “”Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz”.
A large collection of documents from the Lodge could be saved from the Gestapo but was then lost during the pilfering of 1945. On 16th January 1934 all the German Lodges were forcibly closed.

On 13th January 1955 after the Second World War, thanks to the Soest Lodge a new foundation act was granted and Bank Director Fritz Husmann from Lippstadt became the Venerable Master. The solemn introduction of the Light was celebrated on 16th March 1952 in the richly decorated ballroom of the Koppelmann Hotel, at the presence of 71 Brothers from various Westfalian Lodges.

Our Lodge associated with the Great A.F. & A.M. Lodge.
On December 1st, 1952 the Lodge rented from the Corporation of Butchers (Metzgeramt) the use of the historical building belonging to the Corporation. From 1968, after the first refurbishing of the premises carried out by the Brothers, the Lodge occupied the entire first floor.

The Corporation of Butchers of Lippstadt, 450 years old, is the only one in Germany that has been meeting according to the ancient rituals from its foundation to present days.
A contract of cooperation was signed on 29th June 1974 with the Erasmus i.O. Lodge from Bruxelles. The 25th anniversary of this event was solemnly celebrated on 26th May 1999 at the Great Assembly Hall of the City at the presence of the President of the Soest Province and the Lord Mayor of the city of Lippstadt. The solemn speech was delivered by Professor H. H. Hohmann.

In 1992 the Lodge celebrated its 150th Jubilee. The celebration was opened by the show “The Brotherhood of Masons” at the local Museum. It was a success which helped in clearing some prejudices.
The city of Lippstadt, offered the Council room for the solemn Jubilee celebrations. Present at the event were also the Great Master VGDLvD, and the Great Master of the GL A.F.u.A.M., the Great Master of the GL BFG and the DM of the l NRW. The Brothers present, 135 belonged to 46 different Obediences from Germany and abroad.

The reason for the presence of many foreign guests has to be attributed, last but not least, to the notoriety of the Lippstadt Lodge owed to its Great Master the Venrable Otto Ghirke, also President of the “International Masonic League”. A large group of Italian Brothers belonging to the Zarathustra autonomous Lodge also belonged to the League. The Great Venerable Master Simonetti, presiding the Zarathustra had been initiated by the Great Brother Otto Ghirke and had signed a friendly treaty with him during the 60s.

The city of Lippstadt offered the Council room for the solemn Jubilee celebrations. Present at the cerimony were VGDLvD Grand Master, the G.L A.F.U.A.M Grand Master., the GL. BFG Grand Master and the l NRW. DM. 135 Brothers from 46 different Obiediences from Germany

(n.d.w.:  Brother Simonetti was then initiated to the Scottish rite in Italy)
(In all honesty the crowd was made up only of 5 members.:.)

On the occasion of the Jubilee the charity organization “Humanitas” was founded. Brother Otmar alt, a famous artist from Hamm, created an etching named “An acrobat in Lippstadt”. This etching was donated by the Lodge and it can be found today in the Fundus of the Artothek of the same city.
Another picture can be found in the Town Hall of the city of Uden in Holland, a city twinned with Lippstadt. It has been there since 2001.

“HUMANITAS” mostly supports social activities in the city of Lippstadt and the province of Soest, but also activities which have an international dimension such as “Menschen fur Menschen” (Men for Men) directed by Brother Karlheinz Bohm and the “Hammer Forum”

In 1994 the Lodge had to find a new home owing to the restoration works that had to be made in the building of the Butchers’ Corporation. The search for new offices proved to be more difficult than imagined at first. The Lodge had to move to a house in Overhagen in the outskirts of Lippstadt. Two Brothers had bought the house for that specific purposes.
On the ground floor of the house there was a family owned restaurant that was restructured by the Brothers to become an exclusive seat for the Lodge.
After long months of work the Brothers have turned the family restaurant into a please well suited to the Lodge that now counts on 33 regular associates and 3 honorary members.

The Masonic path of the Zarathustra Lodge and Brother Simonetti can be understood from these events. During the eighties the Zarathustra Lodge gave birth to the Communion of the Free Masonic Lodges with the distinctive name of “Might and Freedom” and subsequently to the UMSOI, (Masonic Union of strict initiation observance) also known during the 90s as Social, Moral, International and operative Union.

Zarathustra and Zum Lebedingen Kreuz have had a very similar and difficult story . Both the Grand Master Otto and Brother Simonetti have added to the reverence towards the Cross the one towards the Roses. Their actions and histories make us think they went well beyond the Scottish rite.
In them perhaps we may find the Masonic founding principles as well as those of the legendary Rosenkreuz.

The text comes from the Web. It is not ours but it tells our history.