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 co-founder, with Heinrich Himmler, of the Ahnenerbe,
whose director he was until 1937 (Wolfram Sievers, his disciple, was
general secretary) ; the Ahnenerbe, as stated by Himmler himself,
aimed at "studying the space (Raum), the spirit, (Geist), the deeds
and the heritage (Erbe) of the Nordic Indo-Germanic race, and to
inform the people of the results of that research in an interesting
form". As a matter of fact, Wirth, who specialised in the study of
the origin of the Aryan race, wanted his research to have an
influence especially on the people, and he struggled against German
bureaucracy to be able to present the results of that research in
public, which led him to give conferences, for instance, under
marquees. In the early 1920's, his studies on symbols and popular art
in the Netherlands had led him to interview old Frisian farmers still
bearers of oral traditions. From those studies, he drew the
conclusion that symbols originate in Prehistory and are the first
graphic language of man, and that symbols, remaining constant through
the centuries, are more valid, as testimonies of the 'golden age',
than myths, since myths, as for them, vary and are subject to
distortions through time.
Like Bachofen, whose views were criticised and rectified by Evola in
this respect, he uphold the thesis of an original matriarchy ; he
considered the main representatives of the Third Reich as modern
incarnations of the Männerbünde, which, according to him, destroyed,
with the aid of Wotanism and of Christianity, the cult of the Mothers
which was peculiar to the Atlantean-Arctic matriarchal civilisation ;
thus, the "researches into prehistory (...) of Herman Wirth" can
hardly be said to "verify the ancient myths of the Nordic, solar
origin of culture".
Like Tilak, whose main work ('The Arctic Home of the Vedas')
influenced much his thought, he uphold the theory of the Polar origin
of the Aryan race. Evola, who shared this view, was acquainted with
Wirth's theories from the publication of one of the latter's most
famous work, 'Der Aufgang der Menschheit' (Iena, 1928) : "Wirth, he
wrote in 1930, in a heavy and most controversial work (...) has
supported that, to explain so many convergences and so many
correspondences of symbols, of anthropological and philological data,
etc., it is necessary to admit the existence of a primordial Nordic
race, which, in the Age of Stone, emigrated from the Arctic regions
to the South, giving birth to the highest forms of a civilisation of
a cosmic-solar type."
EvolA's most systematic analysis of 'Der Aufgang der Menschheit' was
published in 1929 in Krur ; this article is called 'Sul simbolismo
dell'anno' ('The Symbolism of the Year'). Wirth's theories were also
discussed, still in Krur, by Arvo in an essay called 'Sulla
tradizione iperborea' ('The Hyperborean Tradition'). None of those
essays can be found in the American edition of the writings of Ur and
Krur. Actually, Evola reviewed 'Der Aufgang der Menschheit' in the
paper 'Bilychnis' in 1931 ; we may publish this review in English in
the coming days. It's called 'Nota critica sull'opera di H. Wirth'.
In its first part, Evola summarised Wirth's main theses ; in its
second part, he discussed and assessed them from his point of view.
And so did he, later, in the seventh chapter of 'Il Mito del sangue'
(1937) : 'Il mito artico'.
"The attempts of Wirth - who was disliked by the scientific
community, and not only because of his heretical theses and of some
of his clearly fanciful and erroneous conclusions - were taken by
Evola with more and more caution", Alberto Lombardo says.
Yet, "Evola's judgement on Herman Wirth was never completely
negative. All things considered, the method of the Dutch was not so
different from that of Evola (...) What differentiates them is the
lack, in the former, of any traditional reference". We couldn't agree
more.
Besides, to Wirth, anti-Semitism was a "waste of time".
Thompkins&Cariou
--- In
evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "Gerulf"
<hailtocryptogram@h...> wrote:
> 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, I found this to be an interesting fact. As I
began
> to read more of Evola's writings and books, the notion of
> Wirth's
> influence faded to the background. Recently, re-reading various
> biographical texts about Evola on the net, I was reminded of him
being
> influenced by Wirth.
>
> "Herman Wirth was one of the world's greatest archeologists and
> anthropologists. Dr. Wirth was a Dutch University lecturer who had
> chosen German nationality and became a volunteer in the German Army
> from 1914 to 1918. Later, he was known in university circles for his
> controversial works on the Middle Ages and Germanic antiquity. He
> joined the NSDAP in 1925 and left it in 1926 only to return in 1933.
> In these years he wrote the classic work on Teutonic mythology and
its
> impressions on anthropology of the race known as What is the German
> Soul? Dr. Wirth had the good fortune, so to speak, to meet Heinrich
> Himmler at the home of mutual friends at a party during the autumn
of
> 1934. At that time they sketched out the outline of a learned
society
> with the name Ahnenerbe, the object of which would be to study and
> research Germanic antiquity for the purpose of supporting national
> socialist beliefs by scientific proof. The Reichsführer-SS was very
> favorably impressed with the idea as fostered by Wirth because it
lay
> so close to his own preoccupations, and the society was set up in
1935
> with the status of a learned society. The spirit of the work was
> summed up in the words of one of the Dutch research experts, who
> worked with the Ahnenerbe: "After more than a thousand years of the
> spiritual dictatorship of Judaic Christianity over Europe, we find
it
> necessary to reprove everything!" No domain of human knowledge was
to
> remain extraneous to the organization. The research came under three
> main headings: Erbe, heritage; Raum, space; and Geist, spirit or
mind.
> In this way prehistory could coexist with geopolitics and philosophy
> with biology. The works of this organization were profound and many
of
> their papers and studies are used by scientists and archeologists,
> today."
>
>
http://www.germaniainternational.com/ahnenerbe2.html
>
> Martin Schwarz speaks of Wirth's influence on Evola in his article
> `Julius Evola, A Philosopher in the Age of the Wolf, An
> Appreciation
> for his 100th Anniversary':
>
> "In addition, Evola was much influenced by researches into
> prehistory,
> for instance those of Herman Wirth, which were able to verify the
> ancient myths of the Nordic, solar origin of culture. However, in
> Evola's traditional reconstruction of the Primordial Tradition this
> took on a very different meaning from what Wirth had given it."
>
> Evola himself mentions Wirth in his article `Hitler and the Secret
> Societies':
>
> "In the first place, one can see clearly the intention of
> Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler to create an Order in which
> elements
> of Prussian ethics were to be combined with those of the old Orders
of
> knighthood, especially the Teutonic Order. He was looking for
> legitimation of such an organization, but could not obtain it, since
> these old Orders of Catholicism were openly opposed by the radical
> wing of National Socialism. Himmler was also seeking, without the
> possibility of any traditional connection, a relationship to the
> Nordic-Hyperborean heritage and its symbolism (Thule), albeit
without
> those "secret societies" discussed above having any influence over
it.
> He took notice, as did Rosenberg, of the researches of the
> Netherlander Herman Wirth into the Nordic-Atlantic tradition. Later
> Himmler founded, with Wirth, the research and teaching organization
> called the "Ahnenerbe." This is not without interest, but there was
no
> "occult background" to it."
>
> My question now is, if someone could enlighten me further on this
> `connection' between Wirth and Evola (or perhaps better:
> Wirth's
> influence on Evola).
>
> Thank you,
>
> Gerulf