Guido von List
Guido von List | |
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Born | Guido Karl Anton List 5 October 1848 |
Died | 17 May 1919 Berlin, Germany | (aged 70)
Occupations |
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Guido Karl Anton List (5 October 1848 – 17 May 1919), better known as Guido von List, was an Austrian
Born to a wealthy middle-class family in
During an 11-month period of blindness in 1902, List became increasingly interested in occultism, in particular coming under the influence of the
During his lifetime, List became a well-known figure among the nationalist and völkisch subcultures of Austria and Germany, influencing the work of many others operating in this milieu. His work, propagated through the List Society, influenced later völkisch groups such as the
Biography
Early life: 1848–77
Guido Karl Anton List was born on 5 October 1848 in Vienna, then part of the
Accounts suggest that List had a happy childhood.
Although List wanted to become an artist and scholar, he reluctantly agreed to his father's insistence that he enter the family's leather goods business.[3] During his leisure time he devoted himself to writing and sketching as well as rambling, riding, or rowing in the countryside, becoming both a member of the Viennese rowing club Donauhort and the secretary of the Austrian Alpine Association (Österreichischer Alpenverein).[6] He was involved in both solitary and group expeditions into the Austrian Alps, and it was on one of the latter journeys that he left his mountaineering group to spend Midsummer night alone atop the Geiselberg hillfort.[4] On 24 June 1875 he and four friends rowed down the Danube before camping for the night at the site of the ancient Roman fortification of Carnuntum to commemorate the 1500th anniversary of the Battle of Carnuntum, in which Germanic tribes defeated the Roman Army. List later claimed that while his friends caroused, he celebrated the event with a fire and by burying eight bottles of wine in the shape of a swastika beneath the arch of the monument's Pagan Gate.[7]
Early literary endeavours: 1877–1902
In 1877, List's father died.[8] List soon abandoned the leather goods business that he inherited, intent on devoting himself to literary endeavours as a journalist, even if this meant a significant reduction in his income.[9] On 26 September 1878 he married his first wife, Helene Förster-Peters.[8] From 1877 to 1887 he wrote for the nationalist magazines Neue Welt ("New World"), Heimat ("Homeland"), Deutsche Zeitung ("German Newspaper"), and the Neue Deutsche Alpenzeitung ("New German Alpine Newspaper"), with his articles being devoted to the Austrian countryside and the folk customs of its inhabitants.[8] His interpretations emphasised what he believed were the pagan origins of Austrian place-names, customs, and legends, describing the landscape as being embodied by genius loci, and expressing clear German nationalist and völkisch sentiment.[8]
In 1888, he published his first novel, Carnuntum, in two volumes. Set in the late fourth century
List began regularly writing for a weekly newspaper, the Ostdeutsche Rundschau ("East German Review"), which had been established in 1890 by the Austrian Pan-German parliamentary deputy Karl Wolf.[11] In 1891, List anthologised many of the magazine articles that he had written over the previous decades in his book Deutsch-Mythologische Landschaftsbilder ("German Mythological Landscape Scenes"), extracts of which were then published in the Ostdeutsche Rundschau.[11] Further völkisch articles on various topics pertaining to Austria's folk culture and to its ancient Germanic tribes followed during the 1890s, although midway through that decade his work took on an explicitly anti-semitic nature with articles such as "Die Juden als Staat und Nation" ("The Jews as a State and Nation").[11] Other Austrian German nationalist newspapers which published his articles during this period included the Bote aus dem Waldviertel ("The Waldviertel Herald") and Kyffhäuser.[11]
