Occultism in Nazism

The association of Nazism with occultism occurs in a wide range of theories, speculation, and research into
the origins of Nazism and into Nazism's possible relationship with various occult traditions.

Such ideas have flourished as a part of popular culture since at least the early 1940s
(during World War II), and gained renewed popularity starting in the 1960s.
Historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke analyzed the topic in his 1985 book The
Occult Roots of Nazism, in which he argued there were in fact links between some
ideals of Ariosophy and Nazi ideology. He also analyzed the problems of the
numerous popular occult historiography books written on the topic. Goodrick-
Clarke sought to separate empiricism and sociology from the modern mythology of
The "Black Sun"
Nazi occultism that exists in many books which "have represented the Nazi was a symbol used
phenomenon as the product of arcane and demonic influence".[1] He evaluated by the SS. It held
most of the 1960 to 1975 books on Nazi occultism as "sensational and under- esoteric and occult
researched".[2] connotations,
representing a
mystical source of
Ariosophy energy or power.

Historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke's 1985 book, The Occult Roots of Nazism,

discusses the possibility of links between the ideas of the occult and those of Nazism. The book's main
subject is the racist-occult movement of Ariosophy, a major strand of nationalist esotericism in Germany and
Austria during the 19th and early 20th centuries. He introduces his work as "an underground history,
concerned with the myths, symbols, and fantasies that bear on the development of reactionary, authoritarian,
and Nazi styles of thinking," arguing that "fantasies can achieve a causal status once they have been
institutionalized in beliefs, values, and social groups."[3]

In Goodrick-Clarke's view, the Ariosophist movement built on the earlier ideas of the Völkisch movement,
a traditionalist, pan-German response to industrialization and urbanization, but it associated the problems of
modernism specifically with the supposed misdeeds of Freemasonry, Kabbalah, and Rosicrucianism in
order to "prove the modern world was based on false and evil principles". The Ariosophist "ideas and
symbols filtered through to several anti-semitic and Nationalist groups in late Wilhelmian Germany, from
which the early Nazi Party emerged in Munich after the First World War." He demonstrated links between
two Ariosophists and Heinrich Himmler.[3]

Modern mythology
There is a persistent idea, widely canvassed in a sensational genre of literature, that the Nazis
were principally inspired and directed by occult agencies from 1920 to 1945.[4]

Appendix E of Goodrick-Clarke's book is entitled The Modern Mythology of Nazi Occultism. In it, he gives
a highly critical view of much of the popular literature on the topic. In his words, these books describe
Hitler and the Nazis as being controlled by a "hidden power … characterized either as a discarnate entity
(e.g., 'black forces', 'invisible hierarchies', 'unknown superiors') or as a magical elite in a remote age or
distant location".[5] He referred to the writers of this genre as "crypto-historians".[5] The works of the genre,
he wrote,

were typically sensational and under-researched. Complete ignorance of the primary sources was
common to most authors and inaccuracies and wild claims were repeated by each newcomer to
the genre until abundant literature existed, based on wholly spurious 'facts' concerning the
powerful Thule Society, the Nazi links with the East, and Hitler's occult initiation.[6]

In a new preface for the 2004 edition of The Occult Roots of Nazism, Goodrick-Clarke comments that in
1985, when his book first appeared, "Nazi black magic" was regarded as a topic for sensational authors in
pursuit of strong sales."[7]

In his 2002 work Black Sun, which was originally intended to trace the survival of occult Nazi themes in
the postwar period,[8] Goodrick-Clarke considered it necessary to readdress the topic. He devotes one
chapter of the book to "the Nazi mysteries",[9] as he terms the field of Nazi occultism there. Other reliable
summaries of the development of the genre have been written by German historians. The German edition of
The Occult Roots of Nazism includes an essay, "Nationalsozialismus und Okkultismus" ("National
Socialism and Occultism"), which traces the origins of the speculation about Nazi occultism back to
publications from the late 1930s, and which was subsequently translated by Goodrick-Clarke into English.
The German historian Michael Rißmann has also included a longer "excursus" about "Nationalsozialismus
und Okkultismus" in his acclaimed book on Adolf Hitler's religious beliefs.[10]

According to Goodricke-Clarke, the speculation of Nazi occultism originated from "post-war fascination
with Nazism".[4] The "horrid fascination" of Nazism upon the Western mind[11] emerges from the
"uncanny interlude in modern history" that it presents to an observer a few decades later.[4] The idolization
of Hitler in Nazi Germany, its short-lived dominion on the European continent and Nazism's extreme
antisemitism set it apart from other periods of modern history.[11] "Outside a purely secular frame of
reference, Nazism was felt to be the embodiment of evil in a modern twentieth-century regime, a monstrous
pagan relapse in the Christian community of Europe."[11]

