Carl Friedrich Eckleff was born 25 June 1723 in the German Saint Gertrude Parish in Stockholm and died 30 June 1786 in the Saint Claire Parish in the same city. Although not very successful as a poet or in his career as a civil servant, he was more successful in social circles founding fraternal orders and societies, such as Tankebyggarorden. He played an important role in the founding of Swedish Freemasonry and in the creation of the Swedish Rite, which is a branch of Regular Freemasonry. This rite is the dominant one in the Nordic countries, and in parts of Germany. It was also one of the three main branches of pre-revolutionary Russian Freemasonry. The Swedish Research lodge is named in his honour.
Youth
editIn December 1727, Carl's father Georg Henning Ecklef moved with his family to his native Kiel, where he died in 4 December 1732. It was probably in 1734 that his widow decided to move back to Stockholm with their son, and in 1740, she bought a house that formerly belonged to count Clas Ekeblad, a royal councillor. This house, known as the "Ekebladian House" (Ekebladska huset), still stands on Drottninggatan 6, and her son Carl would live there throughout his life.[1]
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He enrolled at Uppsala University, 28 March 1738. In 1740, he returned to Kiel, and he probably stayed there most of 1740 and during 1741. He was introduced into a fraternal order named "the Brethren of the Torch" by an acquaintance a state official and poet named Samuel Triewald. It has been claimed that Carl also visited Paris, but there is no evidence for it, although he knew both German and French.[1]
Career
editHaving returned to Stockholm, he found a protector in his maternal uncle and secretary at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Utrikesexpeditionen), Fredrik von Stenhagen. In 6 february 1742, he applied to the Cabinet Office and Ministries (Kanslikollegium) for a position at this office and his uncle put him to work with Swedish Pomeranian documents so he could qualify himself for the necessary examination. He was accepted as a clerk in 1743 and would stay at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs until his retirement in 1767. On 9 May 1749 he was copyist there. In the period 1751-54 he was a secretary at the Commission for Pomeranian and Wismarian priviledges. On 11 June 1754, he became a clerk at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and 7 December 1756 he became a registrator. He applied to the position as second secretary of the Ministry (andre expeditionssekreterare) in 1759, but he lost to Bengt Sparre. Instead, as a consolation he was promoted to Cabinet secretary (kanslisekreterare). At his retirement, he successfully applied for the title of under-secretary (kansliråd). He was of poor health and it is likely that his lack of promotions, and his ardent interests in fraternal organizations, caused him to apply for retirement from office. His primary income would be the rents from his house at Drottninggatan.[1]
Tankebyggarorden
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As early as 3 March 1753, he made himself notable by founding Tankebyggarorden ("Order of Thought Builders") with illustrious poets such as lady Hedvig Charlotta Nordenflycht, count Gustaf Philip Creutz and count Gustaf Fredrik Gyllenborg. His motivations were not entirely selfless for he had a strong social ambitions and the introduction of an unwarranted "v." (a nobiliary particle) before his surname Eckleff reveals his vanity. He was flattered by socializing with the young noblemen Creutz and Gyllenborg, but he also aspired to become a poet. In his memoirs, Gyllenborg would write that Eckleff created the society partly to show his skills in organizing it and partly to have an audience.[1]
Eckleff's works were philosophical and didactical poems, epigrams and fables and they were published in Våra försök, but as Gyllenborg would later remark, they were considered of poor value and found little success. The literary lustre that surrounds Tankebyggarorden was not the result of Eckleff's genius, but that of the other members. His voluminous "Ode to Liberty" was published anonymously and without him being informed in 1755. His manuscripts of poetry consist of 550 folio pages, some speeches and essays in prose. 47 of his odes were religious in nature. When lady Nordenflycht died in 1763, the order dissolved.[1]
Brethren of the Torch
editBy the time of Tankebyggarorden, Eckleff had already started his ardent work to initiate fraternal orders in the more traditional sense. 12 August 1757, he founded the order of "Fackelbröderna" (the "Brethren of the Torch") and apparently based on the one already existing in Kiel. In the new order, there were not only literary activites but also activities with moral, philosophical and pleasurable purposes. There were three degrees: "fackelsvenner" ("torch pages"), "fackelriddare" ("torch knights") and "fackeltändare" ("torch lighters"), which had special decorations, and the officials had black, green or gold-brimmed sashes around the waists. Eckleff was the head and called himself "fackelmästare" ("torch master"). In the registry of the order, Eckleff proclaims himself to be Freemason, Knight of the Peruvian Order, Chevalier de l'Ordre de la Félicité, Chevalier de la Chaînée des Pelerins, member of Tankebyggarorden, and a member of the Guild of Learning and Practice ("Läre- och övningsgillet"). The order lasted four years, until 1761. He also started a third order named "Vitterhets-älskare" ("lovers of literature") but the only evidence of this order is a letter from 5 April 1764, where he writes that the order had met in his home to read learned foreign journals and Swedish academical print that Eckleff had acquired for his extensive library.[1]
Freemasonry
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Eckleff's foremost fraternity work was in the service of the Freemasons. This order had appeared in Sweden when Axel Wrede-Sparre founded a private lodge in the mid-1730s. During the 1740s several new lodges were established. There was, however, no Swedish Mother Lodge until the first Saint John ("craft" or "blue") lodge, named Saint Jean auxiliaire, for degrees I—III, was founded in Stockholm in 1752. One of the hedge-lodges of the 1750s was a craft lodge called Saint Edward whose Master was the jewellerer Anders Lijdberg. This lodge was reconstituated into Saint Jean auxiliaire in 1757. Eckleff was already a member of Saint Edward and became the new Master of Ceremonies of the Mother Lodge.[1]
The older Swedish Freemasonry changed through the work of Eckleff, and he became the first proper organiser of the Swedish Order of Freemasons, which developed its own characteristics, which in turn were further developed by Duke Charles, the future Charles XIII.[1]
As far as the Freemasons are concerned, Eckleff's activity as a founder had started the year before in 1756, when he founded a Scottish Saint Andrew's lodge, for degrees IV—VI, named l'Innocente, the first of its kind in Sweden. He remained its Grand Master for twelve years, until 1768. Even more important for the development of the order was the establishment of the Order's Grand Chapter lodge on 25 December 1759, adding degrees VII—IX. Eckleff was its Master until 14 May 1774 when he was succeeded by Duke Charles, the later Charles XIII whose descendants have assumed this position since then.[1]
After having established the 7th Saint John lodge (where he was Grand Master until 1 May 1783) and shortly after the Swedish Grand National Lodge (Svenska stora landslogen) in 1760, Eckleff became Deputy National Grand Master (deputerad landsstormästare) in the latter until the end of the 1760s. In that function he founded several new lodges.[1]
Eckleff was also in contact with Freemasons in Germany who were interested in the new forms that Eckleff had introduced in the order. Eckleff gave a warrant to Johann Wilhelm Kellner von Zinnendorf, who had founded the Great German National Lodge, to form its Swedish chapter, but the validity of this warrant was challenged by the competing German Rite of Strict Observance.[1]
Although formative for Swedish Freemasonry, the origin of the so called "Eckleffian acts" (Eckleffska akterna) are nebulous, but they may be translations and adaptations of French documents. Eckleff directed the welfare work of the Freemanson to the foundation of a their orphanage in Stockholm in 1753, nowadays known as the Freemason Orphanage in Blackeberg.[1]
Eckleff owned on of the best libraries in 18th century Sweden. He took to hard drinking and became increasingly unwell, and when he fell on hard times, large parts of it were sold. The rest was sold after his death in 1786.[1]