List began lecturing on these subjects; for instance, in February 1893 he spoke to the nationalist Verein 'Deutsches Geschichte' ("'German History' Association) on the ancient priesthood of Wotan.[12] He also worked as a playwright, and in December 1894 his play Der Wala Erweckung ("The Wala's Awakening") was premiered at an event organised by the Bund der Germanen (Germanic League) which was devoted to the German nationalist cause, with Jews being explicitly banned from attending the event.[12] Alongside his affiliation with the Bund, List was also a member of the Deutscher Turnverein (Germanic Gymnastic League), a strongly nationalistic group to whom he contributed literary works for their events.[12]
In 1893, List and Fanny Wschiansky founded a belletristic society devoted to encouraging German nationalist and neo-romantic literature in Vienna, the Literarische Donaugesellschaft ("Danubian Literary Society").[12] The group was partly based upon the 15th-century Litteraria Sodalita Danubiana created by the Viennese humanist Conrad Celtes, about whom List authored a brief biography in 1893.[12] He also authored two further novels during the 1890s, both of which were historical romances set in Iron Age Germany.[12] The first appeared in 1894 as Jung Diethers Heimkehr ("Young Diether's Homecoming"), which told the story of a young Teuton living in the fifth century who has been forcefully converted to Christianity but who returns to his original solar cult.[12] The second was Pipara, a two-volume story published in 1895 which told the story of an eponymous Quadi maiden who escaped captivity from the Romans to become an empress.[12] In 1898, he then authored a catechism exhibiting a form of pagan deism titled Der Unbesiegbare ("The Invincible").[13]
List's activities had made him a celebrity within the Austrian Pan-German movement, with the editors of the Ostdeutsche Rundschau convening a Guido List evening in April 1895 and South Vienna's Wieden Singers' Club holding a List festival in April 1897.[13] Having divorced his previous wife, in August 1899 List married Anna Wittek, who was from Stecky in Bohemia. Despite List's modern Pagan faith, the wedding was held in an evangelical Protestant church, reflecting the growing popularity of Protestantism among Austria's Pan-German community, who perceived it as a more authentically German form of Christianity than the Catholicism that was popular among Austria-Hungary's other ethnic and linguistic communities.[13] Wittek had previously appeared in a performance of List's Der Wala Erweckung and had publicly recited some of his poetry.[13] Following their marriage, List devoted himself fully to drama, authoring the plays König Vannius ("King Vannius") in 1899, Sommer-Sonnwend-Feuerzauber ("Summer Solstice Fire Magic") in 1901 and Das Goldstück ("The Gold Coin") in 1903.[14] He also authored a pamphlet titled Der Wiederaufbau von Carnuntum ("The Reconstruction of Carnuntum") in 1900, in which he called for the reconstruction of the ancient Roman amphitheatre at Carnuntum as an open-air stage through which Wotanism could be promoted.[15]
Later life: 1902–19
"List... belonged to an older generation than most of his pre-war fellow ideologues and thus became a cult figure on the eastern edge of the German world. He was regarded by his readers and followers as a bearded old patriarch and a mystical nationalist guru whose clairvoyant gaze had lifted the glorious Aryan and Germanic past of Austria into full view from beneath the debris of foreign influences and Christian culture. In his books and lectures List invited true Germans to behold the clearly discernible remains of a wonderful theocratic Ario-German state, wisely governed by priest-kings and gnostic initiates, in the archaeology, folklore, and landscape of his homeland."
