Independent Order of Odd Fellows
The IOOF Independent Order of Odd Fellows, abbreviated, short and Odd Fellows, is an international, humanitarian and philanthropic, secular orders with partially similar goals and values as those of the charity clubs and the Freemasons.
The Order is politically and religiously neutral, its members may belong to different religions and also run active politics. Within the Order a business, party political or religious activity is not permitted.
The ethical precepts of the Order are "to visit the sick, to help the afflicted, to bury the dead and educate the orphan ."
The sign of the Order are three chain links. These symbolize the motto " Friendship, Love and Truth", which requires members to charitable work, as well as to human and tolerant thinking and acting.
Organization
The workplace within the Order is the lodge. This is headed by a foreman, who is elected by the Lodge, but used by the Grand Lodge in his office. The lodge decides on the admission and expulsion of members and granted the four lodges degrees. It is obliged to comply with the statutes of the Grand Lodge. Members who have the highest degree lodges can unite with brothers from other lodges in a warehouse. This left three storage levels. Mission of the camp is to deepen the teaching of the Order and to promote contact from box to box a region or country. Reflecting the bearing of a main patriarchs. Organizationally, both Loge as the camp of the Grand Lodge are directly subordinated. The lodges and camps of a State are united in a grand lodge. It is led by an upper- Sire, in Germany by a Grand Master. In the Grand Lodge can lodges and camps, according to their number of members, a number of major representatives, wholesale deputy delegate in Germany. As a major representative can only be selected who has the third bearing degree and dignity of the old master. The grand lodge granted two Grand Lodges degrees. The resolutions of the Grand Lodge shall be binding on the lodges and camps; it also granted the charters establishing new storage and lodges. The Sovereign Grand Lodge, based in Winston- Salem is the supreme power in the Order and is a referee in all questions between the equipped her with charters Grand Lodges. It is headed by the Sovereign Grand Master.
Name
The origin of the name Odd Fellows is not clear and is interpreted differently. The witty, derived from bourgeois dissident circles, fighting for the welfare and the right to religious and political freedom Daniel Defoe ( 1660-1731 ) writes of a society, the Odd Fellows was called. 1745 Lodge of Odd Fellows, in the " Gentlemen 's Magazine ," mentioned, in which one could spend cozy evenings and stimulating. A Log of the " Loyal Lodge No. Aristarcus. 9 " with the words" Order of Odd Fellows " of 12 March 1748 shows that this was anxious to unite all existing Odd Fellow lodges. Sources from 1780 report that a Lodge of Odd Fellows on an evening was introduced in unzeremonieller way the Prince of Wales, the future King George IV of Great Britain, in the Order. These are the earliest known mentions of the name " Odd Fellows ". Before 1800, individual English lodges united under the name of Improved Order of Odd Fellows. After its spread in Britain and America was founded in 1827 in the U.S. with the William Tell Lodge, the first German -speaking Odd Fellow Lodge. It was followed by many more, with ritual and statutes have been translated into the German language. The medal designation was this: " Independent Order of Odd brothers," UOSE. After the introduction of the Order in Germany one was bothered there for the time being from the English expression Odd Fellow and named in 1872 also " Independent Order of Odd brothers." But we quickly realized that this German translation in the English-speaking world much less repulsive worked as in Germany, and used a year later the English name. Although the word " odd" the term " weird " not as sharp highlights in English as in German, we tried early to find an explanation of how this term was created.
Lothammer writes that the well-known language scholars Max Müller claimed in Oxford, the word is originated from "added", which means as much as " added ". The Odd Fellow lodges have taken the surplus, distressed laborers, who found no uptake in the large ancestral organizations. Several authors reject this version. In the Masonic lodges of the time the brethren of the second degree were also called " Fellows ". The Manchester Unity writes in a brochure about the Order: Theoretical origins include the words Hod and Ode one. The former refers to henchmen in construction, Hod carrier, the latter leading to the custom back to use Oden in the rituals of the Order. After further theories Odd means that the activities of the Order differs from other associations, or that its members are distinguished somehow. Another possibility is that important professions such as cloth merchants, dyers, manufactured goods dealers and similar guilds had their own, in other industries that could not form guilds, the members in Odd Fellow clubs merged.
