Encyclopedia Masonica

The principal systems of ritual or wodung in Germany are:
1. The old English as remodeled by Schroeder and used by the Grand Lodge of Hamburg, most of the Lodges under the Grand Lodge of Saxony and all of the Hanoverian Lodges which belong to the Grand Lodge Royal York, and the Five Independent Lodges.
2. Rectified Strict Observance, or Scottish, by the Three Globes, Berlin. The Ritual of the Saint John's Lodge is, we understand, that of Fessler, as revised by Zoellner
3. Swedish, by the Grand National Lodge, Berlin.
4. Fesslerts, differing slightly from that of Schroeder. The Grand Lodge of the-*Sun, at Bayreuth, and the Grand Lodge Royal York use this ritual. Great freedom is accorded the daughters of the Grand Lodge of the Sun, the only requirement being that once each year they are to work according to a common Ritual
5. Modern English Eclectic, in the Grand Lodge of Frankfort and Darmstadt. The Ritual is reported to be Sightly mixed with other ceremonies under the latter Grand Lodge.

The most complicated of all of these forms of working is the Swedish system, see No. 3 above. No. 1 or the Schroeder system is the simplest. The entire apparatus of the ceremonies just as gone through in ancient times is displayed at the initiations in the Swedish Ritual?that is, terrors, threats, and so forth. However, in Fessler's system these likenesses gradually disappear just as they do in the Grand Lodge, Kaiser Frederick, where they are only inferred indirectly in the declared historical reminiscences. The work in England appertaining to portions of the First and Second Degrees has been transposed in Germany so that an Entered Apprentice from America or England if visiting in Germany would not be able to work his way into the Lodge in the First Degree.

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