— Historian of esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke.[1]
According to the historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, 1902 marked "a fundamental change in the character of [List's] ideas: occult ideas now entered his fantasy of the ancient Germanic faith."[15] This began when he received an operation to remove a cataract from his eye, after which he was left blind for eleven months. During this period of rest and recuperation, he contemplated questions surrounding the origins of the German language and the use of runes.[16] He subsequently produced a manuscript detailing what he deemed to be a proto-language of the Aryan race, in which he claimed that occult insight had enabled him to interpret the letters and sounds of both runes and emblems and glyphs found on ancient inscriptions.[15] Terming it "a monumental pseudo-science", Goodrick-Clarke also noted that it constituted "the masterpiece of his occult-nationalist researches".[15] List sent a copy to the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna, but they declined to publish it.[15] In 1903 List published an article in Die Gnosis magazine, which reflected a clear influence from the ideas of the Theosophical Society.[15]
List had occasionally used the title of
List's popularity among the Pan-Germanist movement resulted in suggestions that a society devoted to the promotion of List's work be established.[19] This materialised as the Guido-von-List-Gesellschaft in March 1908, which was largely funded by the Wannieck family but which also included many prominent figures from middle and upper-class Austrian and German society.[20] At Midsummer 1911, List founded the High Armanen Order (Hoher Armanen-Ordem), or HAO, as an inner group of Armanist practitioners within the List Society with whom he went on pilgrimages to various places that he believed had been ancient cultic sites associated with the worship of Wotan.[21] He operated as leader of this group, using the title of Grand Master.[22] The List Society also produced six booklets authored by List himself between 1908 and 1911. Titled "Ario-Germanic research reports", they covered List's opinions on the meaning and magical power of runes, the ancient Wotanic priesthood, Austrian folklore and place-names, and the secret messages within heraldic devices.[23] In 1914, the Society then published List's work on runes and language that the Imperial Academy had turned down.[23] The first three of these publications furthered List's reputation across both the völkisch and nationalist subcultures within both Austria and Germany.[23] Many other writers were inspired by List, with a number of works being specifically dedicated to him.[24] The editor of Prana, Johannes Balzli, authored a biography of List that was published in 1917.[24]
During World War I, List erroneously proclaimed that there would be victory for the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary, claiming to have learned this information from a vision that he experienced in 1917.[25] By 1918, List was in declining health, furthered by the food shortages experienced in Vienna as a result of the war.[25] In the spring of 1919, at the age of 70, List and his wife set off to recuperate and meet followers at the manor house of Eberhard von Brockhusen, a List Society patron who lived at Langen in Brandenburg, Germany.[26] On arrival at the
Ideology
List promoted a religion termed "Wotanism", which he saw as the
Much of List's understanding of the ancient past was based not on empirical research into historical, archaeological, and folkloric sources, but rather on ideas that he claimed to have received as a result of clairvoyant illumination.[35] Later writer Richard Rudgley thus characterised List's understanding of the "pagan past" as an "imaginative reconstruction".[36] List's Wotanism was constructed largely on the Prose Edda and the Poetic Edda, two Old Norse textual sources which had been composed in Iceland during the late Middle Ages; he nevertheless believed that they accurately reflected the belief systems of Germany, having been authored by "Wotanist" refugees fleeing Christianity.[37] He believed that prior to the spread of Christianity into Northern Europe, there had once been a culturally unified German civilisation that had been spread across much of Europe, which came to be degraded and divided under the impact of Christianity.[38] He believed that the Danubian region of modern Austria had thus been part of this unified German civilisation before the growth of the Roman Empire, an idea in contrast to the view accepted by historians of the time that linguistically German communities only settled in the area during the reign of the Frankish king Charlemagne in the ninth century CE, pushing out the pre-existing linguistically Celtic groups.[39]
Runes and the Armanenschaft
List believed that the basic teachings of Wotanism were found in the runic alphabet, believing that they could be deciphered by linking these letters with particular runic spells which appear in the Old Norse
