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The occult roots of Nazism?

mainstream academic opinion: As early as 1940, the occultist Lewis Spence identified a neopagan undercurrent in Nazism (for which he largely blamed Alfred Rosenberg), which he equated with “satanism”. He further connected Nazism to the Illuminati. Spence was a scholar of folklore and the occult but he was followed in the 1960s by some less than scholarly successors: a genre of sensationalist authors whom Goodrick-Clarke describes as "crypto-historians", in that they postulate historical agents (such as occult conspiracies) which have passed unnoticed by conventional historians.

These spectacular claims find little support among academic historians of Nazism and the conventional wisdom continues to deny or minimise/any significant occult input. If/Insofar as there exists a "conventional wisdom", it is the mainstream position occupied by Goodrick-Clarke and most historians of Nazism: that the formative influence of Ariosophy on the Nazis was tenuous at best.

Goodrick-Clarke (perhaps the leading authority in this field) is clear that there are some structural resemblances but few actual lines of influence. In fact the main influence was in the other direction: it is more the case that the Nazis seduced some Germanic mystics who were drawn into the Ahnenerbe and SS long after the formative phase of the NSDAP. This is more or less the position of Stephen E. Flowers, who is both an occultist and an accredited scholar of Germanic religious history. Flowers is academically mainstream on this question.

Nevertheless, Ariosophy has been termed a theoretical precursor of the Nazis. Flowers' introduction to Guido von List's The Secret of the Runes drew the following comment from one German academic (Stefanie von Schnurbein 1992: 136):

Dabei erwähnt [Flowers] an keiner Stelle, daß List und die anderen Ariosophen Vordenker des Rassenwahns des Nationalsozialismus waren... (In this work [Flowers] nowhere mentions that List and the other Ariosophists were intellectual predecessors of the racial madness of National Socialism...)

Indeed Flowers, the foremost expert on List in the English-speaking world, refuses to connect the theories of early 20th century rune magicians directly to the enormities of Auschwitz, and dismisses the thesis that the ideas of List, Lanz and others were directly implemented in the Nazi practice of genocide as an assertion “with little to no actual critical investigation”. Flowers states that “no one has ever shown that racial policies of the NSDAP are based on so-called 'Ariosophical' ideas.”

While individual Nazis would have become familiar with a mystical racialism through the works of List and Lanz, it does not follow that List and Lanz were culpable in the crimes of the Third Reich. With equal justice it has been contended that the racial ideas in Ariosophy might be laid at the door of its predecessor, Theosophy. (The term “Ariosophy” was formed by analogy with “Theosophy”.)

Even the writings of the most "extreme" of the Ariosophists, Lanz von Liebenfels, cannot be definitively linked to the applied anti-semitism of the Nazis. Apologists for Lanz state that he did not write unfavorably about the Jewish race. Lanz cooperated with Jewish scholars in many of his publications. His biblical theology is underpinned throughout by an assumption of racial identity between Hebrews and Aryans, and in Anthropozoon biblicum he welcomed a linguistic hypothesis ('Aryo-Semitic') which postulated a relationship of common ancestry/origin between the Indo-European and Semitic language stocks, while the complex ironies and paradoxes of Lanz's position are illustrated by his description of Moses as an "antisemite".

Defenders of List and Lanz claim that the anti-semitism that drove Nazi policies was much older and more deeply rooted among the peoples of central Europe than can be credited to the "fringe works" of mystics and rune magicians. The roots of Nazi anti-semitism have been traced to the Lutheran and Catholic churches, as/in that the Catholic Church Fathers were the first to put into circulation ideas about Jewish inferiority, and who drove anti-semitic policies right up to and all during the Second World War (Kertzer 2001).

