After Karl Haushofer, Heinrich Himmler, and Adolf Hitler, other
historical figures and groups suspected of occultism are examined by
Dr Hakl : Alfred Rosenberg, Rudolf Hess, Dietrich Eckart, Rudolf
Sebottendorf and the Thule Society, Friedrich Hielscher, Ignàcz
Trebitsch-Lincoln, The Vril Society, The Lodge of the Brothers of
Light and the Society of the Green Dragon, Dr. Ernst Schäfer, Otto
Rahn, Aleister Crowley, and Ariosophy.
From their respective biographies and the documentation consulted by
Dr Hakl on each of those personalities, it appears that none of them
had an occult influence on National Socialism. Either occultism was a
matter of private interest unrelated to their political position
(Hess, especially interested in astrology and astrological
prophecies ; Rahn, in the Cathar movement), or their occult
reputation is based on untrustworthy literature (Eckart,
Sebottendorf) or on their interest in the things of spirit in the
broadest sense (Hielscher "founded a most eccentric 'church' which he
promoted, alongside his philosophical pretences, with great
missionary zeal" ; Ignàcz Trebitsch-Lincoln was very keen on
Buddhism ; Eckart developed a Christian mysticism tinged with racism
and had a deep knowledge of Theosophy and occultism in general). As
far as Crowley is concerned, there are no proofs of a meeting between
Hitler and him ; we may add, no proofs either that the former ever
read his work. Rosenberg's deep interest in Meister Eckart cannot
reasonably be seen as a proof of any involvement in the occult ; it
is more related to his mysticism of race, in that he saw in Meister
Eckart a first combatant of pure German thought. As for Dr. Ernst
Schäfer and the exact circumstances of his expedition to Tibet, we
are referred to a most interesting book by Michael
Kater, 'Das "Ahnenerbe" des SS' (see supra) : "We find there that the
involvement of the SS didn't go further than participation in the
expenses. Kater also writes that it was military information, not
relating so much to Tibet as to the Caucasus, which was the key
purpose. Himmler, once an expert in agriculture, hoped that this
expedition would yield information concerning supplies of animal and
vegetable substances, something which was important owing to
Germany's acute lack of means of subsistence. Schäfer himself was
concerned primarily with historical research regarding the animal
world. A quotation from the report of his expedition should establish
its purely scientific character : "During the past years, prospects
have opened up for a large group of charlatans in the field of
research on Asia. In this respect, Tibet can be seen as a model,
since even the name of that elevated and secluded country is
surrounded by a nimbus of magic and secrecy ... Many scientific
specialists often lack the critical sense and the real insight to
check this worthless drivel ... As for us, however, we have sought to
look at bare reality face to face..."
Vril is a term from a science-fiction novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
called 'Vril : The Power of the Coming Race' and published in 1870 ;
yet, the notion of the 'vril' was first mentioned in the books of the
French writer Jacolliot, French Consul in Calcutta under the Second
Empire. In Bulwer-Lytton's novel, Vril is a mysterious form of energy
possessed by extremely powerful subterranean beings. Various authors,
among them Bergier and Pauwels, have claimed that the Vril
Gesellschaft existed in the Third Reich as an inner core of the Thule
Gesellschaft : its aim was to get hold of the secret knowledge of
this so-called subterranean race in order to make the Teutonic
peoples the rulers of the world.
