The true story behind this beloved emblem of the craft in Germany.

As early as the year 1934, soon after Hitler's rise to power, it became apparent that Freemasonry was in danger. In the same year, the German Grand Lodge of the Sun in Bayreuth (one of the pre-war German Grand Lodges) realised the imminent problems facing them and elected to wear a little blue flower, The Forget-Me-Not (Das Vergissmeinnicht) in lieu of the traditional Square and Compasses, as a mark of identification for masons. It was felt the new symbol would not attract attention from the Nazis, who were in the process of confiscating and appropriating Masonic Lodges and property. Masonry had gone underground and it was necessary that the Brethren have some readily recognizable means of identification.

Throughout the entire Nazi era, a little blue flower in a lapel marked a Brother. In the Concentration Camps and in the cities a little blue Forget-Me-Not distinguished the lapels of those who refused to allow the Light of Masonry to be extinguished.

In 1947, when the Grand Lodge of the Sun was reopened in Bayreuth by Past Grand Master Beyer, a little blue -Forget-Me-Not- pin was proposed and adopted as the official emblem of the first annual convention of those who survived the bitter years of darkness bringing the Light of Masonry once again into the Masonic Temples.

At the first Annual Convent of the United Grand Lodges of Germany, AF & AM in 1948, the pin was adopted as an official Masonic emblem honouring those valiant Brethren who carried out their work on under adverse conditions. At the Grand Masters Conference in the United States, Dr. Theodor Vogel, the Grand Master of the newly formed Grand Lodge, presented one of the pins to each of the representatives present

Thus did a simple flower blossom forth into a meaningful emblem of the Fraternity and became perhaps the most widely worn pin among freemasons in Germany.