Karl Gotthelf von Hund

Karl Gotthelf, Baron von Hund und Altengrotkau (1 September 1722, Unwürde - 10 October 1776, Meiningen) was a German freemason. In 1751, he founded the Rite of Strict Observance.

Karl Gotthelf von Hund came from Silesia, descended from Henry von Hund und Altengrotkau (ca 1480). Henry's son was Commander of the Order of Malta in Glatz, where in 1518 and 1523 he held the Office of the Governor. Documents from around 1300 show John and Christopher von Hund, but it is not proven that they belong to the line that later became Altengrotkau. Karl Gotthelf's father, Joachim Hildebrand von Hund was chamberlain and Electoral Saxon landowner. The family of von Hund and Altengrotkau owned their estate from 1607 and from 1704 the estate of Upper Kittlitz in Upper Lusatia. Karl's father died very early, so that his still minor son inherited the estate. The guardianship of the son and his mother fell to Caspar Heinrich von Rodewitz. Karl Gotthelf was the youngest of three children, but his elders died before his birth, so that he was entitled to special care and a good teaching. He studied in Leipzig from 1737 to 1739. Then he joined the Army under the command of Colonel Friedrich von Schoenberg. Because of the death of his beloved, the daughter of his guardian, von Hund decided never to marry. Hund became chamberlain to the elector of Cologne.

In 1741 Hund was at the coronation of Charles VII in Frankfurt, where he was admitted to the Masonic brotherhood. From December 1742 till September 1743 he was in Paris, and there converted to Catholicism under the influence of a noble lady. Here, on 20 February 1743, he became Master of a lodge. On 25 August 1743 he served at the foundation of a lodge as senior warden.

Later, he claimed that it was in Paris in 1743 that he was initiated, by Scottish knights, into the Order of the Knights Templar, and was the introduced to the pretender to the British throne, Prince Charles Edward Stuart as the Grand Master of the (supposedly resurrected) Knights Templar. Present were the Earl of Kilmarnock and other senior Jacobites. He was initiated by the "Knight of the Red Feather, whose identity he was pledged to conceal, but he may have tried to hint that it was Charles Edward Stuart. There is no documentary proof of any such Masonic lodge. Hund claimed to have been appointed by these "unknown superiors" of the Templars as "commander in chief" (Provincial Grand Master) of the Order of Province VII (Germany). Whether he lied or whether he had been deceived for other purposes, is not known. As proof, he presented an encoded "military chief patent", which remains undeciphered. Hund wrapped himself in silence and in more detailed inquiries repeatedly underlined his discretion with respect to the "unknown superiors", who had supposedly charged him with the revival of the Templar Order in Germany. Hund's relationship to the alleged French Templar Order is unclear, and his surviving diary entries give little information.

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