By the early 1960s, "one could now clearly detect a mystique of Nazism." [11] A sensationalistic and
fanciful presentation of its figures and symbols, "shorn of all political and historical context", gained ground
with thrillers, non-fiction books, and films and permeated "the milieu of popular culture."[11]

Historiography concerning The Occult Roots of Nazism

The Occult Roots of Nazism is commended for specifically addressing the fanciful modern depictions of
Nazi occultism, as well as carefully reflecting critical scholarly work that finds associations between
Ariosophy and Nazi agency. As scholar Anna Bramwell writes, "One should not be deceived by the title
into thinking that it belongs to the 'modern mythology of Nazi occultism', a world of salacious fantasy
convincingly dismembered by the author in an Appendix,"[12] referring to the various written, depicted, and
produced material that delves into Nazi occultism without providing any reliable or relevant evidence.
Instead, it is through Goodrick-Clarke's work that several scholarly criticisms addressing occult relevance in
conjunction with Ariosophist practices arise.
Historians like Martyn Housden and Jeremy Noakes commend Goodrick-Clarke for addressing the
relationship between Ariosophic ideologies rooted in certain Germanic cultures and the actual agency of
Nazi hierarchy; the problem, as Housden remarks, lies in the efficacy of these Ariosophic practices. As he
remarks, "The true value of this study, therefore, lies in its painstaking elucidation of an intrinsically
fascinating subculture which helped colour rather than cause aspects of Nazism. In this context, it also
leaves us pondering a central issue: why on earth were Austrian and German occultists, just like the Nazi
leadership, quite so susceptible to, indeed obsessed by, specifically aggressive racist beliefs anyway?"[13]
Noakes continues this general thought by concluding, "[Goodrick-Clarke] provides not only a definitive
account of the influence of Ariosophy on Nazism, a subject which is prone to sensationalism, but also
fascinating insights into the intellectual climate of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century."[14] These
reviews reflect the greatest dilemmas in Nazi occultist scholarship; the discernment between actual efficacy
of possible occult practices by Nazi leaders, purpose of these practices, and modern notions and
applications of occultism today largely impact the appropriate scholarship in general in making connections
between plausible Nazi Ariosophic practices and blatant popular myth.[12]

The linkages Goodrick-Clarke makes concerning Ariosophy and German society are further detailed in
Peter Merkl's Political Violence under the Swastika, in which "pre-1933 Nazis", various NSDAP members,
volunteered to write their memoirs and recollections about the rise of the Nazi Party in order to provide a
coherent, statistical analysis of the motivations and ideals these early members hoped to pursue in German
politics. From the findings, Merkl has found, through statistical evidence, that there were aspects of
ideology within German society that favored intense German nationalism, ranging from what was
considered to be a "German Romantic", one who was "beholden to the cultural and historical traditions of
old Germany..."[15] to someone classified as a part of an alleged "Nordic/Hitler Cult", one who followed
Voelkisch (traditional, antisemitic) beliefs. To further prove the point, Merkl discovered that of those willing
to submit their testimonies, "Protestants tended to be German Romantics, Catholics to be anti-Semites,
superpatriots, and solidarists. Areas of religious homogeneity were particularly high in anti-Semitism or in
the Nordic-German cult,"[16] of which members of both religious groups were prone to "Judenkoller", an
alleged sudden and violent sickness that would manifest either in blatant hatred or hysteria at being within
proximity of Jews. Coincidentally, Merkl mentions a relationship to this Nordic/German-agrarian cult in
relation to the 19th century to a "crypto-Nazi tradition", despite being written ten years prior to The Occult
Roots of Nazism.

Some of this modern mythology even touches Goodrick-Clarke's topic directly. The rumor that Adolf Hitler
had encountered the Austrian monk and antisemitic publicist Lanz von Liebenfels, already at the age of 8, at
Heilgenkreuz abbey, goes back to Les mystiques du soleil (1971) by Michel-Jean Angbert. "This episode is
wholly imaginary."[17]

Nevertheless, Michel-Jean Angbert and the other authors discussed by Goodrick-Clarke present their
accounts as real, so that this modern mythology has led to several legends that resemble conspiracy theories,
concerning, for example, the Vril Society or rumours about Karl Haushofer's connection to the occult. The
most influential books were Trevor Ravenscroft's The Spear of Destiny and The Morning of the Magicians
by Pauwels and Bergier.

