Esotericism in Germany and Austria

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Germany and Austria have spawned many movements and practices in Western esotericism, including Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, Anthroposophy and Ariosophy, among others.

Early Esotericism

Knights Templar and Freemasonry

The original

legends surrounding the Knights Templar. In Germany, "where the growth of deviant Masonic rites was greatest,"[2] the Templar heritage was adopted for irregular Freemasonry. (Freemasonry
had been officially founded in England in 1717.)

The idea of chivalric Freemasonry first occurred ca. 1737 in France.[2] In 1775 Baron Gotthelf von Hund (1722–76) founded the Order of Strict Observance, claiming the possession of secret Templar documents which allegedly prove that his order represented the legal Templar succession.[2]

Rosicrucianism

In the 17th century and 18th century, Rosicrucian ideas flourished in varying degrees. Rosicrucianism goes back to the beginning of the 17th century, when three works by Johann Valentin Andreae were printed at Kassel.[3] One of these works, the Chymische Hochzeit, appears to be an alchemical tract, while the other two (for which the authorship of Valentin Andreae is not finally proven) announce the existence of the Rosicrucian Order, which desires a "universal and general reformation of the whole world". Putatively this order was founded by Christian Rosenkreutz, who is supposed to have lived from 1378 to 1484.

In either 1747 or 1757 a quasi-masonic Rosicrucian order of the name Gold- und Rosenkreuz was founded in Berlin, having a 9-grade hierarchy based on the cabalistic Tree of Life; This organisation included King Frederick William II of Prussia and Johann Christoph von Wöllner[4] as members.[5]

German occult revival, 1880–1910

The modern German occult revival owes its inception to the popularity of Theosophy in the Anglo-Saxon world during the 1880s.[6]

Theosophy

The first German Theosophical Society was established in July 1884, under the presidency of

Lotusblüten (Lotus Blossoms, 1892–1900) was the first German publication to use the Theosophical swastika on its cover.[13]

Hartmann's example provided the impetus for Paul Zillmann to found the Metaphysische Rundschau (Metaphysical Review) in 1896.[13]

Cover of the June 1904 edition of Lucifer-Gnosis

esoteric path suitable for the modern era, and professed commitment to scientific methodology, was yet oriented towards awakening spiritual experiences in each individual rather than depending upon authorities or gurus.[8]
He published Luzifer at Berlin from 1903 to 1908.

In Vienna, there also existed an Association for Occultism, connected to a person called Philipp Maschlufsky.[12] From 1903 he published a periodical called Die Gnosis, that was later absorbed by Rudolf Steiner's periodical Luzifer, and renamed Lucifer-Gnosis.[15]

"It may have been a desire to counter Steiner's influence in the occult subculture which led Hartmann to encourage the publication of several new periodicals."[16] A Theosophical Publishing House was established by Hugo Vollrath in Leipzig in 1906. Among the magazines published there was Prana (1909–19), initially edited by Karl Brandler-Pracht and later edited by Johannes Balzli. Before that, a publisher with the name Wilhelm Friedrich had already published the works of Hartmann and Hübbe-Schleiden, as well as translations of the English Theosophists at Leipzig.[17] Wilhelm Friedrich had also published the occult works of Max Ferdinand Sebaldt von Werth (1859–1916). Initially, this author had collaborated with Moritz von Egidy[18] on the periodical Das angewande Christentum (Applied Christianity), but later he wrote volumes on "the sexual-religion of the Aryans", thus, in the opinion of Goodrick-Clarke, anticipating Ariososophy.[19]

Anthroposophy

From 1907 (at latest), tensions between Rudolf Steiner and the Theosophical Society grew steadily. In 1912, Rudolf Steiner broke away to found Anthroposophy. There were two causes of the break; Steiner's European and Christian orientation had long been distinct from the hinduistic interest of the theosophists under the leadership of Annie Besant.[13] More immediately, Steiner publicly distanced himself from Besant's promotion of Jiddu Krishnamurti as a supposed new messiah. Steiner and a group of prominent German Theosophists officially founded the Anthroposophical Society in December 1913, the vast majority of the German membership of the Theosophical Society following them into the new group; the breakaways were excluded from the Theosophical Society in January 1914.

