Frederic Mellinger

Born: 15 November 1890 in Berlin, Germany.

Died: 29 August 1970 in Bad Wiessee, Germany.

Frederick Mellinger, also known as Frater Merlinus, was a IX° in the O.T.O. and was initiated into the 0° and 1° O.T.O. degrees on 22 March 1941 through the Agape Lodge.

Mellinger was a German actor, theatre director and playwright. He became a Probationer in the A∴A∴ under Wilfred Talbot Smith on 23 April 1940, taking the motto Arte Unionem Manifestabo Gnosticam ("I will manifest the Gnostic union through Art").

Friedrich Mellinger was born in Berlin on 15 November 1890. By 1919 he had become a co-founder of and actor in 'The Tribune', the first left-wing agitprop avant-garde theatre in Berlin. He was a partner in this theatre with Karl-Heinz Martin, a particularly influential figure who was active as a theatre-director, and had appeared on stage with star performers of the era like Fritz Kortner and Rudolf Leonhard.

In 1921 Mellinger (who was now apparently a Ph.D.) founded the 'Schaubühne' ('The Stage') in Munich, with the producer Eugen Felber, using the remaining members of the Tribune's company and the scenery from Felber's previous theatre the 'Neue Bühne'.

Between 1927 and 1931 Mellinger had various jobs: an assistant at the Propyläen-Verlag publishers, head of the theatre department at Ullstein Verlag,  and a drama-critic for the Bildzeitung am Mittag newspaper in Berlin. On 30 May 1929 his son Michael Andreas was born. After 1931 he worked as a freelance for the Vossischen Zeitung newspaper, writing literary and artistic criticism. Until 1932 Mellinger's name was regularly in theatrical yearbooks, but after 1933 he disappeared.

In 1933 Mellinger emigrated to London with his wife and his two sons, Michael and Lukas; there he wrote the film-script "The Emperor of the Sahara". By 1936 Mellinger had arrived in Los Angeles, where he now sought to settle down in the theatre as an American citizen. In addition he played bit-parts in Hollywood movies, too small to be put on the cast-list.

In late 1939 Mellinger wrote to Wilfred T. Smith, meeting him face-to-face in February 1940. On 23 April O.T.O. Mellinger "Merlinus" signed an A∴A∴ certificate as a Probationer with the motto 'Arte Unionem Manifestabo Gnosticam'; his sponsor was Smith.

Mellinger earned small amounts of money with astrological readings. Since his family didn't want anything to do with the O.T.O. crowd, Mellinger was forced to spend days on end sitting at a loose end in the O.T.O. property that housed the 2nd Agapé Lodge's H.Q. Bored and unhappy, he was too proud to do anything like "menial" housekeeping (e.g., watering the grounds) spending his time casting horoscopes for the members of the O.T.O.

On 12 December 1942 Mellinger quit the 2nd Agapé Lodge and took a job as a night-porter at a hotel in Arizona. After that he went to see Karl Germer in New York, who financed Mellinger's return to Germany, first to Bremen and later West Berlin. In April 1945 the Mellingers had another son.

Shortly after the end of the war Mellinger visited Aleister Crowley at Hastings in Sussex. Crowley was living at a boarding-house called Netherwood. Mellinger helped Crowley to put his papers in order, and looked after his correspondence - Crowley was so impressed by his efficiency that he called him his "spiritual son". In a letter of 15 July 1947 Crowley even said that he was preparing his "beloved son" Mellinger for "a position of supreme responsibility," meaning the office of O.H.O. [Outer Head of the Order].

Back in Germany Mellinger found the theatrical field fertile. From 1946 to 1949 he worked for the American military administration in Bremen as supervising officer for theatres, and was a contributor to the Dramaturgischen Blätter. He also paid further visits to Crowley in England at the start of 1946 and in May 1947.

In March 1948 he mounted a production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town at the Kammerspiele, an 'intimate theatre' in Bremen, and later he produced at the Hebbel Theatrein Berlin; but the latter soon came to an end. In 1948-9 Mellinger worked as an actor at the Renaissance Theatre, putting on his own play, Satanische Symphonie, on April 10th 1948.

Mellinger then made a short trip to the USA so as not to lose his American citizenship, and helped Germer in putting the Crowley—O.T.O.'s archive in order. In January and February 1951 it seemed that there was something off-key with Mellinger's esoteric ambitions, at least from Germer's point of view. He began to cast doubt on Germer's authority; Germer, highly sensitive to every accusation, went so far as to class Mellinger "as dangerous" thinking that Mellinger wanted to usurp his office of OHO. Germer soon came to the conclusion that Mellinger was working as a spy for the American government, and their association ended.

Since about 1960 Mellinger had been a member of the 'Adyar' Theosophical Society in Berlin, where he was highly thought of.

Friedrich Mellinger died at Bad Wiessee on 29 August 1970; his books had already found their way into Oscar Schlag's collection in 1957-8, while his 28 letters from Crowley were auctioned at Sotheby's in 1985.

His son Lukas became an architect in London, while at the time of writing Micheal Andreas Mellinger lives in Kent, and has been involved in a considerable body of work on the English stage, as well as television and radio plays, though he is very modest about his contributions.