In the past 200 years
we have been in the vanguard of counterrevolution.
(Seit 200 Jahren sind wir in der Vorhut der Gegenrevolution.)
-
Barry Garland, Großmeister des Sovereign Order
of Saint John in Jerusalem - Knights of Malta (OSJ)
„Breiviks Vordenker“ Paul Ray, „selbsternannter Wiederbeleber des Kreuzrittertums“ (Frank Patalong im SPIEGEL), zog sich nach Malta zurueck.
„Konservative Revolution“ und „Kreuzritternationalismus“: Zum Selbstverstaendnis des Norwegen-Attentaeters
______
Noch einmal Geschichtliches.
Durch die antiquarisch besorgte antisemitische Hetzschrift "The Gravediggers of Russia" aus den 1920er Jahren kam ich auf die - zumindest ideologische - Beziehung zwischen dem Trio Alfred Rosenberg, Otto von Kursell und Dietrich Eckart einerseits und dem russischen Exil-Agitator (Graf) Cherep Spiridovich andererseits. Die Verbindung wurde dadurch ersichtlich, dass ein Kleinverlag in Hollywood (wahrscheinlich verbunden mit fruehen Nazi-Sympathisanten um den Filmautor und Anfuehrer der "Silver Shirts", William Dudley Pelley) auf der Rueckseite des Pamphlets von Rosenberg, Kursell und Eckart fuer das Pamphlet von Spiridovich warb.
Siehe den Post "'Bolschewisten-Fratzen' in der Karikatur":
http://guttmensch.blogspot.com/2011/08/bolschewisten-gesichter-das.html
Ueber fruehe Nazi-Sympathisanten in Hollywood siehe auch den Post "McKiernan und das NS-Zitat" auf meinem anderen Blog; hier den Abschnitt ueber die "Murphy Ranch":
http://zettelmaus.blogspot.com/2012/05/was-hat-mckiernan-wirklich-gesagt.html
Auf diese unerwartete Verbindung aufmerksam geworden, stiess ich auf weitere Hintergruende zum Zusammenwachsen eugenischer, antisemitischer und antibolschewistischer Motive in der Zeit zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen. Der Einsatz deutscher Freikorps zur Bekaempfung des Kommunismus/ Bolschewismus auf dem Baltikum (1919) war mit Agitation verbunden, deren Bedeutung fuer die Entstehung des antisemitischen Antibolschewismus einige Aufmerksamkeit verdient.
Interessant ist auch der Hinweis - wenn er denn zutrifft - dass der Einsatz im Baltikum, bei dem (Fürst) Bermondt-Awaloff eine Streitmacht von rund 40.000 deutschen und deutsch-baltischen und rund 10.000 russischen Kaempfern führte, "unter anderem auch von einem obskuren Zweig des
Johanniterordens und von J.P. Morgan jun. finanziell unterstützt" wurde (Wikipedia).
Dazu hatte ich noch weitere Ausfuehrungen gefunden.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pawel_Michailowitsch_Bermondt-Awaloff
http://guttmensch.blogspot.com/2011/08/bolschewisten-gesichter-das.html
Gibt es eine Traditionslinie zwischen dem "Kreuzritternationalismus", der in der Bloggerszene des "Counterdschihad" und in neuen ultra-nationalen, islamfeindlichen Bewegungen entstanden ist, und dem "Kreuzzug gegen den Kommunismus", der 1919 im Baltikum begann? Einige immer wiederkehrende Muster in der Rhetorik der "Counterdschihadisten" (siehe z.B. Stichwort "Kulturmarxismus" auf diesem Blog) und, rein optisch, die dem Johanniter-/ Malteser-Kreuz aehnlichen Logos von Gruppierungen wie der "English Defense League" und auf Breiviks Pamphlet "2083", lassen daran denken.
Um der Frage, ob es eine solche Traditionslinie gibt, etwas weiter nachzugehen, lese ich gerade auf der Webseite, die in dem Wikipedia-Eintrag zu Bermondt-Awaloff als Quelle fuer das Zitat ueber finanzielle Unterstuetzung durch den Johanniterorden und J.P. Morgan genannt wurde.
"Sovereign Order of Saint John in Jerusalem - Knights of Malta" (OSJ)
http://www.osjknights.com/History-After-Malta.htm
Der Orden bezeichnet sich als katholisch. (Auf der Webseite ist noch ein Bild von Papst Benedikt. Es findet sich u.a. auch ein Anti-Modernitaetsgeluebde von 1910).
Es handelt sich hier offensichtlich um keinen der drei Orden, die bei Wikipedia (deutsch) unter "Johanniter" aufgefuehrt sind (Souveräner Malteserorden - katholisch; Johanniterorden - evangelisch; Order of Saint John - oekumenisch;
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johanniter.
) Am ehesten handelt es sich um eine kleine Gruppe ohne Legitimation durch die Allianz der Malteser-/ Johanniterorden, die den Anspruch erhebt, in der historischen Kontinuität des Ordens zu stehen.
Aus Wikipedia zu „Souveräner Malteserorden“
(Hervorhebung mit Fettdruck von mir)
‚Der Souveräne Malteserorden (mit vollem Titel: Souveräner Ritter- und
Hospitalorden vom Heiligen Johannes zu Jerusalem, genannt von Rhodos, genannt von Malta) ist eine katholische Ordensgemeinschaft, die im 11. Jahrhundert in Jerusalem gegründet und nach dem Ersten Kreuzzug zusätzlich zu einem geistlichen Ritterorden wurde. Neben der ursprünglicheren Bezeichnung Johanniterorden trat seit der Ansiedlung auf der Insel Malta um 1530 der heute gebräuchliche Name.
