Heinrich Tränker

Born: 1880.

Died: 1956.

In Germany, at the turn of the century during the founding chaos of Theosophy, Heinrich Tränker played a major role as a publisher. He established contact with Theodor Reuss in 1919 although he had been told about Reuss many years earlier by Franz Hartmann (another key figure in the development of Theosophy and once friend of Carl Kellner). Although they never met in flesh, Tränker became the X° for Germany through Reuss. Charles Stansfeld Jones was also made a X° on the same day (10 May 1921). Reuss also wrote two other charters for Germans in 1921: to Arnold Krumm-Heller who eventually erected his Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua, the A∴A∴ and the Gnostic Catholic Church in South America (while still having his "Sumo Supremo Santuario" in Berlin-Heiligensee), and to Henri Birven who soon would be influential in the development of the Thelemic movement in Germany.

Around 1920 Tränker created the "Pansophia", mainly a publishing project that was financially supported by Karl Germer who became co-owner in 1922. Another member of "Pansophia" was Eugen Grosche, who would go on to found the Fraternitas Saturni. Tränker never thought highly of Reuss and only after Reuss' death did he consider the O.T.O. a suitable addition to his collection of Orders. After Reuss' death he visited Reuss' widow in a vain attempt to buy the remains of his papers etc. The papers were eventually purchased by Hans Rudolf Hilfiker. Tränker gained insights into Reuss' files and discovered that there was no appointed successor to the office of the Outer Head of the Order (O.H.O.). He corresponded intensely with the American X° Charles Stansfeld Jones and invited Crowley to Germany in 1925 in order to elect him a "World Saviour". Crowley upset Tränker so much that he called the police and withdrew his vote from the election. So from 1928 on, Tränker started to call himself O.H.O. of the O.T.O., of the AASR, the Swedenborg Rite, the Golden Dawn, MM, the Rite of Heredom, the HBL, the Fraternitas Rosa Crucis, the Gnostic Church, and the Illuminates.

In 1930 he collaborated with the A.M.O.R.C. which came to nothing whereupon he founded the "Societas Pansophia Universalis" in New York in 1932.

Meanwhile Jones aroused the anger of Crowley through propagating the "Aeon of Truth and Justice" which led to the delicate expulsion of the Reuss-X° of the US (Jones) through the Reuss-X° of England and self-styled O.H.O. (Crowley). As to the question of O.T.O. sovereignty, Crowley's friend Gerald Yorke, had a clear opinion as an expert, when he wrote in 1948 to Karl Germer who was Crowley's heir: "Jones and Tränker's X°'s go back to Reuss and not to A.C. They therefore in the Constitution of the O.T.O. are the ones who establish the next O.H.O., and even if you are X° from Crowley, they can outvote you in a council to choose the new O.H.O. They could then appoint their own Treasurer General, and he could I think, lay legal claim to the effects and the copyright." Jones died on 24 February 1950 but Tränker was still alive.

At the end of July 1950 the Swiss Hermann Metzger paid a visit to Tränker, who, because he saw himself as the successor to Theodor Reuss, was seen by Metzger as his "greatest adversary". Metzger did not dare acknowledge his own relationship with Tränker's enemy Eugen Grosche of the Fraternitas Saturni, because both Metzger and Grosche feared a court case, which could result in Tränker excluding them from the exchange of the secret papers, especially concerning the Supremum Sanctuarium of the O.T.O. In order to protect his own O.T.O. Metzger discussed with Grosche the possibility of putting the O.T.O. under the protection of the FS in Germany where it would be incorporated as 18° in the then 33°-degrees scale of the FS. "Then the Lodge [FS] stands before [the O.T.O.], and he [Tränker] can not go against it. As part of an Association, it enjoys rightful protection." "The Johannism[asonry] [Craft] would head the first three degrees of the FS, then follows the Pronaos [degrees] of the FS, and in the Pentalphae degree [18°] members were admitted to the working of the O.T.O., since it is assumed that the O.T.O. includes the Johannism[asonry].

Alas, Metzger and Grosche would soon quarrel endlessly. Heinrich Tränker died only a few years later in 1956. The "Pansophic Rites" lived on in Eduard Munninger (1901-1965) who also considered himself a heir to Arnoldo Krumm-Heller's FRA in Austria.