3. - Schlösser-Magazin

owners and designers of gardens to be practising
Freemasons or members of a secret order
themselves (Illuminati, Rosicrusians or similar).
Nor were they forced to be, since arcane paths
to initiation and those combining nature and
magic have belonged to gardens for as long as
gardens have existed, and Eros and Thanatos
together always encompass the tension between
this world and the underworld. Particularly
in connexion with the conflicts over Bavarian
succession, the rulers’ gardens were suitable for
use as the predominant and finely adjustable
medium for asserting the political profile of their
owners (includes making use of the symbols of
Freemasonry and secret societies). 33
As far as the arcane motifs and hints of paths
to initiation in the Prince Elector’s gardens
in Schwetzingen are concerned, it would
appear more likely that Jesuit thinking rather
than that of the Freemasons or Illuminati
was responsible for them, the latter, in turn,
being wary of potential infiltration by the
Jesuits. Athanasius Kircher has already been
mentioned. With his far-reaching research
and influential books (especially “Oedipus
Aegyptiacus” (1652–1654); “Sphinx mystagoga”
[1676]; “Mundus subterraneus” [1678] and
“Turris Babel” [1679]), he himself had a direct or
indirect impact on the thinking of English and
European Freemasons and secret societies. It
was he who, in his widely-read work “Oedipus
Aegyptiacus”, explained that everything that lay
been the wisdom Noah received from God and
Christ’s revelation was at least a part-truth of
divine knowledge. In his way of thinking, the
space available was large enough for Zoroaster,
Orpheus, Hermes Trismegistus, Pythagoras and
Plato alike to share. For him, it was perfectly
natural to draw parallels between the Egyptian
gods and those of other civilisations. Isis, the
33 Cf. for exmple: Michael Niedermeier: Von der Schrift in die
Landschaft. Die Isis-Initiation des Apulejus in der Mystischen
Partie des Wörlitzer Gartens. In: Übersetzung und Transformation.
Edited by Hartmut Böhme, Christof Rapp and Wolfgang
Rösler. Berlin 2007, 267-308; Den Haag: Der Herzogliche
Englische Garten in Gotha und das Geheimbundwesen. In:
Freimaurerische Kunst – Kunst der Freimaurerei, edited by
Helmut Reinalter. Innsbruck 2005, 127-151. Den Haag: Freimaurer
und Geheimbünde in den frühen Landschaftsgärten
der Aufklärung. In: Aufklärung in Geschichte und Gegenwart.
Edited by Brunhilde Wehinger, Richard Faber. Würzburg 2009
(forthcoming)
VI. Interpretation of the Palace Gardens as a whole: Dr. Michael Niedermeier
Magna Mater or Mother Goddess, was identical
with each and every one of Minerva, Venus,
Juno, Proserpina, Ceres, Diana, Rhea, Rhamnusia,
Bellona, Hecate and Luna. 34 Comparable
situations also applied to Osiris, Pan and Jupiter
or Anubis and Mercury. In this way, Jesuit
thought took on very considerable breadth and
also appeared to be reasonably tolerant, so it
is no surprise with hindsight that a number of
Jesuits who were close to the Prince Elector, such
as the influential Father Seedorf, were eager to
join the Freemasons after their own order had
been banned. In many aspects, the combined
natural and mystic thinking of the Jesuits and
Freemasons was fed from the same sources. As
early as 1737, Prince Elector Carl Philipp had
had the Freemasons’ lodge, which had existed
since 1727 as the first in Germany, disbanded,
and Carl Theodor had never reversed that
ban. The fear that major foreign powers (such
as Prussia, England or Upper Saxony) might
secretly be in control of the lodges led repeatedly
to anxieties about conspiracies and prohibitions.
In 1756, however, a Franco-Scottish lodge called
“Saint Charles de l’Union” was initially founded
in Mannheim in honour of King Charles Stuart
of Scotland, who had taken on the new name of
“King of the Union” in 1784. Several members of
court society belonged to it, probably including
the Jesuit Father Seedorf, who wielded great
influence over the Prince Elector before dying in
1772. Carl Theodor had ordered the disbanding
of the lodge following major disputes with
a group of Jesuits regarding his new father
confessor and court chaplain, Father Ignaz
Frank SJ, who was director of a Rosicrucian
circle opposed to the Enlightenment. 35 Carl
Theodor had allowed himself to be convinced
of the apparent harmfulness of Freemasonry by
Father Frank who, after the dissolution of the
Jesuit order, benefited from the protection of the
Prince Elector in his position as court chaplain
34 Oedipvs Aegyptiacvs. Hoc est Vniuersalis Hieroglyphicae
Veterum. Doctrinae temporum iniuria abolitae instavratio (...)
Ad Ferdinandvm III. Caesarem Semper Avgvstvm. M DC LII.
(1652), vol. 1, p. 189
35 Cf. Eugen Lehnhoff, Oskar Posner, Dieter A. Binder:
Internationales Freimaurerlexikon. Überarb. u. erweiterte
Neuauflage Munich 2000, p. 111. Ursula Rumpler: Ignaz Frank.
In: Bautz. Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon, vol.
23. Nordhausen 2004, pp. 398-413
VI.
241