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Correspondence from Karl Germer to Max Schneider
Antwerp 15, Rue van Dyck
November 8, 1935
Care Frater,
In view of certain remarks in your last letter it may be opportune to give you a brief outline of the whole of the foundation of "Pansophia" and the "Pansophic Movement", together with my relations with Tränker [Heinrich Tränker] (Frater Recnartus.)
I met Tränker in 1919 in Leipzig and remained in close relations with him till about August 1925. From 1923-1925 I had a house near his and we co-operated in the production of "Pansophia"; the selection of books to be published and the campaign in Germany and other countries. Tränker did not speak English and French and I translated a book by Franz Hartmann from the English original which was published in the second volume of "Pansophia". The "Collegium Pansophicum" was an invention of Tränker's. He used the term partly to bluff other people; he hinted darkly at a body of high Initiates in distant countries whose agent for Germany, if not Europe, he claimed to be. These initiates never revealed themselves to him. The "C.P" actually stood for Tränker and myself.
Tränker had always wished to start a periodical, but could never force himself to put up the necessary money. It was ultimately I alone who furnished this and made the venture possible. Otto Wilhelm Barth, the Munich publisher, came to me in Vienna, I think in 1922, where I was living then, and it was there that I arranged the details. Tränker was extremely greedy and knew well how to spot his financial interest; it was he alone who made money out of the sales and in many other ways.
Tränker, however, was in charge in 1925 of the greatest existing library of ancient books and Manuscripts which put him in a position to suggest a conference at a certain secret headquarters. "The representatives of that ancient Order which must not be named, sent messengers to Therion to inform him that they recognised in him the awaited World Teacher and that his new formula was accepted as the basis of the next step to be undertaken by humanity in the course of its spiritual development and for the attainment of increased control over nature."
"They invited him to be present at these headquarters at the Summer Solstice where they had summoned to meet him eight persons, delegates of the principal secret Order which keep watch over the destinies of the race. He was officially recognised by them as the World Teacher."
Tränker had known Franz Hartmann, but I have been informed by intimate friends of Hartmann's that he remained distrustful of Tränker up to his death. I believe it was through Hartmann that Tränker established connection with Reuss [Theodor Reuss]. Reuss also, as I have been told by Mrs. Reuss and know from other sources, never trusted Tränker fully. When Tränker heard of Reuss' death he hurried to Munich, where his widow was living, and bullied her into handing over to him all the documents and secret papers pertaining to the O.T.O., using all kinds of threats and false pretences. Mrs. Reuss, half out of her mind by her grief, and taken in by Tränker's pledges, promises and threats, finally permitted herself to part with the papers.
Tränker had given the address of Otto Wilhelm Barth, the publisher, where he took the package. Soon after he had left her Mrs. Reuss felt remorse at her hasty and imprudent action. She discussed the matter with her sister and first thing next morning rushed out of her flat, went to Barth's office and there forced Tränker to return the package, who happily had not left Munich yet.
When I saw Mrs. Reuss in 1931 she still had those papers, though innumerable people had come to her claiming to be the only ones entitled to them.
For a period, however, Tränker was used by the high Initiates as a focus for the work of the Order. He did not understand his real mission, and as soon as it was completed, we got rid of him.
When the Gestapo were investigating secret societies in general it was not Tränker whom they arrested but myself when they discovered my personal relations with Crowley. And it was the secrets of the O.T.O. that they believed to be of supreme political importance.
Ever since their ascent to power the Nazis suspected the existence of some secret organization which wields some sort of mysterious power and orders the affairs of the planet. They looked for Freemasonry to furnish the clue, and all the Lodges in Germany were secretly kept under very strict supervision. The mail of the Lodges (as well as the private mail of the high officers) was opened by a special department of the Gestapo for the period of about a year. Microphones of a special kind were built into the telephone apparatuses of important officials. These microphones, not visible from outside, permitted a department of the Gestapo to hear clearly my private conversation going on in the furthest part of the room in which the telephone was, though the receiver was on the hook. Every telephone call was recorded on a dictaphone or overheard. At last they arrested the Grand Masters and other prominent Freemasons and kept them—in some cases even their wives—in confinement, until the German Lodges dissolved 'voluntarily' in July 1935. In this way they found that there was some other body behind Freemasonry that has the real power.
It was from me that they expected to obtain the required information. I was exposed to the severest cross-examination and to third-degree methods in order to force me to reveal the secrets. Finally I was sent to the terrible Esterwegen Camp with the instruction to break me and to treat me with particular brutality for "obstinately refusing to reveal the truth." The full story will be told in my forthcoming book.
Thanking you for your good wishes at my escape from Germany, I remain.
yours fraternally
Saturnus.
I am sending a copy of this to Therion.
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