In the 1890s, List initially devised the idea that ancient German society had been led by a hierarchical system of initiates, the Armanenschaft, an idea which had developed into a key part of his thinking by 1908.[44] List's image of the Armanenschaft's structure was based largely on his knowledge of Freemasonry. He claimed that the ancient brotherhood had consisted of three degrees, each with their own secret signs, grips, and passwords.[45] He believed that the Armanenschaft had societal control over the ancient German people, acting as teachers, priests, and judges.[46] In List's interpretation of history, the Christian missionaries persecuted the Armanenschaft, resulting in many fleeing northward into Scandinavia and Iceland.[47] He believed that they developed a secretive language for transmitting their teachings, known as kala.[48]
List claimed that after the Christianisation of Northern Europe, the Armanist teachings were passed down in secret, thus resulting in their transmission through later esoteric traditions such as Freemasonry and
Millenarian views
List generally saw the world in which he was living as one of degeneration,
List believed that the degradation of modern Western society was as a result of a conspiracy orchestrated by a secret organisation known as the Great International Party,
Influence and legacy
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Writing in 2003, the historian of religion Mattias Gardell believed that List had become the "revered guru of Ariosophic paganism".[34] Gardell considered the Austrian esotericist to have been "a legend in his lifetime",[61] with List's ideas being embraced by many völkisch groups in Germany.[24] German members of the List Society included Philipp Stauff, Eberhard von Brockhusen, Karl Hellwig, Georg Hauerstein, and Bernhard Koerner, who were founding members of the Reichshammerbund and Germanenorden; through the Germanenorden's Munich offshoot, the Thule Society, a vague lineage can be drawn between the List Society and the early Nazi Party as it was established after World War I.[24] List's ideas of Ariosophy and the occult influenced the beliefs of the German Faith Movement in Nazi Germany to revive pre-Christian Germanic spiritual traditions focused on Aryan racial purity. Goodrick-Clarke opined that "this channel of influence certainly carries most weight in any assessment of List's historical importance."[24] Rudgley claimed that List's vision of a future German Empire constituted "a blueprint for the Nazi regime".[69]
Other German völkisch figures promoted Listian ideas to the wider public during and after the First World War.
Both Goodrick-Clarke and later the religious studies scholar Stefanie von Schnurbein described List as "the pioneer of völkisch rune occultism",
Bibliography
A bibliography of List's published books is provided in Goodrick-Clarke's study The Occult Roots of Nazism.[82]
Year of publication | Title | Place of Publication |
---|---|---|
1888 | Carnuntum. Historischer Roman aus dem vierten Jahrhundert n. Chr. (two volumes) | Berlin |
1891 | Deutsch-Mythologische Landschaftsbilder | Berlin |
1892 | Tauf-, Hochzeits- und Bestattungs-Gebräuche und deren Ursprung | Salzburg |
1893 | Litteraria sodalitas Danubiana | Vienna |
1894 | Jung Diether's Heimkehr. Eine Sonnwend-Geschichte aus dem Jahre 488 n. Chr. | Brno |
1894 | Der Wala Erweckung | Vienna |
1895 | Walküren-Weihe. Epische Dichtung | Brno |
1895 | Pipara. Die Germanin im Cäsarenpurpur (two volumes) | Leipzig |
1898 | Niederösterreichisches Winzerbüchlein | Vienna |
1898 | Der Unbesiegbare. Ein Grundzug germanischer Weltanschauung | Vienna |
1899 | König Vannius. Ein deutsches Königsdrama | Brno |
1900 | Der Wiederaufbau von Carnuntum | Vienna |
1901 | Sommer-Sonnwend-Feuerzauber. Skaldisches Weihespiel | Vienna |
1903 | Alraunen-Mären. Kulturhistorische Novellen und Dichtungen aus germanischer Vorzeit | Vienna |
1903 | Das Goldstück. Ein Liebesdrama in fünf Aufzügen | Vienna |
1908 | Das Geheimnis der Runen | Gross-Lichterfelde |
1908 | Die Armanenschaft der Ario-Germanen | Leipzig and Vienna |
1908 | Die Rita der Ario-Germanen | Leipzig and Vienna |
1909 | Die Namen der Völkerstämme Germaniens und deren Deutung | Leipzig and Vienna |
1909/10 | Die Religion der Ario-Germanen im ihrer Esoterik und Exoterik | Zurich |
1910 | Der Bilderschrift der Ario-Germanen (Ario-Germanische Hieroglyphik) | Leipzig and Vienna |
1911 | Die Armanenschaft der Ario-Germanen. Zweiter Teil | Leipzig and Vienna |
1911 | Der Übergang vom Wuotanstum zum Christensum | Zurich |
1913 | Die Armanenschaft der Ario-Germanen. Erster Teil (second edition) | Vienna |
1913 | Deutsch-Mythologische Landschaftsbilder (second edition) | Vienna |
1914 | Die Ursprache der Ario-Germanen und ihre Mysteriensprache | Leipzig and Vienna |
References
Footnotes
- ^ a b c Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 33.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 33–34; Rudgley 2006, p. 108.
