Occult Roots of Nazism : Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology

by GOODRICK-C

• ISBN13: 9780814730607
• ISBN10: 0814730604
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-01-01
• Publisher: New York University Press

Summary

Nearly half a century after the defeat of the Third Reich, Nazism remains a subject of extensive historical inquiry, general interest, and, alarmingly, a source of inspiration for resurgent fascism in Europe. Goodrick-Clarke's powerful and timely book traces the intellectual roots of Nazism back to a number of influential occult and millenarian sects in the Habsburg Empire during its waning years. These sects combined notions of popular nationalism with an advocacy of Aryan racism and a proclaimed need for German world-rule.This book provides the first serious account of the way in which Nazism was influenced by powerful millenarian and occult sects that thrived in Germany and Austria almost fifty years before the rise to power of Adolf Hitler.These millenarian sects (principally the Ariosophists) espoused a mixture of popular nationalism, Aryan racism, and occultism to support their advocacy of German world-rule. Over time their ideas and symbols, filtered through nationalist-racist groups associated with the infant Nazi party, came to exert a strong influence on Himmler's SS.The fantasies thus fueled were played out with terrifying consequences in the realities structured into the Third Reich: Auschwitz, Sobibor, and Treblinka, the hellish museums of Nazi apocalypse, had psychic roots reaching back to millenial visions of occult sects. Beyond what the TImes Literary Supplement calls an intriguing study of apocalyptic fantasies, this bizarre and fascinating story contains lessons we cannot afford to ignore.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements
Illustrations
Foreword
Introduction	p. 1
The Background
The Pan-German Vision	p. 7
The Modern German Occult Revival 1880-1910	p. 17
The Ariosophists of Vienna
Guido von List	p. 33
Wotanism and Germanic Theosophy	p. 49
The Armanenschaft	p. 56
The Secret Heritage	p. 66
The German Millennium	p. 78
Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels and Theozoology	p. 90
The Order of the New Templars	p. 106
Ariosophy in Germany
The Germanenorden	p. 123
Rudolf von Sebottendorff and the Thule Society	p. 135
The Holy Runes and the Edda Society	p. 153
Herbert Reichstein and Ariosophy	p. 164
Karl Maria Wiligut: The Private Magus of Heinrich Himmler	p. 177
Ariosophy and Adolf Hitler	p. 192
Appendix A: Genealogy of Lanz von Liebenfels	p. 205
Appendix B: Genealogy of the Sebottendorff Family	p. 207
Appendix C: The History of Ariosophy	p. 209
Appendix D: New Templar Verse	p. 215
Appendix E: The Modern Mythology of Nazi Occultism	p. 217
Notes and References	p. 227
Bibliography	p. 265
Index	p. 289
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