[Einschub aus der englischsprachigen Wikipedia, Bezeichnungen in Englisch: The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, auch bekannt als the Sovereign Military Order of Malta (SMOM), Order of Malta or Knights of Malta; Anm.Blogger]
Völkerrechtlich wird der Orden im Allgemeinen als ein souveränes,
nichtstaatliches Völkerrechtssubjekt betrachtet. Ziel des Ordens ist es, Alte, Behinderte, Flüchtlinge, an tödlichen Krankheiten Erkrankte und Leprakranke – unabhängig von Religion oder Herkunft – weltweit karitativ zu unterstützen. [...]
Der Malteserorden erkennt die in einer Allianz von 1961 unter gegenseitiger Anerkennung zusammengeschlossenen evangelischen Johanniterorden in Deutschland, den Niederlanden (Johanniter Orde in Nederland), Schweden (Johanniterorden i Sverige) und in Großbritannien (Venerable Order of Saint John) als Ritterorden des heiligen Johannes mit „gemeinsamer Geschichte und gemeinsamem Auftrag“ an.“
Auszuegehttp://www.osjknights.com/History-After-Malta.htm
For the past two hundred years we have been
in the vanguard of the Counter Revolution.
Barry Garland, RN, OSJ
Grand Master
In 1912 the Order consisted of the Russian Grand Priory in Russia
and the new American Grand Priory and its subsidiary, the Catholic
Grand Priory of Russia, which included remnants of the Spanish
Caballeros Hospitalarios de San Juan Bautista. The Russian Grand
Priory was composed mainly of Slavic Knights of the Orthodox Faith.
The American Grand Priory leaders were mostly socially prominent
Protestant Episcopalians from New York City and Chicago. There was
also a small group of American descendants of Catholic Celtic
Jacobites, who were still followers of the old Stuart Pretender to
the throne of England and Scotland. The Pretender at the time was
Queen Mary IV of Bavaria, and an army physician named Edgar Erskine
Hume, OSJ was among those who later considered Mary’s successor,
Bavarian Crown Prince Rupprecht, as his “rightful sovereign.” The
American Grand Prior, William Nelson Cromwell, and Dr. Francis C.
Nicholas had had contact with Spanish Knights of St. John during
years of preparation work for the American Panama Canal project. [...]
American Grand Priory leaders, Nicholas Murray Butler, President of
Columbia University, Archer Huntington, founder of the Hispanic
Society of America, William Nelson Cromwell, Wall Street lawyer and
Francis C. Nicholas, founder of the American International Academy,
are among those who crafted the American Grand Priory into an
intelligence organization. Nicholas, a mining engineer and explorer,
had done Cromwell’s Panama Canal construction feasibility studies.
He had also done geological research in Central and South America
for Archer Huntington and Colonel William Lamb, who were supplying
fuel coal to the Russian Navy. These men wielded significant
influence in the United States during the late 19th through the mid
20th centuries.
Some results of their careers include the founding of the Republic
of Panama and the successful purchase and construction of the Panama
Canal. They were also responsible for the founding of the
Pan-American “Organization of American States” and directly
influenced the founders of the Central Intelligence Agency. Others
prominent in the OSJ at this time included John Jacob Astor until
his death on the Titanic, J. P. Morgan, J P Morgan, Jr. and the
extended Cornelius Vanderbilt and Chicago Crane families. The
Mexican White Cross association was promoted by Don Agustin
Yturbide, OSJ, Pretender to the royal throne of Mexico. [...]
On March 4, 1919 by Order number 24 Colonel Bermondt made the
Maltese cross breast badge the emblem of his SOSJ army and enameled
it black in memory of General Graf Keller. High level German
nationalists backed this re-establishment of the Russian Sovereign
Imperial Order of St. John of Jerusalem. Among them was General
Ludendorff who had been Chief of Staff of the German Army during
WWI. His chief intelligence officer Major Walter Nicholai was also
involved. The Protector of the Order was the legitimate heir to the
Russian throne, Grand Duke Cyril Vladimirovich. Grand Duke Cyril
continued to finance the SOSJ venture with the help of the American
Grand Priory. Prince Awaloff and Grand Duke Cyril planned to join
with German forces to drive the Bolsheviks out of the Baltic. This
idea to cooperate with Germany was unique to these Knights of St.
John who believed that Russian-German cooperation was the only way
to rid the world of the Bolsheviks.
In 1919 Colonel Prince Pavel Awaloff-Bermondt, supported by the
Johanniter Orden, the Romanoff Pretender Grand Duke Cyril, and
American financier J. P. Morgan, Jr., OSJ, became Commander in chief
of the Russian Imperial Army. He led the SOSJ and apparently
Johanniter-Orden plan, financed through attorney W. N. Cromwell,
OSJ, American Grand Prior, to clear the Bolsheviks from the Baltic
and to set up a pro-German government. Most of the officials of what
became known in the Fall of 1919 as the West Russian Government were
members of the OSJ. Prince Awaloff recorded much of this information
in his memoirs which he wrote in 1925 in Hamburg, Germany.
