Dear Bro. Gazzo

After reading Bro Henning A. Klövekorn’s article “The formation of the first grand lodge of freemasons, Germany 1250”, I went to his website, where I was further informed about his book “The 99° of Freemasonry” from which the article is extracted, as well as some other theories stated therein. I have not read the book itself (something which, time permitting, I plan to do sometime in the future) so, by necessity, I must confine my comments to the information I gleaned from the pages readily available to me.

Even in the short sections I read, it is clear that Bro. Klövekorn has spent a great deal of time researching his subject and thinking about it. As someone who is presently involved in a somewhat similar undertaking, I thoroughly empathize with him for the vast amount of work he has done. It is no small feat to wade through the mountain of material written in the last two and a half centuries about Freemasonry – which, elsewhere in this website, W. Bro. Bernheim has so aptly described as “The bad, the good and the ugly” – and still come up with something remotely interesting to say. So, even though, based on what I have read so far, I question the accuracy of much of his data, and disagree with many of the conclusions he derives from it, I congratulate him for a provocative and well written article.

As it is possible that, in his book, Bro. Klövekorn has presented proper documentation to support those statements that go against established scholarship, I will suspend any further consideration of his ideas – many of which have been presented in the past by other Masonic researchers – until I have the opportunity to read the complete work, and, perhaps, be convinced by the strength of his arguments.

Until then, I remain,

Sincerely and fraternally yours

Ruben Gurevich, 32°, RAM, QCCC, MPS
Lewiston, NY