In this work the author shows why and how Masonic lodges were persecuted during the Nazi era and how they were deprived of their assets. He describes how, following the end of the Nazi era, the compensation of the Masonic lodges was conducted under international law in each of the occupation zones in Germany. In the western occupation zones and in the new Federal Republic of Germany the Masonic lodges received redress, while this was not the case in the Soviet occupation zone and the German Democratic Republic.

Lars Barnewitz, Rechtsanwalt in Berlin, Düsseldorf und Hamburg.