SOVEREIGN ORDER OF SAINT JOHN OF JERUSALEM
History and Lineage Charts Since 1797
I. INTRODUCTION
II. THE SOSJ PRESERVES ITSELF BY DEFENDING MONARCHY
III. THE INTERNATIONAL WHITE CROSS OF THE SOSJ
IV. IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST INTERNATIONAL ANARCHISTS THE SOSJ ADDS AN AMERICAN GRAND PRIORY
V. THE AMERICAN GRAND PRIORY VENTURES INTO FOREIGN SERVICE
VI. REVOLUTIONARIES WITHIN THE SOSJ CONTRIBUTE TO ANARCHY
VII. THE KORNILOV AFFAIR
VIII. THE SOSJ RESPONDS TO THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION
IX. COUNT KELLER, PRINCE AWALOFF AND GRAND DUKE CYRIL LEAD THE ORDER OF ST. JOHN AGAINST THE BOLSHEVIKS
X. THE LINEAGE OF THE SOVEREIGN ORDER OF SAINT OF JERUSALEM
XI. THE BALTIC CAMPAIGN OF THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA
XII. THE AMERICAN GRAND PRIORY JOINS THE FIGHT AGAINST THE COMMUNIST INTERNATIONALE
XIII. GERMAN NATIONALISTS NURTURE THE WHITE RUSSIAN GOVERNMENT-IN-EXILE
XIV. THE SOSJ GOVERNMENT IS MOVED TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
XV. THE EXILED ROMANOV FAMILY DEFEATS ITSELF
XVI. THE SOSJ SUPPORTS FASCISM TO DEFEAT BOLSHEVISM
XVII. LIBERALS USE THE AMERICAN COURTS TO SILENCE AMERICAN ANTI-COMMUNISTS
XVIII. THE ORDER ENTRENCHES ITSELF FOR THE COLD WAR
XIX. THE MILITARY INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY AND KNIGHTS OF THE SOSJ DEFEND AGAINST COMMUNISM
XX. THE POST-WAR GERMAN ORDER OF ST. JOHN ABANDONS THE SOSJ TO IMPROVE ITS IMAGE
XXI. THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA STAND AGAINST HUMANISTS WITHIN THE CHURCH
XXII. THE HISTORIC MISSION OF THE SOSJ
THE GRAND MASTERS OF THE ORDER
2008-Present 78th Prince Grand Master Barry Garland, RN
1991-2008 77th Prince Grand Master Dr. John L. Grady, MD
1983-1991 General Benjamin von Stahl, President of the Sovereign Council
1976-1983 76th Prince Grand Master Don Roberto Paterno
1966-1976 75th Prince Grand Master Crolian Edelen
1962-1966 LGM Admiral Felix Count von Luckner
1960-1962 LGM Colonel Paul Cassagnac
1956-1960 LGM F. Graf von Zeppelin
1954-1956 LGM Scipio Baron von Engelhardt-Schnellenstein
1934-1954 74th Prince Grand Master General Pavel Awaloff-Bermondt
1913-1934 73rd Grand Master Grand Duke Alexander Michaelovich
1894-1918 Czar Nicholas II, Protector of the SOSJ
1881-1894 Czar Alexander III, Protector of the SOSJ
1855-1881 Czar Alexander II, Protector of the SOSJ
1825-1855 Czar Nicholas I, Protector of the SOSJ
1805-1825 Czar Alexander I, Protector of the SOSJ
1803-1805 72nd Prince Grand Master John Baptist di Tommasi
1801-1803 LGM Field Marshall Count Soltikoff
1798-1801 71st Grand Master Czar Paul I
1048-1798Historical List of Grand Masters
__________________
Grandiose Elchklubs:
Selbsternannte „Johannes-Orden“
Dieser Abschnitt bezieht sich auf den Bericht
"The self-styled Orders of Saint John" von Guy Stair Sainty (1991, mit Bearbeitungen 1996-2000)
Im November und Dezember 1976 veroeffentlichte der Heilige Stuhl im Osservatore Romano Erklaerungen, die klarstellten, dass der sogenannte "Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem" nichts zu tun hat mit dem historischen, paepstlich anerkannten „Sovereign Military Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta“. Bei einer Bestandsaufnahme wurden, nach dem Bericht von Guy Stair Sainty (s.u.; mit Link und Wiedergabe von Auszuegen) seinerzeit 16 selbsternannte „Johannes-Orden“ aufgefuehrt.
[Inzwischen sind es nach Auskunft des „Ausschuss fuer die St. Johannes-Orden“ 24, kleine „folkloristische“ Gruppen nicht mitgezaehlt; die Zahl sei in den letzten Jahren weitgehend stabil geblieben.
Etliche davon nahmen fuer sich in Anspruch, aus einer 1908 in den USA gegruendeten Nachfolgerorganisation des russischen Grosspriorats hervorgegangen zu sein.
US Praesident Ronald Reagan setzte sich mit Erfolg dafuer ein, dass der „Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta“ (SMHOM) 1994 Beobachterstatus bei den Vereinten Nationen bekam (wie z.B. das Internationale Komitee des Roten Kreuzes). Damit wurden die Moeglichkeiten des SMHOM, mit staatlicher Unterstuetzung gegen selbsternannte „Johannes-Orden“ vorzugehen, gestaerkt.
In dem erstmals 1991 verfassten Bericht des Ordens-Experten Guy Stair Sainty wimmelt es nur so von echten und falschen Adeligen im Exil, die selbsternannten Orden „Glaubwuerdigkeit“ verleihen. Es geht um Titel, Eitelkeiten, Einflussnahme, Geld.
Es geht natuerlich auch um die formale und inhaltliche Abgrenzung der „echten“ von den „selbsternannten“ Johanniter-Orden; eine immerwaehrende Herausforderung. Personelle Ueberschneidungen zwischen „echten“ und „selbsternannten“ Johanniter-Orden sind von der Ordens-Allianz (unter massgeblicher Leitung des SMHOM) schon lange nicht mehr zugelassen; es gab sie aber in der Vergangenheit (Beispiel Felix Graf von Luckner).
Ein Graf Luckner (Hubertus von Metthingh Graf von Luckner) war übrigens auch wieder dabei, als Thilo Sarrazins Berater Friedrich Thelen (dankend erwähnt in DSSA) am 25.06. 2011 zum neuen Ehrenkommendator des Johanniterordens ernannt wurde.