Claims
One of the earliest claims of Nazi occultism can be found in Lewis Spence's book Occult Causes of the
Present War (1940). According to Spence, Alfred Rosenberg and his book The Myth of the Twentieth
Century were responsible for promoting pagan, occult and anti-Christian ideas that motivated the Nazi
party.

Demonic possession of Hitler

For a demonic influence on Hitler, Hermann Rauschning's Hitler Speaks is brought forward as a source.[18]
However, most modern scholars do not consider Rauschning reliable.[19] (As Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
summarises, "recent scholarship has almost certainly proved that Rauschning's conversations were mostly
invented".)[20]

Similarly to Rauschning, August Kubizek, one of Hitler's closest friends since childhood, claims that Hitler
—17 years old at the time—once spoke to him of "returning Germany to its former glory"; of this comment
August said, "It was as if another being spoke out of his body, and moved him as much as it did me."[21]

An article "Hitler's Forgotten Library" by Timothy Ryback, published in The Atlantic (May 2003),[22]
mentions a book from Hitler's private library authored by Ernst Schertel. Schertel, whose interests included
flagellation, dance, occultism, nudism and BDSM, had been an activist for sexual liberation before 1933.
He had been imprisoned in Nazi Germany for seven months and his doctoral degree was revoked. He is
supposed to have sent a dedicated copy of his 1923 book Magic: History, Theory and Practice to Hitler
some time in the mid-1920s. Hitler is said to have marked extensive passages, including one which reads
"He who does not have the demonic seed within himself will never give birth to a magical world".[23]

Theosophist Alice A. Bailey stated during World War II that Adolf Hitler was possessed by what she called
the Dark Forces.[24] Her follower Benjamin Creme has stated that through Hitler (and a group of equally
evil men around him in Nazi Germany, together with a group of militarists in Japan and a further group
around Mussolini in Italy[25]) was released the energies of the Antichrist,[26][Note 1] which, according to
theosophical teachings is not an individual person but forces of destruction.

According to James Herbert Brennan in his book Occult Reich, Hitler's mentor, Dietrich Eckhart (to whom
Hitler dedicates Mein Kampf), wrote to a friend of his in 1923: "Follow Hitler! He will dance, but it is I
who have called the tune. We have given him the 'means of communication' with Them. Do not mourn for
me; I shall have influenced history more than any other German."[27]

New World Order

Conspiracy theorists "frequently identify German National Socialism among other things as a precursor of
the New World Order".[28] With regard to Hitler's later ambition of imposing the Nazi regime throughout
Europe, Nazi propaganda used the term Neuordnung (often poorly translated as "the New Order", while
actually referring to the "re-structurization" of state borders on the European map and the resulting post-war
economic hegemony of Greater Germany),[29] so one could probably say that the Nazis pursued a new
world order in terms of politics. But the claim that Hitler and the Thule Society conspired to create a New
World Order (a conspiracy theory, put forward on some webpages)[30] is completely unfounded.[31]

Aleister Crowley
There are also unverifiable rumours that the occultist Aleister Crowley sought to contact Hitler during
World War II. Despite several allegations and speculations to the contrary, there is no evidence of such an
encounter.[32] In 1991, John Symonds, one of Crowley's literary executors, published a book: The
Medusa's Head or Conversations Between Aleister Crowley and Adolf Hitler, which has definitively been
shown to be literary fiction.[32] That the edition of this book was limited to 350 also contributed to the
mystery surrounding the topic.[32] Mention of a contact between Crowley and Hitler—without any sources
or evidence—is also made in a letter from René Guénon to Julius Evola dated October 29, 1949, which
later reached a broader audience.[32]

Erik Jan Hanussen

The documentary Hitler and the Occult describes how Hitler "seemed endowed with even greater authority
and charisma" after he had resumed public speaking in March 1927. The narrator states that "this may have
been due to the influence" of the clairvoyant performer and publicist Erik Jan Hanussen. "Hanussen helped
Hitler perfect a series of exaggerated poses", useful for speaking before a huge audience. The documentary
then interviews Dusty Sklar about the contact between Hitler and Hanussen, and the narrator makes the
statement about "occult techniques of mind control and crowd domination."

