Wikipedia:WikiProject Germanic Mysticism

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About this project

The aim of WikiProject 'Germanic Mysticism, Revivalism and Nazism' is a collaborative effort to contribute to Wikipedia while clarifying the concepts of Germanic Revivalism, Germanic mysticism, and Nazi mysticism, and the differences between them. We aim to provide intelligent, nuanced, three-dimensional coverage of the topic -- not propaganda or simplistic knee-jerk responses, whether "for" or "against."

Members of the Asatru Folk Assembly and the Odinic Rite have done a great deal to demonstrate that Nazi mysticism misrepresents Germanic and Norse neopaganism. The government of Germany, which formerly banned neopagan and runic symbolism, and the Anti-Defamation League have each acknowledged a real distinction between Germanic revivalism and the activities of hate groups.

This is a topic that provokes strong feelings. The aim of this project is to ensure that Wikipedia's coverage is not informed by those strong feelings, but instead by disinterested, intelligent, neutral, and verifiable research.

If you would like to help, please inquire on the talk page.

Scope

The project encompasses issues related to Germanic neopaganism and Nazi mysticism. Specifically:

TO BE ADDED

Articles

Please feel free to list your new projectname-related articles here; newer articles at the top, please. Any new articles that have an interesting or unusual fact in them should be suggested for the Did you know? (DYN) box on the Main Wikipedia page. DYN has a 72-hour time limit from the creation of the article.

Category

• Category:Occultism in Nazism

MORE TO BE ADDED

The category contains articles about the movement, its ideas and philosophy, individual activists, writers, and issues of interest to them.

See also

• Wikipedia:WikiProject Germany
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Religion

Other information

According to The History Channel's "Decoding the Past" episode "The Nazi Prophecies," Guido von List, and not Lanz von Liebenfels, was the founder of Ariosophy. Ariosophy has been termed a theoretical precursor of the Nazi genocide.

The foremost expert on Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfels in the English-speaking world, Stephen E. Flowers, refuses to connect that the theories of List and other early 20th century rune magicians led directly to the excesses of Auschwitz. One German academic, Stefanie von Schnurbein, in commenting on Flower's introduction to 'The Secret of the Runes', in Religion als Kulturkritik [(Winter, 1992), p. 136], states "Dabei erwähnt [Flowers] an keiner Stelle, daß List und die anderen Ariosophen Vordenker des Rassenwahns des Nationalsozialismus waren..." (In this work [Flowers] nowhere mentions that List and the other Ariosophists were intellectual predecessors of the racial madness of National Socialism...").

Although it is now considered conventional wisdom, although Flowers states that this is with “with little to no actual critical investigation,” that the ideas of List, Lanz, and others were directly implemented in the Nazi genocide, it has been argued that because the very term "Ariosophy" was analogous to its predecessor, "Theosophy," that the racial ideas in Ariosophy can be traced to Theosophy. Flowers states that ‘’ “no one has ever shown that racial policies of the NSDAP are based on so-called "Ariosophical" ideas.” ‘’

It has further been stated that even the writing of the most "extreme" of the Ariosophists, Lanz von Liebenfels (cited several times by List in ‘’ ‘The Religion of the Aryo-Germanic Folk: Esoteric and Exoteric)’ ‘’, cannot be definitively linked to the applied anti-Semitism of the Nazis. Apologists for Lanz state that Lanz did not write unfavorably about the Jewish race, that he cooperated with Jewish scholars in many of his publications, and while it can be argued that individual Nazis became familiar with the mystical racism of Theosophy through the works of List and Lanz, it does not necessarily follow that List and Lanz were culpable in the crimes of the Nazis.

Defenders of List and Lanz claim that the Anti-Semitism that drove Nazi policies was much older and more deeply rooted among the peoples of central Europe than can be credited to the "fringe works" of mystics and rune magicians. It has been alleged, for example, that the roots of Nazi Anti-Semitism can be traced to the Lutheran and Roman Catholic Churches as it was the Roman Catholic Church Fathers who first invented ideas about the Jews being an inferior "race," and who drove Anti-Semitic policies right up to and all during the Second World War. (see David Kertzer, Popes Against the Jews [Knopf, 2001].

Concept of "Nazi mysticism" disputed by some scholars

Some scholars argue that the interest of Hitler and other Nazis in paganism and the occult has been overstated and exaggerated.

Authors Stephen A. McNallen, Dr. Stephen E. Flowers Ph.D. (author of The Secret King), and Michael Moynihan have argued that Nazi mysticism is a distortion and misrepresentation of Odinism. [3] [4] [5]

The use of runic symbology, the Germanic mystical revival, the existence of official Nazi government departments for Germanic pagan revivalism and study, however, lends credence to the idea that there was a mystical component to Nazism.

In an article entitled "The Wiligut Saga" which features in the book, The Secret King, Adolf Schleipfer points out the differences between Wiligut's beliefs and those generally accepted within Odinism.

Stephen A. McNallen goes as far as to say that "...the compelling reason for you to own The Secret King is to use it to defend Asatru from the lie that "Hitler was a pagan" or that "Asatruar trace their roots to Nazi Germany." The Secret King proves conclusively that this is not the case. It is a powerful weapon for the truth."

In 2006 Dr. Stephen E. Flowers held an 80 minute lecture on this subject at a Woodharrow Institute convention.

Quotes

• "It seems to me that nothing would be more foolish than to re-establish the worship of Wotan [father of the gods in the German lore]. Our old mythology ceased to be viable when Christianity implanted itself. Nothing dies unless it is moribund." - Adolf Hitler, Hitler's Table Talk, page 61, translated by Norman Cameron and R.H. Stevens, 1953

• "The characteristic thing about these people [modern-day followers of the early Germanic religion] is that they rave about the old Germanic heroism, about dim prehistory, stone axes, spear and shield, but in reality are the greatest cowards that can be imagined. For the same people who brandish scholarly imitations of old German tin swords, and wear a dressed bearskin with bull's horns over their heads, preach for the present nothing but struggle with spiritual weapons, and run away as fast as they can from every Communist blackjack." - Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf, Chapter 12

• "From the beginning of the Third Reich, Odinists were persecuted. In 1933, Rudolf von Sebottendorff was arrested and exiled. The works of Odinist writers such as Lanz von Liebenfels, Ernst Issberner-Haldane and Reinhold Ebertin were banned. Former membership of an Odinist congregation disqualified anyone from holding rank or office within the NSDAP [Nazi Party]. Things quickly became worse. In 1936 Friedrich Marby, a runemaster and follower of [ Wotan worshipper Guido] von List, was arrested and sent to a camp at Flossenberg; he was released from Dachau in 1945. He was not alone. But the full power of the state was not focused on religious minorities until the 9th of June 1941 when the head of the security police, [Reinhardt] Heydrich, banned a large number of spiritual practices. Among the victims were followers of Rudolf Steiner, followers of von List, and traditional Odinists. Their organisations were dissolved, their property confiscated, and many of their leaders arrested." - An article in a 1995 issue of the Australian Odinist magazine Renewal

Notes

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