In April 1935, a text appeared in several newspapers (and a Masonic magazine!) with the intent to smear Farwerck’s name because of him having been Freemason. Nowadays “fake news” is a known description of news that is either entirely fabricated or presented in such a way that the reader is mislead. This is exactly what happens in this text.
Read More »The Secretive Lodge. Around Brother Fahrwerck
After all these years I still run into new publications in which Farwerck has published. This time a periodical named “Ons Eigen Volk”, meaning “Our Own People”. The title immediately suggests that it is one from the “Völkish” milieu.
“Ons Eigen Volk” was published by the “Nederlands Volkskundig Genootschap” or “Dutch Folkloristic Society”. The contemporary “Nederlands Centrum voor Volkscultuur” (“Dutch Centre for Folk-culture”) says that one of their predecessors is the Dutch Folkloristic Society and that this was started after the war in 1949. Another source says that “Eigen Volk” was initially a periodical of an academic organisation. This society was strained by WWII and abandoned after the war. In 1949 a new society with the same name was founded.
Main editor J. Rasch writes in the first issue that he had worked for the periodical “Ons Volk” (“Our People”) for 11 years when the publisher thought it didn’t bring enough money. Rasch took things in his own hands, found another publisher and slightly changed the name.
The names of cooperators in the first issue of 1940 contain two familiar names: H.J. Bellen and M. van de Velde. The first was an early layman archaeologist, the other a fellow Theosophist who knew Farwerck. Van de Velde was an active contributor until the end. He proves to have more incommon with Farwerck than Theosophy.
A contributor of the first issue was poet August Heyting and also Egbert Smedes sent in a text.
Not too much information about this subject, but still enough to make a separate mention. “De Nederlandse Vegetariërsbond” (‘the Dutch union of vegetarians’) was founded as early as 1894. According to Wikipedia, the initiative came from A. Verschoor from Rotterdam. What Wikipedia doesn’t mention is that at the founding meeting several Theosophists were present. With P.C. Meuleman-Van Ginkel we are already in the Van Ginkel family of Henri van Ginkel who would initiate Farwerck into co-Masonry in 1911. Meuleman was also involved in the early days of Dutch Theosophy. Most likely through his Theosophical contacts, Farwerck joined the union late 1918 as we can see in the periodical of the union that can be found online. Apparently Farwerck was not as active in this union as he was in other groups that he found, because the only other mention in the named periodical is from early 1922 when he resigned. Also this issue can be found online. In his Rotary Club vegetarianism was a subject too on 4 October 1937 and again on 20 January 1938, but these talks were not by Farwerck, but by Cochius.
The digitalisation of archives continues, so it pays off to check for new information every once in a while. I found out that the periodical of the Dutch Rotary Club has found its way to an online archive. Farwerck is mentioned frequently, so let us have a look if this monthly magazine / newsletter has new information.
Rotary started in the Netherlands in 1927 in Hilversum and Amsterdam and Farwerck was involved. No wonder that the first “Rotary Holland” (as the name of the magazine goes) is from that year and that Farwerck is mentioned. This is not very interesting though, it is only mentioned that he was present at a meeting on 1 November 1927. Somewhat interesting, also present was Cochius.
The next mention is that he was present on 2 February 1928. Also present then was Van Duyl who would later ask him to join the N.S.B. In that time he is mostly listed as present, but on 19 April 1928 Farwerck spoke about his carpet factory, Interestingly enough, the short report opens with a quote of Inayat Khan that not Farwerck, but another member (Rozenbeek) presented. The meeting after Farwercks talk, the idea arises to start a museum in Hilversum. It would take several more years for this to become true.
Read More »Rotary HollandI had only vague references that Franz Farwerck did something with horses, just like other members of his family. Now I run into a periodical called “Het Sportblad” (‘the sports magazine’) in which Farwerck is listed twice.
The first six pages are about soccer, Dutch sports number one. Then there is a strange divider and there follows a member list:
Read More »Het sportbladFarwerck’s Freemasonry is spoken about on this website (and elsewhere) frequently. Time for a little more in depth information. Let me start with a bird’s eye view of mixed gender Freemasonry (or co-Masonry) and how it came to the Netherlands. Then we are going to have a look at Farwerck’s place in all this.
Freemasonry is traditionally a men’s thing, but towards the end of the 19th century some people started to do more to change that than just talk. A French lodge initiated a woman in 1882, Maria Deraismes (1828-1894). Even though the lodge that did this was already quite liberal, the Grand Lodge they worked under did not agree. Deraismes and Georges Martin (1844-1916) decided to start a new Masonic organisation, open for both men and women, the Grande Loge Symbolique Écossaise “Le Droit Humain” in 1893,
This symbolic Scottish Grand Lodge would eventually become “The International Order of Freemasonry Le Droit Humain”, LDH for short.
Read More »Mixed gender Freemasonry (in the Netherlands)Something occurred to me. In my text about Farwerck’s house, I mention that the neighbouring school bought Farwerck’s house in 1967. He only passed away in 1969, so he had to move elsewhere. This elsewhere appears to have been a house close to his garden.
When Farwerck passed away, the main contact address was Wernerlaan 41 (see obituary) and his brother’s widow and one of their sons as main contact. Does that mean that Farwerck lived there? Mentioned separately, but also living in Hilversum are Willy Farwerck’s son K.J. Farwerck and his wife Th.W.C. Farwerck-Hoolboom. Hoolboom was involved in some of Farwerck’s activities (Thule and Nehalennia).
Read More »What happened to Farwerck’s library?The fellow Farwerck investigator who brought me most of the recent new information also ran into some sort of diary combined with some other information sheds a little more light on Farwerck’s removal from the National Socialist Movement. It also shows a bit more about Farwerck’s relationships.
The man we are talking about his Hans Ernst Schneider (1909-1999). He was originally a professor of literature in Germany, but he became a national socialist eventually working for the Ahnenerbe. Between 1940 and 1942 he worked for the SS in Den Haag (The Hague) in the Netherlands. According to Wikipedia: “he was responsible for replacing the staff of universities in German-occupied Netherlands and Belgium with Nazis and collaborators” (1) Apparently he had the same job for the Dutch National Socialist Movement.
Read More »On Farwerck’s removal from the N.S.B.As I have mentioned several times, Franz Farwerck is sometimes said to live in Rotterdam. This question just might be answered by what follows.
Amazing, another source for texts by Farwerck has surfaced. Again I didn’t make the discovery myself.
From 1934 to 1944 there was a periodical called “Nieuw Nederland”, or “New Netherlands”. This overlaps Farwerck’s N.S.B. period. The editor of the periodical was R. van Genechten who also wrote quite a few texts. Farwerck contributed only a few. One has also been released have been as separate booklets too.
Read More »Nieuw Nederland