1951: an approach from a mysterious German section
25 September, 1951.
A certain Percy Hopkins, alleged student of medicine in Munich, alleged representative of a certain Donald McFarlane (alias Donald Waters) wrote to the Swiss O.T.O., allegedly on behalf of a "Self-Realization Fellowship".
On the headed stationary appeared: "O.T.O. — M.M.M. — S.R.M. — Section: Germany".
Allegedly, Hopkins knew via McFarlane from Theodor Reuss' Golden Book that there was a Charter for Ida Hofmann, Alice Sprengel and Clara Linke. And now Hermann Joseph Metzger / Peter Mano was expected to pay again for confirmations, new charters, fees and the like.
The charter tangle
Hopkins and McFarlane were unaware of the Swiss Reuss-charter for H.R. Hilfiker and Laban de Laban nor the strange X° Reuss-charter for Hoffman and Linke (dated 1918), which was the alleged basis for Metzger's claim to the Reuss-O.T.O.
McFarlane made a phone call to Metzger, who pretended to be busy. In the meantime, Metzger and Karl Germer had decided that the S.R.F. was a fake (Germer to Metzger, letter on 6.1.1954) and as a result Metzger did not react to a further letter from Hopkins dated 18th October, 1951.
The 1951 letter: four document pages
[Partly from: 'Materialien Zum O.T.O.']
1988: the real S.R.F. replies
The S.R.F. - "founded in 1920 by Paramahansa-Yogananda" in California - wrote to me in 1988 using the same name on its stationary as they had in their correspondence with Metzger (but without the O.T.O.-etc. reference): "we have no knowledge of 'Reuss material' or the 'Old European Thelemites'."
The missing Percy Hopkins
Neither the Berlin Medical Association (19.4.1988), the Federal Medical Association (27.4.1988), the Munich District Administrative Office (28.4.1988) nor the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (11.5.1988) find a Hopkins in the records.
Context
Context: Hermann Joseph Metzger, Thelema in the Appenzell? and Der O.T.O. Phänomen RELOAD.