Hermann Joseph Metzger

Born: 20 June 1919 in Zezikon, Thurgau, Switzerland.

Died: 1990.

Hermann Metzger was born on 20 June 1919 in the farming village of Zezikon in Switzerland. He was the founder of the "Abtei Thelema" in Stein, Appenzell, Switzerland, and a leader of a postwar group of the O.T.O.

On 15 October 1939 he moved from Lugano, Switzerland to Zurich where he changed his address several times until his death in 1990.

Karl Germer took an interest in the efforts of Hermann Metzger (Frater Paragranus) in Switzerland. Metzger was a student of a surviving member of Theodor Reuss's Swiss section of the O.T.O. named Felix Lazerus Pinkus (1881-1947), but had no original connection with Crowley’s O.T.O. Germer appointed Frederic Mellinger to supervise Metzger’s regularization into Crowley’s O.T.O., but Germer and Metzger fell into disagreement toward the end of Germer’s life. Frederic Mellinger wrote after Germer’s death that Metzger had failed to satisfy the program of instruction set forth for Metzger by Germer under Mellinger’s tutelage. According to one source, Metzger claimed to have chartered Gabriel Montenegro as X° for the United States. However, Montenegro never claimed any such authority, and never even mentioned any O.T.O. appointment from Metzger to his O.T.O. colleagues in the U.S.

Karl Germer died on October 25, 1962 without having designated a successor. Germer’s last will and testament named his wife Sascha Germer and Frederick Mellinger the executors of his estate in the matter of property held for O.T.O. Sascha was an elderly lady of less than sound mind, and cut herself off from the surviving members of O.T.O. in California. Germer’s estate was never probated. Some ranking members, including Grady McMurtry, were not notified of Germer’s death for several years, causing a long delay before the question of succession to leadership of O.T.O. was properly addressed.

Metzger in Switzerland published a claim to being the Outer Head of the Order, based on a private election represented to have been held in Switzerland on January 6, 1963. Ranking members of O.T.O. outside of Switzerland, including Frederick Mellinger, whom Germer had appointed as Metzger’s mentor, were not informed of Metzger’s purported election until after the alleged fact. A copy of Metzger’s manifesto was sent to Wilfred Talbot Smith, who had been dead since 1957. Metzger was not generally accepted as head of the Order outside his own group. Sascha made a half-hearted attempt to send Germer’s O.T.O. property material to Metzger, but this was blocked by Mellinger in a letter dated 25 September 1963 which denounced Metzger as a fraud. Metzger later incorporated his system of O.T.O. as part of a new organization of his own formulation, the “Ordo Illuminatorum,” which purported to be a revival of the order of the Illuminati.

Hermann Metzger died in 1990.