Since 1957, when the Austrian psychologist Wilfried Daim published an important study of Lanz von Liebenfels, enough evidence exists to say that Hitler had been exposed to the ariosophic Weltanschauung in Vienna, but it is not clear to what extent he was influenced by it. On the one hand, Hitler's Mein Kampf has been compared to Lanz's Theozoologie in detail. [Expand from Occult Roots 196-97; initial support for Nazis 119 & 192 vs unimpressed later 122]

Some of Lanz's proposals for racial purification anticipate the Nazis. The sterilisation of those deemed to be genetically "unfit" was in fact implemented under the Nazi eugenics policies, but its basis lay in the theories of scientific racial hygienists. The Nazi eugenics programme has no proven connection with Lanz's mystical rationale. Eugenic ideas were widespread in his lifetime, whereas he himself was banned from publishing in the Third Reich and his writings were suppressed.

Following Goodrick-Clarke's caution in assessing the relation between the two, Adolf Hitler cannot be considered a pupil of Lanz von Liebenfels, as Lanz himself had claimed (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 192). However, it has been suggested with some evidential basis that the young Hitler did read and collect Lanz's Ostara magazine while living in Vienna:

"In view of the similarity of their ideas relating to the glorification and preservation of the endangered Aryan race, the suppression and ultimate extermination of the non-Aryans, and the establishment of a fabulous Aryan-German millennial empire, the link between the two men looks highly probable." (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 194)

Nevertheless: "It also remains a fact that Hitler never mentioned the name of Lanz in any recorded conversation, speech, or document. If Hitler had been importantly influenced by [Lanz], he cannot be said to have ever acknowledged this debt" (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 198).

Germanic mysticism and the Nazis

mainstream academic opinion: As Goodrick-Clarke summarised it, the mainstream position among academic historians of Nazism has been to deny or minimise occult input. Even G-C, who dissents somewhat from this mainstream, is clear that there are some structural resemblances but few actual lines of influence. (In fact the main influence was in the other direction: it's more the case that the Nazis seduced some Germanic mystics who were drawn into the Ahnenerbe and SS long after the formative phase of the NSDAP.) And Goodrick-Clarke seems to be the authority par excellence in this field. This is more or less the position of Flowers and McNallen too. (Flowers is both an occultist and an accredited scholar.)

So if there can be said to be a "conventional wisdom", it is the mainstream position occupied by Goodrick-Clarke and most historians of Nazism: that the formative influence of Germanic mysticism on the Nazis was tenuous at best. Flowers is academically mainstream on this question; Schnurbein is not.

As early as 1940, Lewis Spence published a book titled Occult Causes of the Present War. In the book, Spence identified a neopagan undercurrent in Nazism (for which he largely blamed Alfred Rosenberg), which he equated with “satanism;” he further connected Nazism to the Illuminati. Since then many similar books have been published.

Since 1957, when the Austrian psychologist Wilfried Daim published the important study on Lanz von Liebenfels enough evidence exists to say that Hitler had been exposed to the ariosophic Weltanschauung in Vienna. However, to what extent he was influenced by it, is not clear. In the research into this question, Hitler's Mein Kampf has even been compared to Liebenfels' Theozoologie in detail. [Expand from Occult Roots 196-97; initial support for Nazis 119 & 192 vs unimpressed later 122]

Ariosophy has been termed a theoretical precursor of the Nazi genocide. However, the foremost expert on Guido von List in the English-speaking world, Stephen E. Flowers, refuses to connect the theories of List and other early 20th century rune magicians directly to the excesses of Auschwitz. One German academic, Stefanie von Schnurbein (1992: 136), in commenting on Flowers' introduction to The Secret of the Runes, states:

“ Dabei erwähnt [Flowers] an keiner Stelle, daß List und die anderen Ariosophen Vordenker des Rassenwahns des Nationalsozialismus waren... (In this work [Flowers] nowhere mentions that List and the other Ariosophists were intellectual predecessors of the racial madness of National Socialism...) ”

Although it is now considered conventional wisdom that the ideas of List, Lanz and others were directly implemented in the Nazi genocide, Flowers states that this is “with little to no actual critical investigation”. Because the very term “Ariosophy” was analogous to its predecessor, “Theosophy”, it has also been argued that the racial ideas in Ariosophy can be traced to Theosophy. Flowers states that “no one has ever shown that racial policies of the NSDAP are based on so-called 'Ariosophical' ideas.”

