The revival of Germanic mythology and folklore in Austria in the last two decades of the 1800s was very important to the development of Nazi esotericism and cosmology, but it must be seen in the context of a much larger occult revival that had been going on in Europe for about a century. The main … Read more
The strange ideas of Ariosophy were a mix of racist “Volkisch” ideas and Madame Blavatsky’s ideas about theosophy. (Like Nietszche’s ideas, Blavatsky’s were taken over and twisted by German occultists.) However, neither Nietszche nor Blavatsky would have supported the violence and suffering that the Nazis would later cause. In fact, Nietszche was against anti-Semitism and … Read more
Guido von List and his followers thought that the Icelandic Eddas were stories about the ancient Aryans. Rudolf John Gorsleben, a playwright-turned-journalist who was born in Metz and grew up in Alsace-Lorraine (which became part of the German Reich in 1871), added to List’s occult-historical system. Gorsleben lived from 1883 to 1930. In this place, … Read more
Franz Hartmann (1838–1912) also did a lot to spread scientific occultism in Germany. He had a very interesting life in Europe and the Americas, working as a soldier, doctor, coroner, and mining speculator, among other things. Hartmann was already interested in Spiritualism, but after reading Isis Unveiled, he became interested in Theosophy. In 1883, he … Read more