Auf der Webseite Nobility News ist auch sonst manches Interessante nachzulesen, z.B. wurde der Jahresball 2012 der „Russian Nobility Association“ angekündigt. Es gibt viele Hinweise darauf, dass Nachfahren aus Königshäusern von Ländern, in denen die Monarchie längst abgeschafft wurde, sich immer noch über ihren Platz in der hypothetischen Thronfolge definieren.
Antisemitisch-antibolschewistische Denkmuster werden in Kreisen „selbsternannter“ Johanniter-Orden z. T. bis heute bewahrt.
"The self-styled Orders of Saint John " [1] (Part I)
©Guy Stair Sainty (1991, revisions 1996-2000)
When the machinations of one of the self-styled "orders" are exposed [...], there is an inevitable reflection on the name of Saint John which may injure the recognized Orders. The latter have made a concerted effort to publicly disassociate themselves from these organizations and, to this end, have formed a False Orders Committee which constantly updates the shifting allegiances between the different groups and attempts to warn the general public against them. They have been aided in this by the Holy See which, on 28 November 1976 and 1 December 1976, published statements in the Osservatore Romano, making it clear that the so-called "Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem" was nothing to do with the Sovereign Military Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, of Rhodes and of Malta.
Chaffanjon and Galimard Flavigny devoted an entire chapter to the self-styled Orders of Malta, listing sixteen organizations claiming to be Orders of Malta or Orders of Saint John. Many of these bodies were somehow connected with an institution purportedly "re-founded" in 1908 and professing to be the successor of the Russian Grand Priory [...]
Almost without exception, these enterprises are riven by factionalism and, as one individual began to resent the leadership position assumed by another (particularly when the claim to such position was so often based on a dubious claim to a high ranking noble title), schisms would occur and rival groups reform around another "Grand Master".
Despite the fact that generations of impoverished Europeans bearing both genuine and false titles have come to the United States and Canada to improve their fortunes with nothing other than their social pretensions to assist them, Americans seem peculiarly susceptible to accepting the most bizarre and unfounded claims by pseudo-princes and dukes whose claims to such titles could be verified in most major reference libraries. [...]
Fortunately, in two recent cases brought against self-styled Saint John Orders in US Federal Courts, the American Judiciary has shown itself willing to penalize these groups [...]
In the first of these cases, Alhadeff v. Georg, 30 November 1983, the Court decided in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant (Robert M.N.G. Bassaraba von Brancovan-Prince Khimchiachvili) who had supplied the plaintiff with a "passport" and made him a "knight of Malta" for which he had charged $20,000.
In the second case, W.D. X. et ux. v. Markovics, 27/28 February 1989, the Court gave judgment in favor of the plaintiffs against the principal defendant, Dr Ivan Markovics and his "Order", finding as a fact that the defendant had deliberately defrauded the plaintiffs by leading them to believe they were joining the genuine Catholic Order.[...]
Since the decision in these two cases, then serving President of the United States Ronald Reagan was invested with the Collar of Merit of the Ordine al Merito Melitense of the SMHOM by the Grand Master himself at a dinner in New York, providing added evidence of the recognition accorded to the SMHOM by the United States of America. In 1994 the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Malta was admitted to Observer status at the United Nations among the "intergovernmental" organizations, which include the International Committee of the Red Cross. This may entitle the SMHOM to demand protection from the state authorities in the various countries where self-styled "Orders of St John" are flourishing. The Court in the Markovics Case specifically recognized the legitimacy of the SMHOM and the Alliance Orders as the true historic successors of the crusader Order of Saint John. The self-styled Saint John "orders" will no longer get away with pretending that they are historically connected with the crusader Order; furthermore they and their officers now run the risk of criminal prosecution.
It is the deliberate intention of the organizers of most of the self-styled Saint John or Malta Orders to confuse their organizations with the name and work of the genuine, recognized Orders. An article in the New York Observer (October 1993) entitled "Dungeons and Dragons for Grown-ups: Knights of Malta Joust with 'Impostor'" by Robin Pogrebin muddled the name and activities of a completely spurious body headed by a self-proclaimed "bishop", Lorenzo Michel de Valitch and the SMHOM [...] Among those named as having been recruited into Valitch's group was the late J. Seward Johnson, describing the ridiculous ceremony and remarking that Mr Johnson's daughter depicted the organization her father had joined as "a glorified Elk's Club", a comment at which the Elk's might justifiably have protested.
The origins and ultimate abolition and suppression of the Catholic Grand Priory of Russia and the (non-Catholic) Grand Priory of Russia have been discussed earlier and examined in detail by the late Frà Cyril Toumanoff, whose work was cited by the Court as an authoritative source in the Markovics Case. The so-called "hereditary commanderies" of the Russian Grand Priories, held by proponents of the modern "revivals" as evidence of their continue existence, were no more hereditary than the other still extant jus patronatus commanderies of the Order, which can only by invested in an heir who has already been received as a member of the Sovereign Military Order. The descendants of the founders of Russian (or any other) commanderies, all of which had been legally suppressed, cannot claim to be the successors to such commanderies, even had they been admitted to membership of the SMHOM, since a commandery of the Order of Malta exists as real property and not as an honorific title. If the properties of the commandery have disappeared or been confiscated, the commandery itself ceases to subsist.[...]
[I]ndeed the petty quarrels and grandiose pretensions of these groups may be seen as a dramatic contrast to the lives of those who serve in the ranks of the legitimate Orders of Saint John. In outlining the histories of these "orders", I initially followed the enumeration established by Fra' Norbert Kinsky when, in 1982, he charted the complex connections between these various groups, some of which are bitter rivals while others have combined to form an Anti-Alliance, the counterpart of the Alliance of the recognized Orders. [...]
