Roots of apocalypse

Would you buy a used futhark from this man?

"The occult roots of Nazism" is not a sensationalist work claiming that Hitler was a Satanist or demoniac. Rather, it's a perfectly serious and scholarly work. The author, Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, is a British professor specializing in the relationship between occultism and right-wing extremism, an admittedly obscure subject.

The book deals with the Thule Society, the Germanenorden and other occult groups in interwar Germany and Austria. Guido von List, Jörg Lanz von Liebenfels and Rudolf von Sebottendorff are featured. It turns out that fascist occultism was simply a more extreme, exotic version of "völkisch" nationalism, a much broader movement. The function of occultism, in the author's opinion, was to sacralize the purported traditions of völkisch German nationalism, thereby turning them into really timeless truths (and religious dogmas).

Inevitably, a book of this kind must confront the question of whether the Third Reich and the Nazi party were in some sense "occult". After all, the Nazis did use the swastika as their symbol, and so did some of the "Ariosophist" groups. Was Hitler himself influenced by this kind of evil occultism? Goodrick-Clarke believes that the influence, if any, must have been negligible. Hitler may have been an avid reader of the occult magazine "Ostara" and apparently sought out its editor Lanz to purchase back issues. The hysterical anti-Semitism of the magazine would have appealed to Hitler, but overall, there is little resemblance between the ideas of Lanz and later National Socialism. Goodrick-Clarke rejects other testimonies, according to which Hitler was influenced by Guido von List (although he may have read his works). A more promising line of evidence is that the Nazi party was originally established by the occultist Thule Society. However, the society seems to have been broader than the occultist milieu, and the Nazi party disavowed all occult connections when Hitler took it over. Indeed, Hitler even heckles the occultists in "Mein Kampf".

However, Goodrick-Clarke does manage to find one connection between occultism and Nazism. Himmler actually believed in occultist lore, and was influenced by one Karl Maria Willigut, an "Irminist" neo-pagan whom Himmler promoted to a high-ranking position within the SS. The occult-inspired symbolism of the SS was apparently the work of Willigut. Goodrick-Clarke calls him "Himmler's magus". Wikipedia, less charitably, calls him Himmler's Rasputin!

On balance, however, it must be concluded that Nazi evil was human, all too human.

"The occult roots of Nazism" is a very well written book, and a relatively easy read, despite the obscure subject. It's already something of a classic, and deserves all its five stars.