Karl Maria Wiligut

Karl Wiligut
Born	December 10, 1866 Vienna, Austrian Empire
Died	January 3, 1946 (aged 79) Arolsen, Allied-occupied Germany
Allegiance	Austria-Hungary  Germany
Service/branch	Austro-Hungarian Army Schutzstaffel
Years of service	1883–1918 1933–1939
Rank	Colonel (Austria-Hungary) Brigadeführer (SS)
Battles/wars	World War I

Karl Maria Wiligut (alias Weisthor, Jarl Widar, Lobesam; 10 December 1866 – 3 January 1946) was an

Wiligut's medical records reflect violence at home, including threats to kill his wife, grandiose projects, eccentric behavior and occult interests. Following this arrest in 1924, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and megalomania. He was declared legally incompetent by a Salzburg court and committed to a Salzburg asylum, where he remained until 1927. In 1932, he abandoned his wife and family, and emigrated from Austria to Germany, residing in Munich. He is known to have corresponded with many admirers and disciples, including Ernst Rüdiger and members of the Order of the New Templars.

Involvement in Himmler's personal staff

Wiligut made a name for himself in occult circles in Germany, eventually getting the attention of the head of the SS, Heinrich Himmler. Shortly after being introduced to Himmler in September 1933 at a conference of the Nordische Gesellschaft, Wiligut was inducted into the SS (under the pseudonym "Karl Maria Weisthor") to head a Department for Pre- and Early History which was created for him within the SS Race and Settlement Main Office (RuSHA). In April 1934 he was promoted to the SS equivalent of his old colonel rank (Standartenführer), and then made head of Section VIII (Archives) for RuSHA in October 1934. In November 1934 a promotion followed to the rank of Oberführer (lieutenant-brigadier), and then in the spring of 1935 Wiligut was transferred to Berlin to serve on Himmler's personal staff. He was promoted to the rank of Brigadeführer in September 1936.

In Berlin, where he worked in the office of

In November 1938, Karl Wolff, chief adjutant of Himmler's personal staff and the second-highest-ranking officer in the SS, visited Wiligut's wife and learned of Wiligut's earlier involuntary commitment to a mental institution, which proved embarrassing to Himmler.

Wiligut's staff was notified that his "application" for retirement on grounds of age and poor health had been granted in February 1939, and the official retirement was dated 28 August 1939, only a few days prior to the outbreak of World War II.

Death

Wiligut's final years were insecure: he moved to Aufkirchen in 1939, to Goslar in 1940, and to Wörthersee in 1943, and after the war to a refugee camp in St. Johann near Velden, where he had a stroke. After this he was permitted to return to Salzburg, but he soon moved on to Arolsen in Hesse, where he died on 3 January 1946.^[10] His gravestone is inscribed with "UNSER LEBEN GEHT DAHIN WIE EIN GESCHWÄTZ" ("Our Life Passes Away Like Idle Chatter").

Occult involvement

In 1889, Wiligut joined the Schlaraffia, a quasi-masonic lodge. When he left the lodge in 1909, he held the rank of knight and the office of chancellor.

Wiligut claimed to be in the tradition of a long line of Germanic mystic teachers, reaching back into prehistoric times.[13] He also claimed to have spiritual powers that allowed him direct access to genetic memories of his ancestors thousands of years in the past. From 1908, Wiligut was in contact with the occult group

According to Wiligut, Germanic culture and history reached back to 228,000 BC. He proposed that at this time, there were three suns, and Earth was inhabited by giants, dwarfs and other mythical creatures. Wiligut claimed that his ancestors, the Adler-Wiligoten, ended a long period of war. By 12,500 BC, the Irminic religion of Krist was revealed and from that time became the religion of all Germanic peoples, until the schismatic adherents of

Wiligut's convictions assumed a paranoid trait in the 1920s as he became convinced that his family was the victim of a continuing persecution of Irminists, at present conducted by the Roman Catholic Church, the Jews, and the Freemasons, on which groups he also blamed the defeat of World War I and the downfall of the Habsburg Empire.

During the 1920s, Wiligut wrote down 38 verses (out of a number purportedly exceeding 1,000), the so-called Halgarita Sprüche, that he claimed to have memorized as a child, taught by his father. Wiligut had designed his own "

Sunur saga santur toe Syntir peri fuir sprueh Wilugoti haga tharn Halga fuir santur toe

Werner von Bülow translates this as follows:

Legend tells, that two Suns, two wholesome in change-rule UR and SUN, alike to the hourglass which turned upside down ever gives one of these the victory / The meaning of the divine errant wandering way / dross star in fire's sphere became in fire-tongue revealed to the Earth-I-course of the race of Paradise / godwilling leaders lead to the weal through their care in universal course, what is visible and soon hidden, whence they led the imagination of mankind / polar in change-play, from UR to SUN in sacrificial service of waxing and waning, in holy fire Santur is ambiguously spent in sparks, but turns victorious to blessing.

Santur is interpreted as a burnt-out sun that was still visible at the time of

In esoteric currents of

Runes

In 1934, Wiligut developed a rune row loosely based on the Armanen runes of Guido von List even though Wiligut rejected List's runes and his overall philosophy.

Wiligut claimed to have been initiated into "runic lore" by his grandfather Karl Wiligut (1794–1883). His rune row has 24 letters, like the Elder Futhark. Like von List's Armanen runes that are closely based on the Younger Futhark, many of Wiligut's runes are identical to historical runes, with some additions. The historical Futhark sequence is not preserved.^[15]

Wiligut's names for his runes are: Tel, Man, Kaun, Fa, Asa, Os, Eis, Not, Tor, Tyr, Laf, Rit, Thorn, Ur,

Runes without precedent in the historical runes are Tel (a crossed ring, similar to the

Awards and decorations

• Military Merit Cross, 3rd class with war decoration and Swords (Austria-Hungary)
• Military Merit Medal in Silver and in Bronze, on ribbon of the Military Merit Cross with Swords (Austria-Hungary)
• Military Jubilee Cross
• Jubilee Commemorative Medal
• Memorial Cross 1912/13
• Karl Troop Cross
• Wound Medal (Austria-Hungary)
• War Commemorative Medal (Austria) with Swords
• Anschluss Medal
• Sudetenland Medal
• War Merit Cross, 1st and 2nd class with Swords
• SS Honour Ring
• SS Honour Sword

Footnotes