It was the first of our three Grand Principles, Brotherly Love, which conciliates true friendship between men who would otherwise find little in common, that immediately appealed to me as a very new initiate. Quite early in my masonic career I experienced an exceptional example of this.
    Casual contacts between Winchester and the German City of Giessen must have begun during the fifties or early sixties before developing into a more formal arrangement. However, my first visit only took place in 1973 when, as Mayor of Winchester, I had the pleasure of presenting masonic gifts to the Oberbürgermeister of Giessen to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the twinning.
    By then, many bodies and organisations regularly exchanged reciprocal visits and there was a keenly contested annual sports competition. The respective fire brigades had become firm friends and the tales of their exploits were reported to generate heroic thirsts requiring the application of volumes of liquid to quench them like the fires themselves.
    Masonic exchanges had also begun, initiated by Helmut Keiler of Loge Ludewig zur Treue, who visited at least two Winchester lodges including my own mother lodge, Economy No 76. Warranted in 1761, it is the oldest in the city, so when in 1979 the German lodge was due to mark the 200th anniversary of its foundation, what could have been more natural than to invite Economy to the celebration? About eight brethren plus wives went over, hosted by the German brethren. Christina and I stayed with Helmut and his partner who subsequently visited our home in England.
    Five sovereign Grand Masters attended the morning reception in the Hall of Justice at Leibig University. Four of these represented the complex Masonic situation in Germany, where three national Grand Lodges, together with one serving the American and Canadian Forces lodges, and another serving the British Forces lodges, all operated under the umbrella of the United German Grand Lodges. The fifth was Joseph Schattner of the Grand Lodge of Israel accompanied by his Secretary, Joseph Bar-Ner. He proved to be a most delightful and approachable gentleman of Polish extraction who spoke excellent English and German and was happy to converse with a mere Master Mason like myself. Somewhat nervously I observed that it was an extraordinary circumstance that he, a Jew, and I, an Englishman, could so comfortably meet together in Germany given recent world history. I suggested that only through Masonry could this happen and went on, “You might be interested to know that in England, the present Master of one of my lodges is a Jew”. His response made the deepest impression on me. “David,” he replied, “you may be surprised to learn that back home in Israel my Deputy Grand Master is an Arab!”
    Very shortly afterwards, that Deputy, Jamil Shaloub, stepped up to become Grand Master, in which capacity, Michael Walker, the Irish Grand Secretary, met him at a Konvent of the United German Grand Lodges in 1976. He tells me that he has regularly referred to this when giving an example of the amazing effects of Masonry, insofar as a Christian Arab had been elected Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Israel.
    Meanwhile, tragedy was destined to add a macabre dimension to the Giessen proceedings. The programme continued, amid intense media interest, with a concert of Mozart’s Masonic music, followed by a public presentation on Freemasonry by Hans Deitrich Knoop, the Master of Ludewig zur Treue. Among portions of his address, translated in whispers by my host, I recall “Freemasonry is no lazybed!” but soon his voice began to falter and it became clear something was seriously amiss. Finally, in the presence of his wife and daughter, the brethren and their ladies, the general public and the television cameras, he crumpled and collapsed whilst still at the podium. Paramedics appeared and he was pronounced dead to the collective horror of all present.
    In fact he was resuscitated in hospital and lived precariously for a few more days. Meanwhile, the event could not be stopped. In the afternoon, the stunned brethren opened the lodge and the Anniversary meeting was duly held, where it fell to a substitute Master to accept a white leather-bound Volume of the Sacred Law, encrusted with semi-precious stones: the gift of brethren from Israel.
    Despite the awfulness of what happened, and perhaps stimulated by the shared experience, many of the friendships formed that day prospered and families continued to exchange visits between Giessen and Winchester for many years. We learned how a small number of determined Giessen Freemasons had contrived to rekindle the lamp after each period of darkness and suppression. They had opted for a much more ‘open’ posture as early as the seventies and resolved to develop a vibrant social programme to involve their spouses, even coining the unlikely word ‘sisteren’ as parallel to the familiar ‘brethren’. Perhaps there is a lesson there for us.
    Others in the Craft have met with comparable experiences. At the 1964 consecration of Bond of Friendship Lodge in Germany, for example, where brethren from Coventry and Cologne embraced before sitting down together in peace and harmony - a poignant meeting while the bombing of those two cities remained fresh in the memory. In one sense this is not surprising. After all, we set out deliberately to encompass all men of good will. Nevertheless it is pleasing, as well as reassuring, to encounter in one’s own lodges a Jew proposing a Canon of the Church and a Moslem striving to keep in touch by coded letter to avoid expulsion from his lecturing post at a middle eastern university.
    Outside the lodge it is apparent that religion and politics concentrate on distinctions and serve to divide folk into smaller and more sharply defined categories, where differences become more important than similarities. We do well to avoid them. Our way is both more positive and more rewarding. Long live Brotherly Love!