M. Pianco: Der im Lichte der Wahrheit strahlende Rosen-

kreuzer. Leipzig, 1782.
O. Beuren : Die innere Unwahrheit der Freimaurereit. Mayence, 1884.
G. Schuster: Die geheimen Gesellschaften, Verbindungen und Orden. Leipzig, 1906. 2 vols.
A. E. Waite : The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross. London, 1924.
De Quincey’s Historical and Critical Enquiry into the Origin of the Rosicrucians and Freemasons.
THE GERMAN UNION 43
(5) The German Union
Founded by Bahrdt, an adventurer—Nominally benevolent—Rather a commercial enterprise—Collapse on his imprisonment,
Charles Frederick Bahrdt, born in 1741, was a highly gifted, unscrupulous, dissolute man, who preached Protes- tant theology, eked out a scanty existence as a schoolmaster, and contrived to become Court chaplain to Count von Leiningen in the Palatinate. He seems to have made mischief wherever he went, and his persistent mockery of religion led not only to the loss of his chaplaincy, but to his imprisonment in a fortress.
Hearing, however, of the successes of the Illuminati and Rosicrucians, he determined to take advantage of the spirit of the age and sought his fortune as the founder, or, more probably, the adapter of a secret society, that came to be known as the German Union. He secured the support of twenty-two men, including politicians, schoolmasters and private persons, and addressed a circular to “ the friends of reason, truth and virtue,”’ urging them to join him in “ fol- lowing the main objects of the Founder of Christianity, namely the enlightenment of mankind, the dethroning of superstition and fanaticism.”
Encouraged by Baron von Knigge and other Illuminati as well as by Rosicrucians, he employed clever writers to draw up pamphlets, for which he secured a large circulation. The society soon grew in the propitious soil of the period, and Bahrdt became rich through his attractive programme of education and philanthropy, which included the dissemi- nation of learning, the advancement of obscure genius, assistance for widows and orphans and the deserving in old age or misfortune.
The Union was divided into a ruling class, acting under the direction of Bahrdt, and two lower orders, who were sworn to obedience and secrecy though not entrusted with any secrets, not even with the identity of their superiors. Pro-
44 ‘ SECRET SOCIETIES
testantism was certainly propagated, or at least used as a bait for Protestant members, but it does not seem unfair to state that the Union was mainly a financial enterprise for the personal profit of its founder. In this it was not permanently successful, and the movement collapsed on his trial for conspiracy and his committal to prison, where he died in the year 1792. ,
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