Break.com Article: Secrets of the Nazi Occult

[RPGPundit]

You may have heard about how the Nazis were into the occult big time. But just how much of it was true? And why were they so into it?

Did it actually affect the outcome of World War II? Why were they nudists? What about the UFOs? And ancient Atlantis?

Find out everything you ever wanted to know (probably more than what anyone sane really needs to know) about the Nazi Occult in my latest article!

As always, please share it if you liked it.  Thanks!

RPGPundit

Currently Smoking: Stanwell compact + Image Latakia

[Dimitrios]

I saw Raiders of The Lost Ark at a young age and it's been my favorite action movie ever since. It was a kick when I got older to learn about the Ahnenerbe and other weirdness the Nazis were into. The plot of Raiders wasn't so far fetched after all!

[RPGPundit]

I saw Raiders of The Lost Ark at a young age and it's been my favorite action movie ever since. It was a kick when I got older to learn about the Ahnenerbe and other weirdness the Nazis were into. The plot of Raiders wasn't so far fetched after all!

Yeah, not too far off.

[James Gillen]

"For a bunch of guys who were famously uptight about everything, the Nazis sure liked getting naked for no particular reason."

[James Gillen]

"The Ordo Novi Templi or "Order of the New Templars" was founded by yet another 'volkisch' mystic named Jorg Lanz "von" Liebenfels (again, the "von" was a fake he added to pretend to be an aristocrat; because Nazis are all just one big inferiority complex)."

Wasn't using an unauthorized "von" against the law?

jg

[RPGPundit]

"The Ordo Novi Templi or "Order of the New Templars" was founded by yet another 'volkisch' mystic named Jorg Lanz "von" Liebenfels (again, the "von" was a fake he added to pretend to be an aristocrat; because Nazis are all just one big inferiority complex)."

Wasn't using an unauthorized "von" against the law?

jg

Hmm, it certainly would have been further back, but I'm not sure if it was by then.  Maybe.

That's the thing about these movements, they were stunningly middle-class. Tons of the leadership were guys who were not in the aristocracy but desperately wished they were.

[David Johansen]

Interesting and informative as always.

[James Gillen]

Hmm, it certainly would have been further back, but I'm not sure if it was by then.  Maybe.

That's the thing about these movements, they were stunningly middle-class. Tons of the leadership were guys who were not in the aristocracy but desperately wished they were.

Ribbentrop insisted on being called "von", but he was able to legally buy the honorific.

JG

[thedungeondelver]

There's people today who believe that "Power of the Black Sun" "Vril Society" bullshit.  Makes for good Delta Green campaigns but not much else.

[Teodrik]

Well the "nazi-occult"-thing is very much a fictional thing. Not entirely, but much of it. Since 1945 national socialist Germany have become part of our modern secular mythology, filling a whole in our culture where we used to put stuff like demons, devils, Count Dracula etc. And by such linking the occult with Third Reich have a very tempting symbolism to it psychologically. Neopagan-ish groups like Thule Society (more a political group than actually that deep into occult), The German Faith-movement and such were supressed and verboten by the goverment. Though that did not stop certain high-ups, like Himmler, to keep their interests in such things(with power comes privilege and all that). But generally I am quite sceptical about such things since many theories about the subject feels very much like a aesthetic fit than an actual fact. For example: Even  Heinrich Himmler had to publish his short essay The Voice of the Ancestors under the pseudonym of Wulf Sörensen(at least have the psudonym been linked to him, but nobody really knows for sure) and caused quite a stir when published.

 Hitler spoke very contemptuous about such volkish circles in Mein Kamph and spoke with redicule about grown men mumbling runic lore behind big beards and dressing up in pelts and replicas of dark age swords. Most people of importance in the volkish movements of the 1800's were already dead 1933 and after that all attempts to revive such movements(as in groups focusing om religion/occult, which were only a small part of the volkish movement) were struck down by the goverment. Most "occult" were very much a matter of state symbolism. Problem is that people generally have a hard time separating the general national romanticist symbolism of the era with actual occultism.  It is true that Himmler had a "loremaster" named Karl Maria Wiligut who were charged with developing rituals like wedding cermonies for SS members and insignias(who saw himself as a kind of prophet). But most so-called nazi occultism seems have been about the idea of reformation and germanisation of protestant christianity(including Wiligut and Rosenberg). Quite reminding of the christian identity groups in the US like Aryan Nations. But rather than trying to reinterpretate the jews of the old testament to be aryans they were more for skipping it entirely.

The nudist thing were not a big thing in itself in Third Reich, but some small volkish group in the 1800's. But they did have stuff like topless gold-painted women in some parade at one point . And they were very keen on hellenic style body art like statues of physicaly powerfull and beutifull men and women and propaganda films with athlete's doing sporty things on beaches at dawn (showing no genitalia). So as said before, a matter of state symbolism of vitality, youthfullness etc. Nudism were more a thing in the DDR.

Chief-ideologue Alfred Rosenborg wrote stuff about aryan blood mysticism and the power of myth.  But from rather a cultural-idealist and historical speculative perspective, not really that much magical/religious/occult. Even though he seemed quite well versed on those subjects. The German Faith Movement tried to expand on Rosenbergs line of thought and make it into a religion, but they got banned.

The most Indiana Jones-like thing that actually seems true is the investigation about legends of the Grael, and some actual persuit, by  explorer and SS-man Otto Rahn. Who indeed had very occultist ideas. But does more seems like a personal endeavour than following some state order by Hitler or Himmler.

Nazi-occultism seems more like a thing post-WW2.  Things a as the esoteric hitlerism of Miguell Serrano, hindu-hitlerism of Savitri Devi etc.

*written on my phone*