Guido von List and Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels

Further information: Ariosophy

Living in Vienna,

Madame Blavatsky and William Scott-Elliot.[22] In his concept of Armanism, the religion of the theocratic elite in his image of the ancient Germanic past, List borrowed material from Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism.[23] Since his manuscript, proposing the research into the runes by the "means of occult insight", was rejected from the Imperial Academie of Sciences in Vienna, the supporters of List formed a List Society (Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft) to finance his research. The Society was founded officially on 2 March 1908. Its members included völkisch authors as well as occultists (for example Franz Hartmann and the complete membership of the Vienna Theosophical Society). Some inner members of the List Society participated in the activities of the Hoher Armanen-Orden (High Armanen-Order).[24]
This order, however, achieved no significance as a lodge-like organisation.

Lotusblüten.[28]

Astrology

Among the Theosophists, astrology enjoyed a revival.[29] Astrological texts by Karl Brandler-Pracht, Otto Pöllner, Ernst Tiede, and Albert Knief appeared at the Theosophical Publishing House at Leipzig.[30] Karl Brandler-Pracht had also founded the First Viennese Astrological Society in 1907.[31] Erik Jan Hanussen, who later would become the most famous clairvoyant in Germany and Austria, gave his first occult session with E. K. Hermann in Vienna in 1911.[32]

Other developments

The German and Vienna occult subculture was well developed before the First World War.[16] Aside from the developments mentioned above, there are some more of interest:

"The Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) originated in the irregular masonic activities of Theodor Reuss, Franz Hartmann, and Karl Kellner between 1895 and 1906."[2] Theodor Reuss had been in contact with William Wescott, a founding member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.[5]

Ernst Wachler was a völkisch author (he supported the Guido von List Society) who had founded an open-air Germanic theatre in the Harz mountains.[33] This theatre, called Green Stage (Grüne Bühne), was closed in 1937.[34]

The

Germanic Neopaganism groups as predecessor. It was founded and led by the painter Ludwig Fahrenkrog. Since 1908, the group used the swastika as its symbol. After 1938 the use of the swastika became prohibited and the group was no longer allowed to hold public meetings. However, unlike many other esoteric groups in Nazi Germany, the GGG was not forced to disband, partly "because of Fahrenkrog's international status as an artist."[35]

Interbellum Weimar Republic

Ariosophy, Ordo Novi Templi, and Lumenclub

Lanz had coined the term Ariosophy, meaning occult wisdom concerning the Aryans, in 1915. In the 1920s he then used this label for his doctrine.[36] Both List and Lanz greeted World War I as a millenarian struggle.[37] Guido von List wrote his research reports on the "Aryo-Germanics" (Ario-Germanen) between 1908 and 1913, but in 1917 two later articles written by him appeared in Prana. He died 1919 in Berlin. The List Society was continued after his death, but not much is known of its activities. By contrast, an organisation founded around 1907

Lanz von Liebenfels achieved more significance: the "new Templar lodge", called Ordo Novi Templi (ONT) (German: Neutempler-Orden
).

On 11 November 1932, influenced by Ariosophy, an industrialist with the name Johann Walthari Wölfl also founded an association called the Lumenclub in Vienna, which overlapped in membership with the ONT.[39] The ideological sympathy of the Lumenclub to Nazism is beyond question, as it acted as growth centre for the Nazi party that was illegal in Austria since 1934.[40] Nevertheless, they were later suppressed like other esoteric groups. After the Anschluss in 1938, Lanz von Liebenfels had his writings banned.[41] The Lumenclub and the ONT were suppressed by the Gestapo in March 1942, following the party edict of December 1938 that applied to many sectarian groups.[40]

Werner von Bülow and Herbert Reichstein had applauded the advent of the third reich in their esoteric magazines.[42]

Rune occultism

Influenced by Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfels (see Ariosophy), a new "Aryan occultist movement"[43] was started after 1918 in Germany by Rudolf John Gorsleben.

Since the esoteric importance of the runes (that first had been developed by Guido von List, see Armanen runes) was central to his world-view,[44] Goodrick-Clarke speaks in this context of "rune occultism".

Here two authors stand out, as they engaged the runes in "a less explicitly

Irminism as the true ancestral religion, claiming that Guido von List
's Wotanism and runic row was a schismatic false religion, but this does seem to be unconnected to the arrest of Marby.