It has further been argued that even the writings of the most "extreme" of the Ariosophists, Lanz von Liebenfels, cannot be definitively linked to the applied anti-semitism of the Nazis. Apologists for Lanz state that he did not write unfavorably about the Jewish race, that he cooperated with Jewish scholars in many of his publications, and while it can be argued that individual Nazis became familiar with the mystical racism of Theosophy through the works of List and Lanz, it does not necessarily follow that List and Lanz were culpable in the crimes of the Nazis.

Defenders of List and Lanz claim that the anti-semitism that drove Nazi policies was much older and more deeply rooted among the peoples of central Europe than can be credited to the "fringe works" of mystics and rune magicians. It has been alleged, for example, that the roots of Nazi anti-semitism can be traced to the Lutheran and Catholic churches as it was the Catholic Church Fathers who first invented ideas about the Jews being an inferior "race", and who drove anti-semitic policies right up to and all during the Second World War (Kertzer 2001).

Some of Lanz's proposals for racial purification anticipate the Nazis. The sterilisation of those deemed to be genetically "unfit" was in fact implemented under the Nazi eugenics policies, but its basis lay in the theories of scientific racial hygienists. The Nazi eugenics programme has no proven connection with Lanz's mystical rationale. Eugenic ideas were widespread in his lifetime, whereas he himself was banned from publishing in the Third Reich and his writings were suppressed.

Following Goodrick-Clarke's caution in assessing the relation between the two, Adolf Hitler cannot be considered a pupil of Lanz von Liebenfels, as Lanz himself had claimed (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 192). However, it has been suggested with some evidential basis that the young Hitler did read and collect Lanz's Ostara magazine while living in Vienna:

"In view of the similarity of their ideas relating to the glorification and preservation of the endangered Aryan race, the suppression and ultimate extermination of the non-Aryans, and the establishment of a fabulous Aryan-German millennial empire, the link between the two men looks highly probable." (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 194)

Nevertheless: "It also remains a fact that Hitler never mentioned the name of Lanz in any recorded conversation, speech, or document. If Hitler had been importantly influenced by [Lanz], he cannot be said to have ever acknowledged this debt" (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 198).

Nazi occultism and Germanic neopaganism

The use of runic symbology and the existence of an official Nazi government department for the study of the Germanic ancestral heritage (including paganism) lend credence to the idea that there was a pagan component to Nazism.

On the other side, authors like Stephen McNallen, Dr. Stephen Flowers (translator of The Secret King), and Michael Moynihan have argued that Nazi occultism is a distortion and misrepresentation of Odinism.

Wiligut

Stephen A. McNallen goes as far as to say: ...the compelling reason for you to own The Secret King is to use it to defend Asatru from the lie that 'Hitler was a pagan' or that 'Asatruar trace their roots to Nazi Germany.' The Secret King proves conclusively that this is not the case. It is a powerful weapon for the truth.

In an article entitled "The Wiligut Saga" featured in the book, Adolf Schleipfer points out the differences between Wiligut's beliefs and those generally accepted within Odinism.

In November 2006, Stephen E. Flowers held an 80 minute lecture on this subject at a Woodharrow Institute convention.

Suppression of esoteric groups in Nazi Germany (version 1, modified)

The totalitarian State of the Nazi party had a tendency to suppress all independent religious groups. This does not only apply to groups like Freemasons and Rosicrucians, but even to the established churches in the 3rd Reich (see: Nazism and religion).

Hitler would later openly ridicule many German mystics, particularly practitioners of Freemasonry, Theosophy, and Anthroposophy. According to their private writings,, the leaders of the Nazi Party in Germany did not wish to encourage forms of paganism which did not serve to further their goals of promoting pan-Germanic ethnic consciousness.

Rudolf von Sebottendorff had been involved in the Thule Society and the Germanenorden. In January 1933 he published Bevor Hitler kam: Urkundlich aus der Frühzeit der Nationalsozialistischen Bewegung (Before Hitler Came: Documents from the Early Days of the National Socialist Movement). Nazi authorities (Hitler himself ?) understandably disliked the book, which was banned. Sebottendorff then managed to flee to Turkey.