Whether Hitler had met Hanussen at all is not certain. That he even encountered him before March 1927 is
not confirmed by other sources about Hanussen. In the late 1920s to early 1930s Hanussen made political
predictions in his own newspaper, Hanussens Bunte Wochenschau, that gradually started to favour Hitler,
but until late 1932 these predictions varied.[33] In 1929, Hanussen predicted, for example, that Wilhelm II
would return to Germany in 1930 and that the problem of unemployment would be solved in 1931.[33]

Nazi mysticism, occultism, and science fiction

Nazi mysticism in German culture is further expanded upon within Manfred Nagl's article "SF (Science
Fiction), Occult Sciences, and Nazi Myths", published in the journal Science Fiction Studies. In it, Nagl
writes that the racial narratives described in contemporary German Science Fiction stories, like The Last
Queen of Atlantis, by Edmund Kiss, provide further notions of racial superiority under the auspices of
Ariosophy, Aryanism, and alleged historic racial Mysticism, suggesting that writings associated with
possible Occultism, Ariosophy, or Aryanism were products intended to influence and justify in a socio-
political manner, rather than simply establish cultural heritage. The stories themselves dealt with "...heroes,
charismatic leader types, (who) have been chosen by fate—with the resources of a sophisticated and
extremely powerful technology".[34] Nagl considers science fiction pieces like Atlantis further fueled the
violent persuasiveness of Nazi leaders, such as Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, as further justification
for a "Nazi elite (envisioning) for itself in occupied East European territories".[34] This, in turn, allegedly
propagated public support of Nazi ideology, summated by Nagl as "a tremendous turning back of culture,
away from the age of reason and consciousness, toward the age of a 'sleepwalking certainty', the age of
supra-rational magic".[35] An example of this claim was demonstrated in World War II, when the
Wehrmacht occupied Houska Castle until 1945. The Nazis were said to have conducted experiments[36]
into the occult.[37] According to one source, there were "multiple myths about their supposed occult
involvements there".[38][39] Another source states locals believed that the Nazis had been using the "powers
of Hell" for their experiments. As of early 2020, the castle was open to the public and had been since 1999.
Tourists may visit the chapel with fading frescoes and murals "including pictures of demon-like figures and
animal-like beings".[39]

Crypto-historic books
In the essay that is included in the German edition of The Occult Roots..., H. T. Hakl, an Austrian publisher
of esoteric works,[40] traces the origins of the speculation about Nazism and Occultism back to several
works from the early 1940s. His research was also published in a short book, Unknown sources: National
Socialism and the Occult, translated by Goodrick-Clarke. Already in 1933 a pseudonymous Kurt van
Emsen described Hitler as a "demonic personality", but his work was soon forgotten.[41] The first allusions
that Hitler was directed by occult forces which were taken up by the later authors came from French
Christian esotericist René Kopp.[42] In two articles published in the monthly esoteric journal Le Chariot
from June 1934 and April 1939, he seeks to trace the source of Hitler's power to supernatural forces.[42]
The second article was titled: "L'Enigme du Hitler".[42] In other French esoteric journals of the 1930s, Hakl
could not find similar hints.[42] In 1939 another French author, Edouard Saby, published a book: Hitler et
les Forces Occultes.[43] Saby already mentions Hanussen and Ignaz Trebitsch-Lincoln.[44] Hakl even hints
that Edouard Saby would have the copyright on the myth of Nazi occultism.[44] However, another
significant book from 1939 is better known: Hermann Rauschning's Hitler Speaks. There it is said (in the
chapter "Black and White Magic"), that "Hitler surrendered himself to forces that carried him away. … He
turned himself over to a spell, which can, with good reason and not simply in a figurative analogy, be
described as demonic magic." The chapter "Hitler in private" is even more dramatic, and was left out in the
German edition from 1940.[45]

Goodrick-Clarke examines several pseudo-historic "books written about Nazi occultism between 1960 and
1975", that "were typically sensational and under-researched".[46] He terms this genre "crypto-history", as
its defining element and "final point of explanatory reference is an agent which has remained concealed to
previous historians of National Socialism".[5] Characteristic tendencies of this literature include: (1) "a
complete ignorance of primary sources" and (2) the repetition of "inaccuracies and wild claims", without
the attempt being made to confirm even "wholly spurious 'facts'".[47] Books debunked in Appendix E of
The Occult Roots of Nazism are:

Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier, 1960, The Morning of the Magicians[48]
Dietrich Bronder, 1964, Bevor Hitler kam[49]
Trevor Ravenscroft, 1972, The Spear of Destiny[50]
Michel-Jean Angbert, 1971, Les mystiques du soleil[17]
J. H. Brennan, 1974, The Occult Reich[49]
Otto Rahn, 1937, Luzifers Hofgesind, eine Reise zu den guten Geistern Europas (Lucifer's
Court: A Heretic's Journey in Search of the Light Bringers).
These books are only mentioned in the Appendix. Otherwise the whole book by Goodrick-Clarke does
without any reference to this kind of literature; it uses other sources. This literature is not reliable; however,
books published after the emergence of The Occult Roots of Nazism continue to repeat claims that have
been proven false:

Wulf Schwarzwaller, 1988, The Unknown Hitler[51]

 Alan Baker, 2000, Invisible Eagle. The History of Nazi Occultism[52]

Documentaries
More than 60 years after the end of the Third Reich, Nazism and Adolf Hitler have become a recurring
subject in history documentaries. Among these documentaries, there are several that focus especially on the
potential relations between Nazism and occultism, such as the History Channel's documentary Hitler and
the Occult.[53][54] As evidence of Hitler's "occult power" this documentary offers, for example, the
infamous statement by Joachim von Ribbentrop of his continued subservience to Hitler at the Nuremberg
Trials.[55] After the author Dusty Sklar has pointed out that Hitler's suicide happened at the night of April
30/May 1, which is Walpurgis Night, the narrator continues: "With Hitler gone, it was as if a spell had been
broken." A much more plausible reason for Hitler's suicide (that does not involve the paranormal) is that the
Red Army had already closed to within several hundred meters of Hitler's bunker and he did not want to be
captured alive.

From the perspective of academic history, these documentaries on

Nazism, if ever commented, are seen as problematic because they
do not contribute to an actual understanding of the problems that
arise in the study of Nazism and Neo-Nazism. Without referring to
a specific documentary Mattias Gardell, a historian who studies
contemporary separatist groups, writes:

In documentaries portraying the Third Reich, Hitler is

cast as a master magician; these documentaries typically
include scenes in which Hitler is speaking at huge mass
meetings. [...] Cuts mix Hitler screaming with regiments
marching under the sign of the swastika. Instead of
providing a translation of his verbal crescendos, the
sequence is overlaid with a speaker talking about
something different. All this combines to demonize Hitler
as an evil wizard spellbinding an unwitting German
people to become his zombified servants until they are Hitler speaking at a huge mass
liberated from the spell by the Allied victory after which, meeting, the Nuremberg Rally 1934

suddenly, there were no German Nazis left among the

populace. How convenient it would be if this image were
correct. National socialism could be defeated with garlic.
Watchdog groups could be replaced with a few vampire
killers, and resources being directed into anti-racist
community programs could be directed at something else.
[...] The truth, however, is that millions of ordinary
German workers, farmers and businessmen supported the
national socialist program. [...] They were people who
probably considered themselves good citizens, which is
far more frightening than had they merely been
demons.[56]
Hitler and the Occult includes a scene in which Hitler is seen as speaking at a huge mass meeting. While
Hitler's speech is not translated, the narrator talks about the German occultist and stage mentalist Erik Jan
Hanussen: "Occultists believe, Hanussen may also have imparted occult techniques of mind control and
crowd domination on Hitler" (see below). Historians have dismissed myths such as those about Erik Jan
Hanussen.

Ernst Schäfer's expedition to Tibet

At least one documentary, Hitler's Search for the Holy Grail, includes footage from the 1939 German
expedition to Tibet. The documentary describes it as "the most ambitious expedition" of the SS. This
original video material was made accessible again by Marco Dolcetta in his series Il Nazismo Esoterico in
1994.[57] An interview that Dolcetta conducted with Schäfer does not support the theories of Nazi
occultism, neither does Reinhard Greve's 1995 article Tibetforschung im SS Ahnenerbe (Tibet Research
Within the SS Ahnenerbe),[58] although the latter does mention the occult thesis.[57] Hakl comments that
Greve should have emphasized more strongly the unreliability of authors like Bergier and Pauwels or
Angbert.[57] Ernst Schäfer's expedition report explicitly remarks on the "worthless goings-on" by "a whole
army of quacksalvers" concerning Asia and especially Tibet.[57]

List of documentaries

German
Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's Hitler – Ein Film aus Deutschland (http://www.german-cinema.de/
archive/film_view.php?film_id=404) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20060207075153/
http://www.german-cinema.de/archive/film_view.php?film_id=404) 2006-02-07 at the
Wayback Machine (Hitler, A Film From Germany) (1977). Originally presented on German
television, this is a seven-hour work in four parts: The Grail; A German Dream; The End Of
Winter's Tale; We, Children Of Hell. The director uses documentary clips, photographic
backgrounds, puppets, theatrical stages, and other elements from almost all the visual arts,
with the "actors" addressing directly the audience/camera, in order to approach and expand
on this most taboo subject of European history of the 20th century.
Schwarze Sonne (1998) documentary by Rüdiger Sünner. Sünner also produced a book to
accompany this documentary.

