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"astounding work of scholarship... BIG revelation if you've never come across this stuff before... Thank you Tauris Parke" -The Pillbox (Australian Journal) "This book provides the first serious account of the way in which Nazism was influenced by powerful occult and millenarian sects that thrived in Germany and Austria... This bizarre and fascinating story contains lessons we cannot afford to ignore." -The Anglo-German Review
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Over half a century after the defeat of the Third Reich the complexities of Nazi ideology are still being unravelled. This text is a serious attempt to identify these ideological origins. It demonstrates the way in which Nazism was influenced by powerful occult and millenarian sects that thrived in Germany and Austria at the turn of the century. Their ideas and symbols filtered through to nationalist-racist groups associated with the infant Nazi party and their fantasies were played out with terrifying consequences in the Third Reich: Auschwitz, Sobibor and Treblinka are the hellish museums of the Nazi apocalypse. This bizarre and fascinating story contains lessons we cannot afford to ignore.
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"The occult roots of Nazism" is not a sensationalist work claiming that Hitler was a Satanist or demoniac. Rather, it's a perfectly serious and scholarly work. The author, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, is a British professor specializing in the relationship between occultism and right-wing extremism, an admittedly obscure subject.
The book deals with the Thule Society, the Germanenorden and other occult groups in interwar Germany and Austria. Guido von List, Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels and Rudolf von Sebottendorff are featured. It turns out that fascist occultism was simply a more extreme, exotic version of "völkisch" nationalism, a much broader movement. The function of occultism, in the author's opinion, was to sacralize the purported traditions of völkisch German nationalism, thereby turning them into really timeless truths (and religious dogmas).
Inevitably, a book of this kind must confront the question of whether the Third Reich and the Nazi party were in some sense "occult". After all, the Nazis did use the swastika as their symbol, and so did some of the "Ariosophist" groups. Was Hitler himself influenced by this kind of evil occultism? Goodrick-Clarke believes that the influence, if any, must have been negligible. Hitler may have been an avid reader of the occult magazine "Ostara" and apparently sought out its editor Lanz to purchase back issues. The hysterical anti-Semitism of the magazine would have appealed to Hitler, but overall, there is little resemblance between the ideas of Lanz and later National Socialism. Goodrick-Clarke rejects other testimonies, according to which Hitler was influenced by Guido von List (although he may have read his works). A more promising line of evidence is that the Nazi party was originally established by the occultist Thule Society. However, the society seems to have been broader than the occultist milieu, and the Nazi party disavowed all occult connections when Hitler took it over. Indeed, Hitler even heckles the occultists in "Mein Kampf".
However, Goodrick-Clarke does manage to find one connection between occultism and Nazism. Himmler actually believed in occultist lore, and was influenced by one Karl Maria Willigut, an "Irminist" neo-pagan whom Himmler promoted to a high-ranking position within the SS. The occult-inspired symbolism of the SS was apparently the work of Willigut. Goodrick-Clarke calls him "Himmler's magus". Wikipedia, less charitably, calls him Himmler's Rasputin!
On balance, however, it must be concluded that Nazi evil was human, all too human.
"The occult roots of Nazism" is a very well written book, and a relatively easy read, despite the obscure subject. It's already something of a classic, and deserves all its five stars.
The book deals with the Thule Society, the Germanenorden and other occult groups in interwar Germany and Austria. Guido von List, Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels and Rudolf von Sebottendorff are featured. It turns out that fascist occultism was simply a more extreme, exotic version of "völkisch" nationalism, a much broader movement. The function of occultism, in the author's opinion, was to sacralize the purported traditions of völkisch German nationalism, thereby turning them into really timeless truths (and religious dogmas).
Inevitably, a book of this kind must confront the question of whether the Third Reich and the Nazi party were in some sense "occult". After all, the Nazis did use the swastika as their symbol, and so did some of the "Ariosophist" groups. Was Hitler himself influenced by this kind of evil occultism? Goodrick-Clarke believes that the influence, if any, must have been negligible. Hitler may have been an avid reader of the occult magazine "Ostara" and apparently sought out its editor Lanz to purchase back issues. The hysterical anti-Semitism of the magazine would have appealed to Hitler, but overall, there is little resemblance between the ideas of Lanz and later National Socialism. Goodrick-Clarke rejects other testimonies, according to which Hitler was influenced by Guido von List (although he may have read his works). A more promising line of evidence is that the Nazi party was originally established by the occultist Thule Society. However, the society seems to have been broader than the occultist milieu, and the Nazi party disavowed all occult connections when Hitler took it over. Indeed, Hitler even heckles the occultists in "Mein Kampf".
However, Goodrick-Clarke does manage to find one connection between occultism and Nazism. Himmler actually believed in occultist lore, and was influenced by one Karl Maria Willigut, an "Irminist" neo-pagan whom Himmler promoted to a high-ranking position within the SS. The occult-inspired symbolism of the SS was apparently the work of Willigut. Goodrick-Clarke calls him "Himmler's magus". Wikipedia, less charitably, calls him Himmler's Rasputin!
On balance, however, it must be concluded that Nazi evil was human, all too human.
"The occult roots of Nazism" is a very well written book, and a relatively easy read, despite the obscure subject. It's already something of a classic, and deserves all its five stars.
33 of 38 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This analysis of the occult roots of nazism is very well researched and informative. The persons and ideology, which to some degree influenced nazism, is described in some detail, and as an overview and fact-finder the book is very good.
I do though find the book's tone and attitude rather condescending and persistently negative towards the mystics and scholars described. "Fantasy", "illusions" and other negatively charged terms appear again and again, and I don't find that quite fair. People like List were mystics, and to really understand if their systems have any value, you have to try at least practice their spiritual methodology, and not just come from a "enlightened" positivistic viewpoint. So in this sense, I don't find that the book gives credit enough where it might be due. And the constant negative adjectives used to describe the persons and ideas in question, makes the book seem less objective. A more neutral descriptive tone would have served the book a lot better.
But as stated earlier, a lot of valuable information is made available in the English language, and for that it deserves 4 stars.
Format:Paperback
This really is an excellent book to understand the background and context of Nazism. I really was surprised to learn of Guido Von List, who as the book explains, really begins the movement of mixing occult, anti-jewish, anti-independant women, and German people as the chosen race, which was to finally see its culmination in the SS and Nazism.
It did get me thinking though..... Schindler's Ark was the name of the book which was made into a film by Steven Spielberg; but he changed the film name to Schindler's LIST. With all the research resources available to Universal Studios and Steven Speilberg, why didn't someone point out to them that they were naming the film after a man(Guido Von List) who despised Jews. Now there's a mystery! And to add insult to injury, you can now buy a CD "Guido's Orchestra" from Amazon playing the theme tune from Schindler's List. You couldn't make this up if you tried, could you?
It did get me thinking though..... Schindler's Ark was the name of the book which was made into a film by Steven Spielberg; but he changed the film name to Schindler's LIST. With all the research resources available to Universal Studios and Steven Speilberg, why didn't someone point out to them that they were naming the film after a man(Guido Von List) who despised Jews. Now there's a mystery! And to add insult to injury, you can now buy a CD "Guido's Orchestra" from Amazon playing the theme tune from Schindler's List. You couldn't make this up if you tried, could you?
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