In 1936 the runemaster Friedrich Bernhard Marby, a follower of Guido von List's occult "ariosophic" Armanenschaft was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. He was released from the Dachau concentration camp in 1945.

Other occultists imprisoned during the Third Reich were Peryt Shou [1], Siegfried Adolf Kummer [2], Rudolf John Gorsleben [3], Werner von Bülow, Franz Bardon and Wilhelm Wulff.

Being a current or former member of an Odinist organisation disqualified anyone from holding rank or office within the NSDAP. Many other members ended up in the concentration camps, although as far as can be told only one member was actually killed.

Anna Bramwell. 1985. Blood and Soil: Richard Walther Darré and Hitler's 'Green Party'. Abbotsbrook, England: The Kensal Press. ISBN 0-946041-33-4.

The full focus of the state was aimed at religious groups from 9 June 1941 when Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the security police, banned a large number of spiritual practices. The organisations were dissolved, their property confiscated, and many of their leaders arrested. However, the supression of esoteric organisations began very soon after the Nazis acquired governmental power. Dr. Anna Bramwell points out that "occultist racialists were banned as early as 1934." A secret society called the Skald Order "was banned by the Nazis after 1933 because of its allegedly masonic nature." Several members of the Skald held office in the Third Reich, including Dr Ludolf Haase (a founder member of the Skald), Herbert Backe and Theo Gross; all came under covert investigation, and Backe was cleared by Heydrich from his deathbed. Lanz von Liebenfels, one of the most important of the Germanic racial-mystics, had his writings banned in 1938. Even "the German Order of Druids was caught in the National Socialist anti-Masonic law of 1935, and was closed down,...protesting to the last that they were not Freemasons but good, German Druids."

The persecution of occultists could have been due to the influence and recommendations to Himmler by Karl Maria Wiligut, Himmler's personal occultist. Wiligut had identified Irminism as the true ancestral religion, claiming that Guido von Lists Wotanism and runic row was a schismatic false religion. On Wiligut's recommendation Himmler could have had many of List's followers and non-official Nazi occultists imprisoned. However, historians assume that these measures were most probably the result of the general Nazi policy of suppressing lodge organizations and esoteric groups.

Suppression of esotericism in Nazi Germany (version 2)

The totalitarian State of the Nazi party had a tendency to suppress all independent religious groups. This not only applies to groups such as Freemasons and Rosicrucians, but even to the established churches in the Third Reich (see: Nazism and religion). Hitler would later openly ridicule many German mystics, particularly practitioners of Freemasonry, Theosophy, and Anthroposophy. According to their private writings,, the leaders of the Nazi Party in Germany did not wish to encourage forms of paganism which did not serve to further their goals of promoting pan-Germanic ethnic consciousness.

Already in 1927, Hitler had fired the Gauleiter of Thüringen, Artur Dinter, from his post because he wanted to make too much a religion of Aryan racial purity. In 1928, Dinter was expelled from the party when he publicly attacked Hitler about this decision.^[4]

Rudolf von Sebottendorff had been involved in the Thule Society and the Germanenorden. In January 1933 he published Bevor Hitler kam: Urkundlich aus der Frühzeit der Nationalsozialistischen Bewegung (Before Hitler Came: Documents from the Early Days of the National Socialist Movement). Nazi authorities (Hitler himself?) understandably disliked the book, which was banned. Sebottendorff then managed to flee to Turkey. Supposedly he had been the leader of the Germanic Neopagan group Germanische Glaubens-Gemeinschaft.

In 1936, the runemaster Friedrich Bernhard Marby, a follower of Guido von List's occult "ariosophic" Armanenschaft was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. He was released from the Dachau concentration camp in 1945. Other occultists imprisoned during the Third Reich were Peryt Shou, Siegfried Adolf Kummer, Rudolf John Gorsleben, Werner von Bülow, Franz Bardon and Wilhelm Wulff.

Being a current or former member of an Odinist organisation disqualified anyone from holding rank or office within the NSDAP. Many other members ended up in the concentration camps, although as far as can be told only one member was actually killed. The full focus of the state was not aimed at religious groups until June 9 1941 when Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the security police, banned a large number of spiritual practices. The organisations were dissolved, their property confiscated, and many of their leaders arrested.