English
The Occult History of the Third Reich (1991), narrated by Patrick Allen, directed by Dave
Flitton.[59]
Adolf Hitler
The SS: Blood and Soil
The Enigma of the Swastika
Himmler the Mystic
Unsolved Mysteries of World War II (1992): Occult & Secrets, also known as Volume 3 in the
series. (Different releases contain different episodes.)[60][61][62]
Hitler's Secret Weapons
The Riddle of Rudolph Hess
Himmler's Castle: Wewelsburg
 The Last Days of Hitler
Decision At Dunkirk
Stalin's Secret Armies
In 1994, Channel 4 aired a Michael Wood documentary entitled Hitler's Search for the Holy
Grail, as part of its "Secret History" series.[63]
Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy (1998), directed by Tracy Atkinson and Joan Baran, narrated
by Malcolm McDowell.
Decoding the Past episode: The Nazi Prophecies (2005) by The History Channel.[64][65]

See also
Germany portal

Religion portal

Adolf Hitler in popular culture

Ariosophy
Ahnenerbe
Black Sun (symbol)
Esoteric Nazism
Esotericism in Germany and Austria
German Christians (movement)
Julleuchter
Magic: History, Theory and Practice
Nazi archaeology
Nazi UFOs
Nazis: The Occult Conspiracy
The Occult History of the Third Reich
Positive Christianity
Protestant Reich Church
Religion in Nazi Germany
Religious aspects of Nazism
Religious views of Adolf Hitler
Walter Johannes Stein