Two works, both produced by the partisans of self-styled "Orders of Saint John", have been particularly useful in studying the various rumps and schisms among them: The Order of St John of Jerusalem of Malta: A study of its relations and developments from the fall of Hompesch; its revival in various forms in our times, by Harrison Smith, PhD, published in Malta by the "Progress Press" in 1964; and White Cross: Story of the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, by Robert W.Y. Formhals, published in 1978. These and other such publications have attempted to buttress their own pretensions to legitimacy by stating that the Sovereign Military Order of Malta is a recent Papal invention founded in 1802/3. The proponents of the Russian survival make persistent pseudo-historical claim that the Russian Grand Priories survived the legal suppression of the Commanderies by Emperor Alexander I and his decision to refuse further admissions to the membership. Several "historians" of these bodies do not hesitate to deceive their readers by claiming that the Papal decision to elect Tommasi established a new order, in opposition to the Russian Grand Priories [...]
The early history of the Most Venerable Order is compared by these authors to that of the modern so-called "Russian" revivals although, unlike the former, the first members of these 20th century inventions were not admitted by legitimate members of the Catholic Order but simply assumed the style of knight. It has frequently been mis-stated that the British Monarch is merely "protector" of the Most Venerable Order, in an attempt to parallel the British Royal Charter with that purportedly issued by the late King Peter of Yugoslavia. Since the reign of Queen Victoria the Monarch has enjoyed the title Sovereign Head, the title now held by H.M. Queen Elizabeth II, while her title of "patron" merely applies to her separate role in the Saint John Ambulance Association.
[Examples of] [t]he self-styled Orders [...] (1) (The Shickshinny Order) The proponents of the survival of the "Russian" Grand Priories have claimed that, on 10 January 1908, a certain William Lamb, sometime Colonel and purported descendent of a General Ivan Lamb [...], who had been apparently received into the original Russian Grand Priory by Czar Paul, held a meeting at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, to form the "Grand Priory of America of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem". The claim is made that eight Russian noblemen, purported descendants of so-called "hereditary commanders", were present at this occasion. [...]
At a meeting held on 30 December 1910 an "Association of the knights of Malta" was allegedly constituted [...]; this was supposedly to become the "Association of the Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem". It was claimed that the Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of Russia (both cousin and brother-in-law of Czar Nicholas II) accepted the Grand Magistery in person in either 1913 [14] or on 1 September 1914. The Grand Duke Alexander was a serving rear-admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy and, as war broke out with Germany on 1 August 1914, he was unlikely to have been involved in such an irrelevant charade at this time.
The Grand Duke Alexander died in 1933 and his purported successors as head of the American continuation of this group (according to the history produced by Charles Pichel, see below), calling themselves "Lieutenants of the Grand Master", were (possibly, although this has not been proved by any contemporary document) William Sohier Bryant (1933-1951), Scipio Engelhardt alias baron von Engelhardt-Schnellenstein (1951-1955), Frederick, Count von Zeppelin (1956-1960), and Paul de Granier de Cassagnac (1960-1962). In 1953 the name was changed to the "Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem Inc" [17] and the headquarters transferred to Shickshinny, Pennsylvania, the residence of its "Grand Chancellor" and general factotum, Charles Louis Thourot-Pichel, in 1956. Pichel was not only an adherent of the Old Catholic Church but a fanatical anti-Communist who apparently actually came to believe that the SMHOM was a nineteenth century Papal foundation and that his organization alone represented the true continuation of the ancient crusader Order. He became increasingly eccentric (forming the Galactic Powers Task Force described above) and, in 1969, announced that he was forming the "Maltese Cross Legionaries" to combat a secret alliance between the Holy See and the government of Malta to hand the island over to the Soviets. In 1967 Pichel became allied with a group of Catholic traditionalists who denied the authority of the US bishops and, in 1969, accused the Jesuits of manipulating the Papacy for their own ends. He also became associated with the "alternative medicine" movement, sponsoring nature cures and promoting what he described as "Cosmic Energy". After the numerous divisions and quarrels among his adherents, his group ultimately fragmented and he died in very distressing circumstances in 1982 aged ninety-two.
In 1962 Granier had attempted to depose Pichel from his executive role but this backfired and Granier was himself overthrown, setting up his own "Order" (see below, 3). Granier's successor, effectively controlled by Pichel, was a certain Count Felix von Luckner (1962-1966). The next defection from this group occurred in the same year [...]
It is unclear which of the various groups now owns or controls the Shickshinny foundation and in 1981 the president of the corporation was a certain Salvatore T. Messineo [...] The "grand prior" of Europe of this group was a self-styled "count" Thorbjorn Wiklund, from Sweden, and other officers included Per-Axel Atterbom (Secretary-General, Europe), Major John F. Graham (Secretary), Colonel Benjamin von Stahl, and some twenty-one "priors of priories".
Another purported continuation of the Pichel Order can be found in Benton, Tennessee, run by two schismatic Catholic priests, one of whom was ordained by the late Archbishop Lefebvre and who maintain the Tridentine rite. Unfortunately these two have somehow claimed that they are Pichel's heirs of what they claim to be the legitimate Order [...]. Messineo and his associates took the precaution of making the cross and arms a trademark", and as they were a legal corporation this was duly registered; a challenge by the American Association of the SMHOM to overturn the registration was unsuccessful and Messineo has enforced his ownership against another self-styled Order, that headed by the notorious Dr Grady. [...]
In a letter addressed to Harrison Smith, Mr Edelen, Pichel's closest associate for many years, wrote (on January 22, 1980: "My problem with the history is that all seems to be false from 1908 to 1932 as published by Pichel. [...]