Other measures against esoteric groups were most probably the result of the general Nazi policy of suppressing lodge organizations.[48]

Other developments

In the years following the military defeat, there was a burgeoning occult movement in Germany, and Austria. Significant figures in this milieu were Gustav Meyring, Franz Spunda and Peryt Shou.[49]

Esotericism in Nazi Germany

Further information: Ocultismo in Nazism, Esoteric Nazism, religious aspects of Nazism, and Ariosophy

German Faith Movement

Main article: German Faith Movement

The German Faith Movement led by Jakob Wilhelm Hauer during 1933-1945 propagated a move away from Christianity towards an "Aryan-Nordic religion", partly inspired by Hinduism.

Suppression of Freemasonry and esotericism

Further information: Friedrich Hielscher

The

Nazi concentration camp badges
)

Within the Nazi ideology it was alleged that Freemasonry was part of "the Jewish conspiracy". Since many esoteric groups emulated the lodge structure of Freemasonry, they were "caught in the National Socialist anti-Masonic law of 1935".[51] Even "the German Order of Druids" was closed down, "protesting to the last that they were not Freemasons but good, German Druids."[51] In her biography of Richard Walther Darré, the historian Anna Bramwell also remarks that a secret society called the Skald Order "was banned by the Nazis after 1933 because of its allegedly masonic nature."[52] 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, though Backe is said to have been cleared of disloyalty by Heydrich from his deathbed.[53]

Whether the Nazi ideology had a special view concerning the various esoteric doctrines (aside from confusing them with Freemasonry) is not clear. Concerning Anthroposophy, a book whose title denounced Rudolf Steiner as a fraud (Schwindler) and a false prophet had been published by Gregor Schwartz-Bostunitsch in 1930.[54] Schwartz-Bostunitsch had been an "enthusiastic Anthroposophist" from 1923, but was disaffected by 1929 and later joined the SS.[55]

Astrology was officially interdicted in Nazi Germany after 1938.[56] However, the Nazis had sympathizing astrologers write favourable interpretations of Nostradamus for psychological warfare,[56] and as late as 1936 Hitler personally sent a greetings telegram to an international astrologer's congress that was taking place in Düsseldorf.[56][57]

The full focus of the state was not aimed at religious groups until 9 June 1941[58] when Reinhard Heydrich, the head of the security police, banned lodge organizations and esoteric groups in the wake of the flight to Scotland by Rudolf Hess, who had been attracted and influenced by the organic farming theories of Rudolf Steiner and Anthroposophy.[59] However, the suppression 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."[41]

Allegedly the stage magician and occultist Franz Bardon had attracted the notice of Adolf Hitler "like other workers for the Light" and was incarcerated in a concentration camp for three and a half months in 1945.[60]

Later developments in Nazi esotericism

The Thule Society was dissolved still in the 1920s, well before Hitler's rise to power, and the anti-Masonic legislation of 1935 closed down esoteric organisations including völkisch occultist ones.

Karl Maria Wiligut, the chief occultist influence on the Nazi establishment, retired in 1939. Alfred Rosenberg, whose 1930 Myth of the Twentieth Century had been important in the foundation of Nazi racist ideology, and Heinrich Himmler, who added a number of occultist "design elements" to the Schutzstaffel, did remain high ranking party members throughout the war. Himmler's mystic tendencies can be seen in the Ahnenerbe organization and the Wewelsburg castle.

According to their private writings,[61][62] 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 too much to make a religion of Aryan racial purity. In 1928, Dinter was expelled from the party when he publicly attacked Hitler about this decision.[63]

Rudolf von Sebottendorff had been involved in the Thule Society. 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 disliked the book, which was banned in the following year. Sebottendorff was arrested but managed to flee to Turkey
.

Esotericists in Nazi Germany

After 1945

Other than popular

Odinism
.