The persecution of occultists could have been due to the influence and recommendations to Himmler by Karl Maria Wiligut, Himmler's personal occultist. Wiligut had identified Irminism as the true ancestral religion, claiming that Guido von List's Wotanism and runic row was a schismatic false religion. On Wiligut's recommendation Himmler could have had many of List's followers and non-official Nazi occultists imprisoned. However, historians assume that these measures were most probably the result of the general Nazi policy of suppressing lodge organizations and esoteric groups.

Suppression of esotericism in Nazi Germany (version 3)

The totalitarian State of the Nazi party had a tendency to suppress all independent religious groups. This not only applies to groups such as Freemasons and Rosicrucians, but even to the established churches in the Third Reich (see: Nazism and religion). Hitler would later openly ridicule many German mystics, particularly practitioners of Freemasonry, Theosophy, and Anthroposophy. According to their private writings,, the leaders of the Nazi Party in Germany did not wish to encourage forms of paganism which did not serve to further their goals of promoting pan-Germanic ethnic consciousness.

Already in 1927, Hitler had fired the Gauleiter of Thüringen, Artur Dinter, from his post because he wanted to make too much a religion of Aryan racial purity. In 1928, Dinter was expelled from the party when he publicly attacked Hitler about this decision.^[5]

The full focus of the state was not aimed at religious groups until 9 June 1941 when Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the security police, banned lodge organizations and esoteric groups. However, the supression of esoteric organisations began very soon after the Nazis acquired governmental power. Dr. Anna Bramwell points out that "occultist racialists were banned as early as 1934."

Rudolf von Sebottendorff had been involved in the Thule Society and a schismatic offshoot of the Germanenorden. In January 1933 he published Bevor Hitler kam: Urkundlich aus der Frühzeit der Nationalsozialistischen Bewegung (Before Hitler Came: Documents from the Early Days of the National Socialist Movement). Nazi authorities (Hitler himself?) understandably disliked the book, which was banned in the following year. Sebottendorff was arrested but managed to flee to Turkey.

Bramwell notes that a secret society called the Skald Order "was banned by the Nazis after 1933 because of its allegedly masonic nature." Several members of the Skald held office in the Third Reich, including Dr Ludolf Haase (a founder member of the Skald), Herbert Backe and Theo Gross; all came under covert investigation, and Backe was cleared by Heydrich from his deathbed.

Even "the German Order of Druids was caught in the National Socialist anti-Masonic law of 1935, and was closed down", observes Bramwell, "protesting to the last that they were not Freemasons but good, German Druids."

In 1936, the runemaster Friedrich Bernhard Marby, a follower of Guido von List's occult "ariosophic" Armanenschaft was arrested and sent to a concentration camp. He was released from the Dachau concentration camp in 1945. Other occultists imprisoned during the Third Reich were Peryt Shou, Siegfried Adolf Kummer, Rudolf John Gorsleben, Werner von Bülow, Franz Bardon and Wilhelm Wulff.

Lanz von Liebenfels, one of the most important of the Germanic racial-mystics, had his writings banned in 1938. Allegedly Ludwig Fahrenkrog, the founder and leader of the Germanische Glaubens-Gemeinschaft, was prohibited to write or exhibit his art because of his refusal to end his writings with the words "Heil Hitler", and Ernst Wachler, a member of his group and of Jewish ancestry, ended in a concentration camp.

The persecution of occultists could have been due to the influence and recommendations to Himmler by Karl Maria Wiligut, Himmler's personal occultist. Wiligut had identified Irminism as the true ancestral religion, claiming that Guido von List's Wotanism and runic row was a schismatic false religion. On Wiligut's recommendation Himmler could have had many of List's followers and non-official Nazi occultists imprisoned. However, historians assume that these measures were most probably the result of the general Nazi policy of suppressing lodge organizations and esoteric groups.

Other stuff

Guido von List, Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels, Theosophy and the Thule Society were important early figures and organisations whose alleged influence on historic Nazism is hotly contested but which have been appropriated by some postwar exponents of Nazi mysticism.