The apparent closest successor of the Shickshinny fantasy today is a body now particularly active in Canada, see under 11A, although several others among the self-styled Saint John Orders were formed from schisms within this and other groups.
A group still awarding the cross of Saint John was purportedly formed in Paris on June 24, 1928 by a group of Russian exiles in Paris as the "Union of Hereditary Commanders and Knights of the Grand Priory of Russia of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem" and looked to the Grand Duke Alexander as their head with the title of "Protector". By 1929 this body was named the Association Philanthropique Russe des déscendants des commandeurs héréditaires de l'Ordre Souverain de Malte" and on 21st September 1929, the Grand Duke along with several descendants of hereditary commanders (Prince Demidoff, Count Stoltykopff, Prince Bariatinsky and Count Oulsoufief) asked Baron Michael Taube to "solliciter l'autorisation du Grand Magistere de l'Ordre Souverain de Saint-Jean de Jerusalem à Rome de reconstituer la branche Russe de l'Ordre." This request was rejected by the Grand Master, as it was canonically impossible to establish a non-Catholic Grand Priory within the Order. Since the Grand Duke's death in 1933, two other members of the Romanov dynasty have been associated with the perfectly legitimate "association of descendants of hereditary commanders;" the late Grand Duke Andrew Wladimirovich (uncle of the late Grand Duke Wladimir, head of the Romanov Dynasty), elected in 1933, and later the most junior member of the dynasty, the late Prince Vassili Alexandrovich.
The transformation of this from an association of descendants, into an association of "hereditary commanders" and then a body which actually admitted new members and knights, calling itself the Russian Grand Priory, however, did not legally recreate or revive the former non-Catholic Russian Grand Priory. [...] Rev Michael Foster [...] cites a letter from the Grand Duke Kyrill to the Grand Duke Andrew asking the latter to look after this group. There is no evidence that either Kyrill or Wladimir intended to recognize this body as an "Order of Chivalry," but rather as a group descended from the members of the former Grand Priory - a "Union of Descendants" as it continued to be styled. [...]
In 1977 Count Nicholas A. Bobrinskoy [...] established himself as Grand Prior of "The Sovereign Order of the Orthodox Knights Hospitaller of Saint John of Jerusalem - Former Russian Grand Priory of the Order of Malta in Saint Petersburg" which he stated to be under the "High Protection" of the late Prince Vassili of Russia. Count Bobrinskoy, then living in New York [...] listed a number of "hereditary commanders" on his stationary and even attempted to be accredited to the United Nations, but this came to nothing. Among the "hereditary commanders" of this body are several Russian nobleman who apparently credit the claims to historical continuity of the "Russian Grand Priories" despite the expert analysis of Fra' Cyril Toumanoff [...].
A nephew of Count Nicholas Bobrinskoy, also called Count Nicholas Bobrinskoy, was until recently Prior of Russia and since his death has been succeeded by his son, Count Alexei; Prince Michael Romanov (alias Prince Michael of Russia, morganatic son of the late Prince Andrew of Russia) is now "Protector" of the Order. This body also claims the protection of the Patriarch of Moscow, who has conferred his patronage as this Order has done some charitable work in Russia, but His Holiness does not claim that this patronage gives any legal validity to the body's claims to be an "Order of Knighthood". This is the most "respectable" of the self-styled Saint John Orders. It has also formed relationships with several other branches of "self-styled" Saint John orders, which have now acknowledged Bobrinskoy as "Grand Prior"; these bodies have permitted a more honest appraisal of the claims of the self-styled Orders, although sticking to their claim that the Grand Priory survived as an autonomous and independent Grand Priory during the last century of the Russian Empire.
(2) Independent of the Russian foundation is the "Sovereign Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem of Denmark" or "Ordo Domus Hospitalis Sancti Joannis Hyerosolomitani", founded on 31 August 1934 on the basis that the Order had never been abolished in Denmark. [...]
Without the recognition or patronage of the Danish Crown or Government either, it cannot be considered to be a Danish Order, merely a private association which has adopted the name of a genuine Order of Chivalry. This group apparently denies that it is an "Order of Chivalry", stating that it needs neither the recognition of the SMHOM, because it is ecumenical, nor the Danish Crown and explains its use of the name "Sovereign" because "it is not directly subordinated to any ecclesiastical or temporal authority". It claims to be registered as a charity [...]. It apparently acquired Sostrup Castle in 1954 (it is not known whether it still owns this), which was converted into a Convent in 1955, and claims to have "commanderies" and associated groups in Sweden (a "Priory" of Saint Erik established in 1974), Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, USA, Costa Rica (this group has set itself up independently as the "Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem in the Americas") and Venezuela. [...] The late Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark (who died in 1981) was associated with this group as "Prior of the Metropolitan Priory of Saint Ansgarius" (and also sometime "Grand Chancellor") and it claims to have made some contributions to worthy causes; most recently it was closely associated with the purchase and renovation of a hospital in Gram. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the legitimate Johanniter Order in Sweden, nor the commandery of the Johanniter Order in Finland. [...]
(2A) Deriving indirectly from (2) is a "Grand Priory of Dacia or Denmark", otherwise called the "Ecclesiastical Knightly Order of Malta of Saint John of Jerusalem, Priory of Saint Andrew, as it was first styled when formed on April 10, 1939. The first "prior" was a certain Prebend Wenck von Wenckheim (1939-1957), who loosely associated his group with the Union of Russian Commanders. [...]