These are Dr Hakl's conclusions on The Vril Society, The Lodge of the
Brothers of Light and the Society of the Green Dragon (the
Society/Order of the Green Dragon, popularised by Teddy Legrand
in 'La Guerre des cerveaux - Les sept têtes du dragon vert', 1933,
and then by Jean Markale in 'L'Enigme des vampires', Pygmalion, 1991,
is not to be mistaken, contrary to what the latter would like us to
do, for the Order of the Dragon, created in 1408 by Sigismond of
Luxemburg, king of Hungary, for the defence of the Holy Roman Church
against the Turk, and which Vlad Tepes II, and, later, his son,
joined) : "There are no reports confirmed from the historical
standpoint, or documentary proofs, for those groups, as there are for
the Thule Society. For the Vril Society there is a vague hint, which
comes from Dr Willy Ley, the specialist in missiles who emigrated to
the USA. But even if those societies did really exist, this doesn't
imply in any way that they had any concrete power, or that they were
involved in the origin of National Socialism." This hint, given by Dr
Ley to Bergier and Pauwels as they were researching for 'The Morning
of the Magicians', is as follows : "This secret society was founded,
literally, on Bulwer Lytton's novel the Coming Race (1871). The book
describes a race of men psychically far in advance of our own. They
have acquired powers over themselves and over things that made them
almost godlike. For the moment they are in hiding. They are said to
live in caves in the center of the Earth. Soon they will emerge to
reign over us." In 'Aufbruch ins dritte Jahrtausend : von der Zukunft
der phantastischen Vernunft' (1967), Pauwels and Bergier gave a so-
called account of the society, but failed to explain clearly whether
it was fact or fiction.
The Vril Gesellschaft is claimed to have been the first German
nationalist group to use the symbol of the swastika as an emblem.
Guido von List, one of the two leading figures of Ariosophy with Lanz
von Liebenfels, also used the swastika, which he considered as an
occult symbol of salvation, representing the victory of the Aryans
over the inferior races. Now, in 'Mein Kampf', the swastika is
depicted as symbolising " the mission of the struggle for the victory
of the Aryan man, and (...) the victory of the idea of creative work,
which as such always has been and always will be anti-Semitic". In
the same way, it cannot be denied that von List's Ario-Germanic ideal
state is closely akin to Hitler's National Socialist state. However,
Dr Hakl focused on Lanz von Liebenfels, to conclude, on the basis of
Wilfried Daim's book, 'Der Mann, der Hitler die Ideen gab', which
describes the influence which Lanz von Liebenfels had on Hitler, that
it cannot be claimed that "Lanz von Liebenfels, or Ariosophy, which
derives from his writings, was the only force which underlay National
Socialism", but only that "here almost the whole National Socialist
system was anticipated". While it has not been established whether or
not Hitler had a personal contact with the Guido von List Society
during the years he spent in Vienna from 1907-1913 and it would be
dicey to assume that he had from his emphasising in 'Mein Kampf' that
it was in Vienna, where The List Society was influential in the
numerous occult circles which supported völkisch nationalism and anti-
Semitism, that he established "a world picture and a philosophy which
became the granite foundation" of all his actions, Liebenfels claimed
that Hitler visited him in 1909 to get some back issues of 'Ostara',
a magazine by means of which the former spread his racial views and
which was subtitled "Library of Those Who are Blond and Defend the
Rights of the Male" (see Joachim Fest, 'Hitler'). In 'Der Mann, der
Hitler die Ideen gab', Daim quoted an excerpt of a letter from
Liebenfels in 1932 to one of the members of the Order of the New
Templars which he had established in the early 1900's to spread
Ariosophist doctrines : "Do you know that Hitler is one of our
pupils? You will still live to see that he, and thereby we also, will
triumph and kindle a movement that will make the world tremble." Did
Liebenfels exaggerate his own significance, as we have seen that many
personalities did, among them Sebottendorf, in claiming that his own
doctrine was of great importance to the founding of Hitler's National
Socialist movement? Considering what Hitler's racial theory and
Ariosophist racial theory have in common, and that
Hitler's "formative years" took place in the atmosphere of a Vienna
which was suffused with esoteric doctrines, it cannot be ruled out
that von Liebenfels' and von List's thought exercised a
certain "formative" influence on his Weltanschauung. Now, can this
Weltanschauung be considered as an occult one in the sense which is
given by Dr Hakl to this term?
Finally, it should be obvious that it would not be reasonable to
tackle the question of the influences exercised, consciously or
unconsciously, on a statesman, in the same way as one looks at
literary or scientific influences.
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Thu Sep 29, 2005 12:02 pm
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