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The 'connection' between Herman Wirth and Julius Evola   Topic List   < Prev Topic  |  Next Topic >
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Herman Wirth and Julius Evola

We undertook to give a summary of Evola's views on Wirth's theory
three years ago (see 192/193/697/799). Our attention has just been
drawn to a booklet called 'Ultima Thule. Julius Evola e Herman Wirth',
by A. Branwen, which was published last year by Quaderni del Veltro.

The following text is the review of A. Branwen's booklet, which,
closely akin as it is to our summary, goes further, examining Wirth's
theory comprehensively. The main reason it is posted here lies in the
excerpts in English it contains of 'Il Mito del sangue'.

"In this short monograph, Arthur Branwen shows the influence of Herman
Wirth on the thought of Julius Evola and clarifies how Evola adapted
Wirth's ideas on the origins of Western civilisation. Herman Wirth
(1885-1981) was born in Holland, becoming a German citizen in 1910. He
headed up the Ahnenerbe from its founding in 1935 until 1937. Wirth's
masterpiece, titled Der Aufgang de Menshheit: Untersuchungen zur
Geschichte der Religion, Symbolik und Schrift der atlantish-nordischen
Rasse ("The Ascent of Mankind: Investigations on the History of the
Religion, Symbols, and Writings of the Atlantic-Nordic Race"),
appeared in 1928. As far as I know, it has never been translated into
English, and copies in the used book market run around € 500. Evola
devotes an entire chapter in Il mito del sangue (MS) ("The Myth of
Blood") to Wirth's ideas. The following passage, quoted in full in
Branwen's book, summarizes Evola's opinion of Wirth.

Wirth's thesis must be considered as a bold surprise attack, whose
profound directive impulse is to follow extra-scientific intuitions,
which are then justified through very laborious philological,
anthropo-geological, mythological, and symbolic methods … But as the
contingent balancing and discontinuity of ice floes in a winter stream
say nothing against the continuity of the current that transported
them, so that everything scientifically inexact, arbitrary, fantastic
and unsystematic which is found in Wirth's work must not hide the
strength of the "myth" that animates and directs the whole, its
deepest significance and its character of necessity vis-à-vis the
problems indicated.

The Arctic region would therefore be the original homeland of the
primordial Nordic race …. Once the freeze came about, the pre-Nordic
race -- as the only way to safety -- moved away from the ices in a
Southward direction toward the Atlantic. At this point Wirth accepted
the hypothesis of the existence of Atlantis and believed that the
centre of civilisation and of the Nordic race was found in Atlantis,
which then spread beyond there both to the East toward the European
coast, and to the West toward the American coast.

Wirth claimed to reconstruct not only the history of the
Nordic-Atlantic race, but moreover its religion. It would have been a
superior, monotheistic religion, distinct from the animism and
demonism of the African and Asiatic natives, without dogmas, of a
great purity and potentially universal … The primordial religion of
15,000 BCE would have been solar and compenetrated with the sense of a
universal law of "eternal return", of death and rebirth … So Wirth
speaks of a primordial Nordic monotheism and of a "cosmic Nordic
Christianity" that would therefore date back to thousands of years
before Christ.

Evola traces the origins of the Hyperborean theory not to Wirth, but
to Ludwig Wilser whose book "Origins and Prehistory of the Arians" was
published in 1899. In that work, the Nordist myth appeared for the
first time in a decisive form in German science. It is not ex Oriente
lux, but rather the light from the North. There the theme of Thule
comes up, the legendary polar island, originary homeland of the white
race.

Wirth's influence on Evola is both in his conclusions – although Evola
differs from Wirth in fundamental ways – as well as in his methods.
This influence is most obvious in Revolt against the Modern World
(RAMM) and in the German edition of Pagan Imperialism. Obviously,
Wirth's methodology of the analysis of myths, symbols, sagas, and
legends is familiar to any reader of RAMM.

Wirth's claim that the Nordic race originated in the Polar Regions
(Hyperborea) and was the seat of an advanced civilisation had the most
importance to Evola. Evola then adapted some of Wirth's conclusions to
fit into his Traditional world view. For example, Evola rejected
Wirth's thesis of a Mother Earth – a lunar conception, and postulated
instead a primordial solar tradition. Nevertheless, Evola's acceptance
of Wirth's Nordic-Arctic hypothesis obligated him to reformulate the
doctrinal bases of the Roman tradition. In the original Italian
edition of Paganismo Pagano, Evola spoke of a Mediterranean tradition.
However, after Wirth, the much revised German edition of Paganismo
Pagano spoke instead of a Nordic tradition and claimed that the Greek
and Roman civilisations were essentially the creations of the Nordic
race.

Evola also fit the scheme into the traditional "ages", now in the
kali-yuga. This relativised Roman history, which then lost its
uniqueness and was just one of the manifestations of Nordic
civilisation. Branwen concludes, "Evola's new universal vision
interpreted the history of Rome and even that of Europe itself as an
important episode, but one of so many of human becoming and cyclic
development."

Evola himself concludes his chapter on Wirth from MS with these words:
… the period preceding liberalism and scientism was characterized by
three fundamental
ideas:
1. The equality of the human race
2. Nordic barbarianism and the origin of every civilisation from the East
3. The Hebraic origin of monotheism
Wirth struck down or overthrew those ideas with these three: …:
1. Humanity is differentiated into distinct races
2. Civilisation did not come from the East, but from the North
3. It was the Nordics who would have known a higher monotheistic
religion well before
the Hebrews

Evola began the chapter in MS with this paragraph:

Oswald Menghin, rector of the University of Vienna, wrote: "More than
any other discipline the science of prehistory has been brought, and
furthermore should be brought, to the centre of the spiritual battle
of our time. I don't believe I am mistaken in asserting that general
prehistory will be the science that will guide the next generation."
In recent years, in many circles, there has been a significant impulse
of return to the origins. The origins here appear under a special,
spiritual light. It will be shown that in primordial times, meanings
and symbols still survived in a pure state, and then were lost,
obfuscated, or altered. Prehistoric research, brought from a level of
disanimated scientific&#8208;archaeological or anthropological positivism to
a level of spiritual synthesis, promises therefore to open new
horizons for the true history of civilisation.

(...)"
http://www.thecivicplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/ultimathule.pdf








Fri May 30, 2008 2:43 pm

evola_as_he_is
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Hello, One of the first things I've read about Julius Evola was that he had been influenced by the Netherlander Herman Wirth. Living in the Netherlands myself,...
Gerulf
lordofthespear Offline Send Email
Sep 5, 2005
12:54 pm

For those who are not familiar with the figure of Herman Felix Wirth (1885-1981), this Dutch scholar, who became a naturalised German citizen, was the...
evola_as_he_is Offline Send Email Sep 5, 2005
8:37 pm

We undertook to give a summary of Evola's views on Wirth's theory three years ago (see 192/193/697/799). Our attention has just been drawn to a booklet called...
evola_as_he_is Offline Send Email May 30, 2008
2:45 pm

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