(2B) Another Danish "Order" was set up on 24 June 1946 by a certain "count" Paul Mikhailovich Bermondt, who also assumed the title "prince Avaloff-Bermondt". This organization had originated in 1920 as the "Sovereign Imperial Russian Chivalric Order of Malta" (Souveraner kaiserliche-russischer Malteser-ritter-orden) with a black Maltese cross as its badge (Bermondt had acquired these as military surplus). Bermondt and his associates (former Russian or Baltic officers who had fought the Soviets in the 1919-1920 civil war) first placed themselves under the authority of the Grand Duke Alexander (see 1 above) and, following the Grand Duke's death in 1933, elected the new Head of the Imperial Dynasty, the Grand Duke Cyril, to be his successor - unfortunately for them Grand Duke Cyril declined this dubious honor. In 1951 Bermondt formed an association with another self-styled Danish Priory formed by a Danish architect named Carl Christensen who succeeded him as Prior. The more recent survivors of this body were for a while in partnership with Pierre du Chelas (see 3) and Christensen's successor was a Mr Carl Wilhelm Lehman until 1975 and then Mr Ove Petersen. In 1984 a substantial group of the members joined 2 above.
(2C) A break away group from one of the above was incorporated on 12 March 1954 by Jens Ole Rostock, alias "Count of Hermosa", as the "Sovereign Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem in Denmark", and Rostock, a well-regarded biologist, became "Grand Prior" with "Episcopal and princely" rank. According to Chairoff, priories were established in Oslo (Saint Hallvard), Barcelona (Saint George) and Caracas (Saint Barjal) and an investiture was held in Geneva on 28 January 1982 when twenty-seven would-be knights were admitted after payment of a fee. Mr Erick af Lindenstjerna (actually Matthiesen) was at one time head of a Danish Saint John Order of which Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark was briefly associated; this group may have been connected with (2B).
(2D) Separated from (2) in 1993 is the "Autonoma Prioratet Sancti Iohannis Baptistae, Riddarbröder af St Johannes af Jerusalems Hospital", a Swedish "Johanniter Order" unrecognized by the Alliance. Its Prior is the Rev Ulf Berwill and the Secretary Thor, Baron von Rahden.
(3) In 1962 Paul de Granier de Cassagnac formed an important new connection with the unfortunate exiled King Peter II of Yugoslavia, then living in reduced circumstances in the United States. Despite the fact that the Order of Saint John had never had a Yugoslavian membership and that the Karageorgevich dynasty had no historic connections with the Order of Saint John, King Peter was persuaded in 1962 to declare this "Order" to be under his "High Hereditary Protection". Granier formed a French branch of this group, the "Ordre Souverain de St-Jean de Jerusalem, chevaliers de Malte" or "Chevaliers hospitaliers O.S.J." which had little success, however, since France has very strict laws regarding Orders of Chivalry, and King Peter detached himself from Granier to set up his own group. In 1965 Granier resigned the "Grand Magistery" to King Peter as a gesture of reconciliation, but the two soon fell out and King Peter took his organization under his own control [...], with a Mr Otto Schobert.
On Granier now resumed the title of "grand master" once again, retaining it until his death in 1967. With Granier's death the "Grand Magistery" of his group was assumed by Mr Carol Hohenzollern, ex-Lambrino, son of King Carol II of Roumania by his unrecognized wife [...] Zizi Lambrino, who styled himself "Prince Carol of Roumania". Prince Carol fell out with some of Granier's associates and set up his own group [...]
3A) In 1968 Prince Carol set himself up independently as head of a separate "Order". The organizers behind this group were Robert Baden von Badische [...], Eimi Eisenstatter styled "Henry Erdesz", Sidney Garber and Frary (von) Blomberg. The headquarters were established in UN Plaza and they admitted many non-Christians and appointed women members both knights and dames. According to Formhals candidates were paying as much as $5000 for membership and $25,000 for the grand cross (in 1969!).
It is claimed that they received a charter from King Peter II of Yugoslavia in 1969 and a renewal of this in 1970, purportedly signed by the King when he was in extremis in hospital in Chicago. Prince Carol broke with this group fairly soon and apparently began to award this "Order" from a base in Europe, founding his own "Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, Knights of Malta", in Rome in 1968/69 but was unable to have significant success recruiting members. His son, styled Prince Paul of Roumania, is now actively engaged in Roumania, promoting his claim to be a member of the Roumanian royal family, but is not believed to have any connectio with a self-styled Saint John Order..
(4) Otto Adrian Schobert (or Schubert), alias "Baron de Choibert" had been associated with Pichel and, in 1961, was appointed the latter's "Observer" at the United Nations. Energetic protests by the SMHOM led to this gentleman's name being withdrawn from the list of representatives of unofficial organizations to which the UN issued entry passes and news bulletins and Schobert soon fell out with Pichel. Eisenstatter, Ernst Jochen and Michael Gordon, on 18 May 1964 incorporated the "Sovereign Order of the Hospitallers of Saint John of Jerusalem - knights of Malta - O.S.J. Inc" in New York, "to solicit, collect and otherwise raise funds in order that Society may make grants of money and/or equipment to duly authorized hospitals and other agencies of charitable endeavor in any part of the world ... in furtherance of the humanitarian tasks and endeavors of the Ancient Knightly military religious Order of the Hospitallers of Saint John the Baptist, founded in 1048 in Jerusalem". While not directly associated with this incorporation, King Peter was apparently persuaded to give it his patronage as "Protector" (although he was at the same time giving his protection to another, rival group), and it had widespread success in recruiting members in the late 1960's, since King Peter had considerable personal prestige as a formerly reigning Monarch. This corporation was continued under different management [...] and in 1989 the plaintiff in the Markovics case obtained a $40,000 judgment against it.