Adolf Arnold writes about the name Odd Fellow in November 1991 GS Daniel Corrodi uA: "Already several occasions I 've read reports that the name, Odd Fellows ' is derived from added Fellows. I believe that there is a more probable origin. The English word hod means as much as, plaster trough 'or plaster board'. This V-shaped device with stalk was safe up in the 50s used to carry mortar, brick, etc. to the work site of the mason. The man who got the, was the hodman or hodfellow, and I remember well the device and the man on English sites. In a small English town, where I worked in the 50s, there was an Odd Fellow 's Hall ( the company itself no longer existed ), which showed a weather vane in the form of such a hod on the roof. On an old photo of this building, I found also the following note: Odd Fellows incidentally what originally Hodfellows, a friendly society Of Those associated with bricklaying. The Odd Fellows were thus hodfellows initially, ie cobbles carrier who had joined together in a society. The term friendly society suggests that it is this was a union for mutual assistance. The 'h' in the initial sound is suppressed in English dialects and in colloquial language in lower social classes often. That was certainly the case at hodfellows. This then was Odfellows written does not make sense, so it was converted to odd fellow. The importance, weird codger ' was probably the founders opposed, but the real issue was so obscured and only the initiated could read the expression. "
" Odd " but can be derived by oath, which oath or vow means. Fellow is a person with whom you have a community. Odd Fellow therefore means much more " confederate " as oddball. It is also possible that " odd" was a short form of " od and wed " ( oath and pledge), and " Odd Fellow" means a self-help organization whose members are interconnected by a vow.
The origin of the word " Odd Fellow" is thus interpreted in different ways, all based on assumptions. In these attempts at interpretation should however be noted that the emergence of the term dates back to the 17th or already in the beginning 18th century.
Members
Anyone who is in civil honors and rights to committed to the principles of the Order and the laws of his state and is eager to act upon it may become a member.
In Germany, the Order has about 1,220 members (750 men and 470 women) working together in 40 brother - lodges and 270 women in the Rebekah Lodges, 200 sisters in the sister frets and a mixed Lodge in Berlin, the sisters and brothers in Switzerland, approximately 1,900 ( 32 men and 6 women's lodges ), the rest of Europe about 100,000 (including 41,000 in Sweden, Norway 23,000 15,000 Denmark, Finland 8000, Netherlands 3500, Iceland 3300 ), the world around 600,000 members in about 11,000 lodges.
History
Early period and settlement in the USA
1723 Medal named " Ancient Order " was founded in England. This was probably a successor of previous associations. From this order different, independent Odd Fellow Order originated in the late 18th century. To combine these, 1814, a large corporation with the name " The Manchester Unity of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows ," IOOF constituted. This developed during the 19th century primarily to a well-organized the Insurance Institute. On April 26, 1819 founded the from England in the U.S. immigrant Thomas Wildey, longtime foreman of the London lodges, in Baltimore, the Washington Lodge No. 1 through its activity more lodges were founded in the sequence, and two years later were these are combined in a Grand Lodge. Thomas Wildey and other active brothers gave the boxes a deeper spiritual content and improved the ritual, which led to a new tradition. 1841 sparked the American Grand Lodge of the Manchester Unity and formed an independent Grand Lodge. In the year of death of Thomas Wildey, 1861, this counted against 400,000 members.
Development in Europe
In 1869 it was decided to expand the Order in Europe. 1870 was then the first lodge in Germany, 1871 in Switzerland, 1877 in the Netherlands, in 1878 in Denmark, 1884 in Sweden, 1887 in France, 1896 in Iceland, 1898 in Norway, are founded in 1911 in Belgium. Trials in other European countries to establish lodges failed, or the established lodges went there again. Only the Finnish lodges were able to form their own Grand Lodge. In 1993, the foundations have been laid to form in the Baltic States, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic Odd Fellow lodges. The Grand Lodge of the German Odd Fellows received in 1872, the Swiss in 1874 a charter.
German -speaking Odd Fellows
The first German lodge is the " Württemberg Lodge No. 1" in Stuttgart, founded on December 1, 1870. Recent Odd Fellow Lodge in Germany was on 18 October 2003 under the name " Fresenia Loge zu Jever " in Jever / Lower Saxony founded by seven brothers and currently has 27 members with an average age of 48 years.
On November 9, 2013 were the most recent Women's Lodge of Odd Fellows, Rebekah founded the " Seewiefken Lodge in Jever " also in Jever of 10 ladies.
In today's Austria, the first lodge, the " Friedensloge to Vienna ", was founded on June 4, 1922.
The German and Austrian lodges were banned during the Nazi period ( on April 2, 1933 declared the German Grand Lodge at a special meeting in Berlin itself to be dissolved ), as well as in the former Czechoslovakia during the Nazi and Communist times.
Current trends and problems
In liberal countries and cultures, both men and women are taken today in a box. In more conservative is the strict separation between men and women's lodges - the " Rebekah Lodges " - maintained. Exist in Switzerland, for example, no mixed boxes, the term " conservative " in this context is not entirely correct.
Similar attitude also applies the principle of faith - in the past had a "brother" / a "sister " necessarily believe in a "higher power ", which follow the conservative lodges today. The liberal take on atheists.
In German lodges is expected today that a member of the Order of " a supreme being, the creator and sustainer of the universe ," believes. This may be interpreted quite far.
The Odd Fellow Order and its lodges are suffering today, especially in Central Europe, including an aging and dwindling membership. You are having this problem in society with similar associations - Druid orders, Masons, Kiwanis, Lions Club, Rotary.