BADEN

In 1778 the Lodge Karl of Unity was established in Mannheim, which at that time belonged to Bavaria. In 1785 an electoral decree was issued prohibiting all secret meetings in the Bavarian Palatinate and the Lodge was closed. In 1803 Mannheim was transferred to the Grand Duchy of Baden, and in 1805 the Lodge was reopened, and in the following year accepted a warrant from the Grand Orient of France and took the name of Karl of Concord. Then it converted itself into the Grand Orient of Baden and was acknowledged as such by the Grand Orient of France in 1807. Lodges were established at Bruchsal, Heidelberg, and Mannheim, and the Grand Orient of Baden ruled over them until 1813, when all secret societies were again prohibited, and it was not until 1846 that Masonic activity recommenced in Baden, when the Lodge Karl of Concord was awakened.

The Grand Orient of Baden went out of existence, but the Lodges in the Duchy, of which several have been established, came under the Grand National Mother-Lodge Zu den drei Weldkugeln, meaning Of the three Globes, in Berlin.