- ^ a b c d e f Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 34.
- ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 35.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 34; Rudgley 2006, p. 108.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 34–35; Rudgley 2006, p. 109.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 35; Rudgley 2006, p. 109.
- ^ a b c d Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 36.
- ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 36; Rudgley 2006, p. 110.
- ^ a b c d Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 37.
- ^ a b c d Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 38.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 39.
- ^ a b c d Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 40.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 40–41.
- ^ a b c d e f Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 41.
- ^ Gardell 2003, p. 23; Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 41; Rudgley 2006, pp. 111–112.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 41–42.
- ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 42.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 42–43.
- ^ Gardell 2003, p. 25; Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 43–44; Rudgley 2006, p. 114.
- ^ Gardell 2003, p. 25; Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 46–47; Rudgley 2006, p. 114.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 64; Rudgley 2006, p. 114.
- ^ a b c d Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 44.
- ^ a b c d e f Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 45.
- ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 47.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 47–48.
- ^ a b c Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 48.
- ^ Gardell 2003, p. 24; Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 52; Rudgley 2006, p. 112.
- ^ Schnurbein 2016, p. 94.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 227; Rudgley 2006, p. 111.
- ^ a b Hammer 2015, p. 352.
- ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 51.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 52.
- ^ a b Gardell 2003, p. 23.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 67.
- ^ Rudgley 2006, p. 109.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 49.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 77.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 66.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 50; Schnurbein 2016, p. 115.
- ^ a b c Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 50.
- ^ a b Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 50; Schnurbein 2016, p. 42.
- ^ Gardell 2003, p. 24; Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 52.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 56.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 57; Rudgley 2006, p. 112.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 57.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 68–69.
- ^ Gardell 2003, p. 24; Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 70.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 58; Schnurbein 2016, p. 115.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 61–62.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 62–63; Rudgley 2006, p. 114.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 63; Rudgley 2006, pp. 113–114.
- ^ Rudgley 2006, p. 113.
- ^ a b c d Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 82.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 83.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 82–83.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 81.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 81–82.
- ^ a b Thorsson 1984, p. 15.
- ^ Gardell 2003, p. 25; Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 83.
- ^ a b Gardell 2003, p. 25.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 85.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 86.
- ^ Gardell 2003, p. 25; Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 88–89.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 78–79.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 65.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 64.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, pp. 63–64.
- ^ Rudgley 2006, p. 115.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 46.
- ^ Asbjørn Jøn 1999, p. 78.
- ^ Schnurbein 2016, p. 114.
- ^ Hammer 2015, p. 353; Schnurbein 2016, p. 55.
- ^ a b Schnurbein 2016, p. 81.
- ^ a b Schnurbein 2016, p. 116.
- ^ Gardell 2003, pp. 162, 322; Schnurbein 2016, p. 82.
- ^ Schnurbein 2016, p. 117.
- ^ Schnurbein 2016, p. 118.
- ^ Gardell 2003, p. 201.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2003, p. 275; Gardell 2003, p. 208.
- ^ Gardell 2003, p. 300.
- ^ Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 274.
Sources
- Asbjørn Jøn, A. (1999). "'Skeggøld, Skálmöld; Vindöld, Vergöld': Alexander Rud Mills and the Ásatrú Faith in the New Age". Australian Religion Studies Review. 12 (1): 77–83.
- ISBN 978-0822330714.
- ISBN 978-0814731550.
- Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2004) [1985]. The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology. New York: Tauris Parke. ISBN 978-1860649738.
- ISBN 978-0415695961.
- ISBN 978-0-712-68096-7.
- Schnurbein, Stefanie von (2016). Norse Revival: Transformations of Germanic Neopaganism. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 978-1608467372.
- ISBN 978-0-87728-548-9.