There are many organisations, such as the Artgemeinschaft of Jürgen Rieger and the Armanen-Orden founded by Adolf Schleipfer in 1976 , which represent significant developments of Germanic mysticism after World War II, but they do not necessarily all constitute forms of Nazi mysticism.

The Thule society, from which the NSDAP originated was one of the ariosophic groups of the 1920s. Thule Gesellschaft had initially been the name of the Munich lodge of the Germanenorden. It took it's name from an alleged lost continent Thule, which was assumed to be the mythical homeland from which the Aryan race had originated. (Atlantis at least, and most likely also Hyperborea, were taken to be identical with Thule.) The superiority of Aryans over all other races was a key concept and the members of various Germanenorden-lodges saw themselves (as Teutons or Germanic peoples) as the 'purest' branch of the Aryan race.

All taxonomic ranks

The following table lists all taxonomic ranks including those which are not in use today and those which are identical with other ranks.

All taxonomic ranks
Latin		English
Zoology	Botany	Zoology	Botany
regio		superdomain domain subdomain infradomain
imperium		empire
superregnum		superkingdom
		suprakingdom
		midkingdom
regnum		kingdom
subregnum		subkingdom
		interkingdom
		branch
		infrakingdom
superphylum		superphylum
		supraphylum
		midphylum
phylum	divisio	phylum1	division2
subphylum	subdivisio	subphylum1	subdivision2
infraphylum	infraphylum
claudius	claudius
superclassis	superclass
	grade
classis	class
subclassis	subclass
	infraclass
parvclassis	parvclass
superdivisio	superdivision1
divisio	division1
subdivisio	subdivision1
sectio	section1
	subsection1
	group
	subgroup
	superlegion
legio	legion
	sublegion
	infralegion
supercohos	supercohort
cohors	cohort
subcohors	subcohort
	magnorder
superordo	superorder
	series
	subseries
	grandorder
	gigaorder
	megaorder
	mirorder
ordo	order
hyperordo	hyperorder
subordo	suborder
infraordo	infraorder
	parvorder
falanx
cohors	cohort
superfamilia	superfamily
	family group
familia	family
	subfamily group
subfamilia	subfamily
	infrafamily
supertribus	supertribe
tribus	tribe
subtribus	subtribe
	infratribe
supergenus	supergenus
	genus group
genus	genus
subgenus	subgenus
	infragenus
supersectio	supersection2
sectio	section2
subsectio	subsection2
	infrasection2
	superseries2
series	series2
	subseries2
	infraseries2
superspecies	superspecies
	complex
	species group
	species subgroup
	aggregate
	synklepton
species	species
	microspecies
klepton	klepton
	aggregate
subspecies	subspecies
	infraspecies
	group
hybrid	hybrid
convarietas	convariety
supervarietas	supervariety
varietas	variety
subvarietas	subvariety
	infravariety
natio
superforma	superform
forma, morpha	form
subforma	subform
	infraform
	cultivar group
	cultivar
	group of breeds
	section of breeds
	breed, race
	strain
aberratio	aberration
	serogroup
	serotype, serovar
	biotype, biovar
	pathotype, pathovar
	population
lusus	lusus

Notes to table

¹ Level in animal taxonomy. ² Level in plant taxonomy.

Cladogram template

Indo‑Uralic

Uralo‑Siberian Uralo‑Yukaghir Uralic [= Finno-Ugric] Yukaghir [= Yukaghiric] [= Macro‑Uralic] Palaeosiberian Eskimo-Aleut [= Eskaleutian, Eskaleutic, Eskimoan] Chukotko-Kamchatkan [= Chukchi-Kamchatkan, Kamchukotic, Luorawetlan] Amuric [= Nivkhic] [= Palaeoasiatic] Asianic Hurro-Urartian [= Hurrartian] Indo‑Tyrrhenian Tyrsenic [= Tyrrhenian] Indo‑Burushic Burushic (Burushaski) Indo‑Hittite Anatolian Indo-European [= Indo‑Anatolian] [= Indo‑Hurrian]