The work of

Friedrich Bernhard Marby was continued by Rudolf Arnold Spieth, who also published one of his works posthumously.[64]

A revival of

Neopaganism in Germany and Austria
began in the 1970s. Since the 1980s, mainstream esotericism in German-speaking Europe has been dominated by generic New Age syncretism as it developed in the United States.[citation needed]

During the

anti-vaxxers and the extreme right right to protest government regulations. Anthroposophy has "a proximity to the mindset of conspiracy theorists", according to Helmut Zander.[65]

Notes

  1. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 60
  2. ^ a b c d Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 61
  3. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 58, 59
  4. ^ German Wikipedia: Johann Christoph von Wöllner
  5. ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 59
  6. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 18
  7. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 23
  8. ^
    ISBN 0-8018-7812-8
    , Chapter 4
  9. ^ German Wikipedia: Sphinx magazine
  10. ^ http://www.austheos.org.au/indices/SPHINXHU.HTM Table of contents to the Sphinx magazine
  11. ^ German Wikipedia: de:Friedrich Eckstein
  12. ^ a b c Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 28
  13. ^ a b c d e Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 25, 26
  14. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 24, 25
  15. ^ German Wikipedia: de:Lucifer-Gnosis
  16. ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 27
  17. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 27, 51, 52
  18. ^ German Wikipedia: Moritz von Egidy
  19. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 51
  20. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 35.
  21. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 41, 52.
  22. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 52.
  23. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 57.
  24. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 46.
  25. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 93, 275
  26. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 94
  27. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 94, 96
  28. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 100
  29. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 84, 103
  30. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 103
  31. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 29
  32. ^ Markus Kompa (with the collaboration of Wilfried Kugel): Erik Jan Hanussen - Hokus-Pokus-Tausendsassa; (in German) Telepolis, 24 March 2008
  33. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 43
  34. ^ German Wikipedia: Bergtheater Thale
  35. ^ Marcus Wolff, "Ludwig Fahrenkrog and the Germanic Faith Community: Wodan Triumphant" in Tyr: Myth—Culture—Tradition, Ultra 2004
  36. Hitler
    's personal library. (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 198, 275)
  37. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 86 (List), 103 (Lanz)
  38. ^ Lanz von Liebenfels has claimed that the founding of the ONT occurred on Christmas Day 1900, but Goodrick-Clarke does not consider this statement reliable. Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 245.
  39. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 118, 119
  40. ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 119
  41. ^ a b Bramwell 1985: 42.
  42. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 192
  43. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 155
  44. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 157
  45. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 161
  46. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 161; Friedrich Bernhard Marby, 1975, Sonne und Planeten im Tierkreis, p. 225
  47. Bundesarchiv
    , Koblenz, Himmler Nachlass 19.
  48. ^ Goodrick-Clarke, The Occult Roots of Nazism, p. 197
  49. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 165.
  50. ^ Christopher Hodapp. 2005. Freemasons for Dummies, Wiley Publishing Inc., Indianapolis, p.85.
  51. ^ a b Bramwell 1985: 50.
  52. ^ Bramwell 1985: 95.
  53. ^ Bramwell 1985: 126.
  54. ^ Gregor Schwartz-Bostunitsch. 1930. "Doktor Steiner - ein Schwindler wie keiner". Ein Kapital über Anthroposophie und die geistige Arbeit der 'Falschen Propheten'. Munich. See: Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 284 (Bibliography).
  55. ^ Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 170.
  56. ^ a b c Nostradamus und die Nazis (in German) - A 'Feature' of Deutschlandfunk (German national radio) that was aired on September 16, 2008
  57. ^ Telegram from Hitler to Dr. Korsch, President of the International Astrological Congress. Image obtained by Life magazine.
  58. ^ Bramwell 1985: 178.
  59. nudists — were arrested, Agriculture Minister Richard Walther Darré protested to Himmler and Heydrich, "despite a letter from Bormann
    , warning Darré that Hitler was behind the arrests" (ibid., 178).
  60. ^ Merkur Publishing: Franz Bardon Biography Archived 2007-10-02 at the Wayback Machine
  61. ^ Hitler's Table Talk, page 61, translated by Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens, 1953
  62. ^ Mein Kampf, chapter 12
  63. ISBN 3-88309-086-7
    .
  64. ^ Eduard Gugenberger: Friedrich Bernhard Marby Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine (in German)
  65. ^ Philip Oltermann (2021-01-10). "Ginger root and meteorite dust: the Steiner 'Covid cures' offered in Germany". The Guardian. Retrieved 2022-11-22.

Literature

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