(4A) Directly connected with the above was the now independent "King Peter" group, combining rumps of 1, 3 and 4, of which King Peter appointed Edelen "Grand Chancellor" and, on 13 March 1965, himself became "Grand Master". [38] The bulk of the membership came from a group based in Pittsburgh (under Franklin West) which was the successor of an earlier Masonic organization. The Formhals group (see below) now united itself under King Peter, briefly creating the largest of the self-styled Saint John Orders. On 15 February 1967 the King himself broke with the parent group and dismissed West (who died the following October), changing the name of his organization to the "Sovereign Order of Saint John of Jerusalem, the Hospitallers, Knights of Malta". Within months there was a further schism with a rump branch setting itself up under Prince Belosselsky-Belozersky as "Lieutenant-grand Master" on 9 January 1968 but this problem was settled the following September and the King recognized as "Grand Master" by the rebels.
Shortly afterwards, following an awkward meeting between the King and the Cardinal Archbishop of New York, the King ordered that the word "Sovereign" be dropped from the name and his own title was changed from "Grand Master" to "Royal Head", as he wished to distance himself from the increasingly embarrassing feuds between members of his "Saint John Order". [...]
In June 1970 King Peter's principal aide-de-camp, General Melitchovitch, stated that the King had completely broken all connection with every so-called "Order of Saint John" and confirmed that any "protection" that he may have extended to such organizations was permanently revoked. [...]
The unfortunate King having contracted a serious kidney ailment then spent two months in hospital, leading ultimately to his death on 3 November, during which period he was frequently visited by the representatives of various rumps of his "Order", several of whom were later to claim that they alone represented the legitimate continuation of the group he had founded.
The issue of "recognition" remains an ongoing source of contention; the King Peter followers state that the King was received at Saint James's Palace by H.R.H. Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, then Grand Prior of the Most Venerable Order of Saint John [... in] 1965 and the King was purportedly given the decorations of a Bailiff Grand Cross of the Most Venerable Order, while H.R.H. supposedly accepted the same distinction from King Peter. [...]
While the Duke may have wished to appear gracious to H.M., it would not have been the first time that the proponent of an unrecognized Order attempted to gain recognition by conferring their decoration on a member of the British Royal Family. [...]
Any Yugoslavian connection with these groups purportedly under the protection of the late King Peter has been once again disavowed and condemned by the present Head of the Karageorgevich family, Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia, in a February 992 letter addressed to the Episcopalian Bishop of San Francisco. This reads (in part) "....As the only son and heir of His Majesty the late King Peter II .... I can state categorically that none of the various bodies claiming to function under a "Charter" purportedly granted by my late father have any validity. [...] I do not recognize the validity of any "Charter" purportedly issued to organizations misusing the name "Order of Saint John". Furthermore, junior members of the Royal House of Yugoslavia do not have any legal right to act in the name of the Royal House". Copies of this letter were sent to H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester, Grand Prior of Saint John, His Grace the Archbishop of Canterbury, and the Most Rev Bishop Edmond Browning, Presiding Episcopalian Bishop. In a letter to this author dated January 27th, 1992, Crown Prince Alexander wrote "the whole affair was a sad period in my late father's life ..... unfortunately my late uncle, Prince Andrej,, picked up the pieces upon my father's death and got deeply involved. [...] As head of the Serb and Yugoslav Royal Family and future King, I do not recognize or authorize the use of any connections to my dynasty by these orders set up in the United States and Belgium. ... Prince Andrej's son is acting without my permission and I am not pleased".
The publication of The Orders of Saint John by this author, named a number of those associated with the San Francisco Commandery. It was apparent to the author that this group sincerely believed in the worth of their charitable efforts but did not want to face the true facts about the origins of the body with which they had become associated. The author received a letter dated January 21st, 1992, from a Mr Richard D. Murray, "Regent O.S.J.", written from his home, the "Palais de Medart, of which he enclosed a photograph revealing it to be a grandiose classical style house situated in a prosperous Ohio suburb. The letter paper, bearing the logo "H.R.H. Prince Andrej of Yugoslavia, Grand Master O.S.J." (without mentioning that he had died) politely suggested I obtain an apologia for the "Order" [..] In response to this author's reply to Dr Murray, a vitriolic attack followed in which the latter insulted Crown Prince Alexander, stating that "God is now not looking favorably on Alexander's action" (one may legitimately question by what authority he was able to know the mind of the Almighty), and continued by stating that Czar Paul created hereditary commanderies "and their descendants are listed in the Almanacs of the Imperial Court throughout the 19th century until the Zionist (sic) controlled Russian Revolution. It may interest you to know that out of the present situation in Russia there is to be a military coup from which a new ruler of Russia is to emerge..... watch for that coup this summer" (he was right about the coup, although it failed and led to the new Russia under President Yeltsin). He enclosed a copy of a bizarre book entitled "The Harlot and the Scarlet Beast" an anti-Semitic diatribe which repeated the La Rouche allegations of an international conspiracy of which former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was a part, along with Queen Elizabeth II, to hand over the island of Malta to the Soviets. One cannot help but question why these ravings did not arouse the suspicions of the respectable Californians seduced into believing the fantasy history claimed by this "Order". The Secretary-General of the Grand Priory of the Americas of this body was named as being Klaus H. E. Priebe, of Vancouver, BC, Canada.
In recognition of his determination to disassociate himself from these self-styled "orders", Crown Prince Alexander has received the grand cross with gilt star of the Order Pro Merito Melitense of the SMHOM (his uncle, Prince Tomislav, is a member of the Most Venerable Order) and, more recently, the dignity of Bailiff Grand cross of Honor and Devotion "ad honorem". Crown Prince Alexander, in a letter addressed to Grand Master de Mojana dated 14 August 1979, has stated that "the pretension to be under the protection of the Royal House of Yugoslavia .... is totally false" and appointed a personal representative to ensure that in the future all such organizations "usurping the name pertaining to the Sovereign Order, and pretending to be under the protection of the Royal House of Yugoslavia" would be branded as false. [...]
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