References

Citations
1. Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 218–225.
2. Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (1992) [1985]. "Appendix E: The Modern Mythology of Nazi
Occultism". The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi
Ideology (https://books.google.com/books?id=9ZzWRz9x8mwC). New York: New York
University Press. p. 224. ISBN 9780814730607. Retrieved 13 October 2022. "Books written
about Nazi occultism between 1960 and 1975 were typically sensational and under-
researched."
3. The Occult Roots of Nazism, Introduction.
 4. Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 217.
5. Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 218.
6. Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 224, 225
7. Goodrick-Clarke 2004: vi.
8. Goodrick-Clarke 2002: 6.
9. Goodrick-Clarke 2002: 107–128.
10. Rißmann 2001: 137–172.
11. Goodrick-Clarke 2002: 107.
12. Bramwell, Anna. 1988. "Review". The English Historical Review 103 (407). 156.
13. Housden, Martyn. 1994. "Review". History 79 (255). 179.
14. Noakes, Jeremy. 1988. "Review". History 73 (238) 364.
15. Peter H. Merkl. 1975. Political Violence Under The Swastika: 581 Early Nazis. Princeton,
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16. Peter H. Merkl. 1975. Political Violence Under The Swastika: 581 Early Nazis. Princeton,
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17. Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 224.
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20. Goodrick-Clarke (2003: 110). The best that can be said for Rauschning's claims may be
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21. "Hitler and the Holy Roman Empire" (https://web.archive.org/web/20070927213128/http://ww
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ack). The Atlantic, May 2003. Accessed 27 June 2009.
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10238075-new-translation-of-german-book-links-hitler-to-satanism.html) (press release).
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revelations by Alice A. Bailey) Lucis Publishing Co. p. 425
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revelations by Alice A. Bailey) Lucis Publishing Co. p. 258
26. Creme, Benjamin Maitreya's Mission – Volume III Amsterdam:1997 Share International
Foundation p. 416
27. Kurlander, Eric. Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich. (https://books.go
ogle.com/books?id=cIMlDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22will+dance%2C+but+it+is+i+who+will+call+th
e+tune%22%2B%22eric+kurlander%22&pg=PT80) Yale University Press. 2017. Retrieved
on 26 Dec. 2022
28. Goodrick-Clarke 2002: 288.
29. Safire, William. "On Language; The New, New World Order" (https://www.nytimes.com/1991/
02/17/magazine/on-language-the-new-new-world-order.html). The New York Times,
February 17, 1991. Accessed 27 June 2009.
30. "Historic Results of Hitler's Thule Societies pursuit of the NWO" (https://web.archive.org/web/
20070207074923/http://www.newswatchmagazine.org/weekly_editor/9.22.00.htm). Archived
from the original (http://www.newswatchmagazine.org/weekly_editor/9.22.00.htm) on
February 7, 2007.
31. Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 201; Johannes Hering, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Thule-
Gesellschaft, typescript dated June 21, 1939, Bundesarchiv, Koblenz, NS26/865.
32. Hakl 1997: 205.
33. Frei 1980: 85.
34. Nagl, Manfred. "SF, Occult Sciences, and Nazi Myths". Science Fiction Studies. 1 (3): 190.
35. Nagl, Manfred. "SF, Occult Sciences, and Nazi Myths". Science Fiction Studies 1 (3): 188.
36. www.praguevisitor.eu. Gateway to Hell - Houska Castle (https://web.archive.org/web/201610
18093624/http://www.praguevisitor.eu/hauntedprague/). Retrieved on 11 Oct. 2023
37. Curran, Bob. The Scariest Places in the World (https://books.google.com/books?id=dS-EAA
AAQBAJ&dq=Houska+castle+nazis&pg=PA86). page 86. Retrieved on 11 Oct. 2023
38. |Houska Castle Blatce, Czechia |Folklore says this medieval fortress was plopped atop a
portal to hell to trap the demons below |29 January 2018 (https://www.atlasobscura.com/plac
es/houska-castle)
39. Schimanski, Annette (April 24, 2020). "In dieser Burg wird der Eingang zur Unterwelt
vermutet" (https://www.travelbook.de/mystery/burg-houska-tschechien) (in German).
40. Entry for Hans Thomas Hakl (http://d-nb.info/gnd/123134625) from the German National
Library.
41. Hakl 1997: 209.
42. Hakl 1997: 210.
43. Hakl 1997: 212.
44. Hakl 1997: 214.
45. Hakl 1997: 211.
46. Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 224, 225.
47. Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 225.
48. Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 219–220.
49. Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 221.
50. Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 221–223.
51. If The Unknown Hitler is quoted correctly in The Vril Society, the Luminous Lodge and the
Realization of the Great Work (http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/NWO/Vril_Society.htm),
then this book makes false allegations about Karl Haushofer and G. I. Gurdjieff.
52. Chapter 5 of the Free online version (http://plausible.custompublish.com/getfile.php/217726.
476.xauysabydy/invisible.eagle_alan.baker.pdf) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2007
0715143102/https://plausible.custompublish.com/getfile.php/217726.476.xauysabydy/invisib
le.eagle_alan.baker.pdf) 2007-07-15 at the Wayback Machine of Invisible Eagle is mainly
based on Ravenscroft.
53. The History Channel online Store: The Unknown Hitler DVD Collection (http://store.aetv.co
m/html/product/index.jhtml?id=76782) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/200711060231
16/http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=76782) 2007-11-06 at the Wayback
Machine
54. Another critique of Hitler documentaries: Mark Schone – All Hitler, all the time (http://www1.s
alon.com/may97/media/media970508.html) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20120129
163121/http://www1.salon.com/may97/media/media970508.html) 2012-01-29 at the
Wayback Machine
55. "Even with all I know, if in this cell Hitler should come to me and say 'Do this!', I would still do
it." – Joachim von Ribbentrop, 1946
56. Gardell 2003, 331, 332
57. Hakl 1997: 204
58. Reinhard Greve: Tibetforschung im SS Ahnenerbe; in: Thomas Hauschild: Lebenslust durch
Fremdenfurcht, Frankfurt (Main), 1995, pp. 168–209.
59. Hitler and the Occult DVD (http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=72289) Archived
(https://web.archive.org/web/20071102061456/http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?
id=72289) 2007-11-02 at the Wayback Machine
60. Unsolved Mysteries of World War II Collection. ASIN 6305202885 (https://www.amazon.com/
dp/6305202885).
61. "Unsolved Mysteries of World War II: Decision at Dunkirk/Stalin's Secret Armies DVD" (http://
www.bestprices.com/cgi-bin/vlink/056775007195.html).
62. Unsolved Mysteries of WWII. ASIN 6305202958 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/6305202958).
63. Robin Cross, "The Nazi Expedition (http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/n-
s/nazimyths.html)"
64. "Decoding the Past: Nazi Prophecies" (https://web.archive.org/web/20071102201337/http://
www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/tv_guide/full_details/Conflict/programme_3089.php).
Archived from the original (http://www.thehistorychannel.co.uk/site/tv_guide/full_details/Confl
ict/programme_3089.php) on November 2, 2007.
65. Decoding The Past: Nazi Prophecies DVD (http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id
=74536&browseCategoryId=&location=&parentcatid=&subcatid=) Archived (https://web.arch
ive.org/web/20071102061502/http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=74536&brow
seCategoryId=&location=&parentcatid=&subcatid=) 2007-11-02 at the Wayback Machine

Other references
Bruno Frei. 1980. Der Hellseher: Leben und Sterben des Erik Jan Hanussen. Antonia
Gruneberg, ed. Cologne: Prometh (in German).
Mattias Gardell. 2003. Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism.
Durham, NC: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0822330714.

Further reading
Igor Barinov. 2013. Tabu i mify Tret'ego Reikha (Taboo and Myths of the Third Reich).
Moscow, Pskov. ISBN 978-5945422896.
Carrie B. Dohe. Jung's Wandering Archetype: Race and Religion in Analytical Psychology.
London: Routledge, 2016 ISBN 978-1138888401.
Florian Evers. 2011. Vexierbilder des Holocaust. LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN 978-
3643111906.
Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. 1985. The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their
Influence on Nazi Ideology: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890–1935.
Wellingborough, England: The Aquarian Press. ISBN 0850304024. (Several reprints.)
Expanded with a new Preface, 2004, I.B. Tauris & Co. ISBN 1860649734.
 Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. 2002. Black Sun: Aryan Cults, Esoteric Nazism and the Politics of
Identity. New York University Press. ISBN 0814731244. (Paperback, 2003.
ISBN 0814731554)
Hans Thomas Hakl. 1997: Nationalsozialismus und Okkultismus. (in German) In: Nicholas
Goodrick-Clarke: Die okkulten Wurzeln des Nationalsozialismus. Graz, Austria: Stocker
(German edition of The Occult Roots of Nazism)
Hans Thomas Hakl. National Socialism and the Occult, Edmonds, WA, Holmes Publishing
Group, 2000. ISBN 978-1558184701.
Eric Kurlander. Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0300189452.
Michael Rißmann. 2001. Hitlers Gott. Vorsehungsglaube und Sendungsbewußtsein des
deutschen Diktators (in German). esp. pp. 137–172; Zürich, Munich. Pendo
Julian Strube. 2012. Die Erfindung des esoterischen Nationalsozialismus im Zeichen der
Schwarzen Sonne (in German). In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft, 20(2): 223–268.

External links
The Occult Roots of Nazism by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (https://web.archive.org/web/2009
0202064741/http://www.lapismagazine.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5
4&Itemid=2) – Short article at www.lapismagazine.org.
Magic Realism – A book review (http://www.ewtn.com/library/NEWAGE/NAZIOCCU.TXT)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20190621003413/http://www.ewtn.com/library/NEWA
GE/NAZIOCCU.TXT) 2019-06-21 at the Wayback Machine by William Main of The Occult
Roots of Nazism, taken from the December 1994 issue of Fidelity magazine.
Nationalsozialismus und Okkultismus? Die Thule-Gesellschaft (http://www.relinfo.ch/thule/inf
o.html) (in German) Article on an information page from the Swiss Reformed Church.
NARA Research Room: Captured German and Related Records on Microform in the
National Archives: Captured German Records Filmed at Berlin (American Historical
Association, 1960). Microfilm Publication T580. 1,002 rolls (https://www.archives.gov/researc
h/captured-german-records/foreign-records-seized.html#berlin), including among, others,
files of the Ahnenerbe and the Nachlass of Walter Darré.
Hitler and the Occult: Nazism, Reincarnation, and Rock Culture (https://www.ewtn.com/catho
licism/library/hitler-and-the-occult-nazism-reincarnation-and-rock-culture-11306).
White Blood, White Gods: An Assessment of Racialist Paganism in the United States (https://
kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/1811/6559/1/White%2520Blood.pdf) – A Senior Honors Thesis
by Damon Berry in June 2006.
"Hitler and the Secret Societies" (https://web.archive.org/web/20000119161810/http://geociti
es.com/CapitolHill/1404/hitlerengl.html) by Julius Evola (from Il Conciliatore, no. 10, 1971;
translated from the German edition in Deutsche Stimme, no. 8, 1998).
Von Aldebaran bis Vril. Interview über esoterischen Neonazismus (http://www.remid.de/blog/
2013/04/von-aldebaran-bis-vril-interview-ueber-esoterischen-neonazismus/) (in German)
Interview, Religionswissenschaftlicher Medien- und Informationsdienst, April 2013.
Dunning, Brian (11 January 2022). "Skeptoid #814: Nazis and the Occult" (https://skeptoid.c
om/episodes/4814). Skeptoid. Retrieved 14 May 2022.

Explanatory notes
1. According to a Christian source, Hitler predicted that the Antichrist will appear one hundred
years after his death and resurrect his ideas. "Hitler is reported by a reputable source to have
said in his bunker: 'In a hundred years time, perhaps a great man will appear who may offer
them a chance of salvation. He will take me as his model, use my ideas and follow the
 course I have charted.' The movie Hitler: The Last Ten Days, from which these words are
taken, was dictated from first-hand testimony. These words are certified as true by the
eyewitness, Rittmeister Gerhard Boldt, who was in the bunker with Hitler. The Bible says that
the Antichrist will persecute Jews and Christians to an extent never before witnessed."[1] (htt
p://www.ramsheadpress.com/messiah/ch23.html)

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