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It has been suggested that Guido von List Society, Order of the New Templars, Germanenorden and Thule Society be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

Circular arrangement of the Armanen Futharkh.

Germanic mysticism was a development of late 19th and early 20th century German romanticism loosely inspired by historical Germanic paganism and traditional concepts of occultism pioneered by Guido von List's Armanism from the 1870s, and gaining notability from the 1910s involving authors including List himself, Peryt Shou, Lanz von Liebenfels, Rudolf John Gorsleben, Rudolf von Sebottendorf, Friedrich Bernhard Marby, A. Frank Glahn and Julius Evola, resulting in organizations like the Guido von List Society, Germanenorden, Germanische Glaubens-Gemeinschaft, Order of the New Templars and Thule Society.

The connection with historical Germanic culture is tenuous, and mostly evident in the mystics' infatuation with runes, in the form of List's Armanen Runes.

Following World War I, together with influences from Theosophy (Ariosophy, occultist ideas of an Aryan race and regarding the swastika symbol), Germanic mysticism contributed significantly to an occult counterculture in the 1920s and 1930s which some believe influenced Nazi mysticism, notably resulting in Heinrich Himmler's Ahnenerbe. However, the historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke finds little evidence of direct influence, except in the case of the highly idiosyncratic ancient-German mythos elaborated by the 'clairvoyant' (but in fact schizophrenic) SS-Brigadeführer Karl Maria Wiligut, the practical consequence of which was to persuade Himmler to order the internment of those occultists and runic magicians whom Wiligut stigmatised as heretics.

In the later 20th century, Germanic neopaganism movements oriented themselves more towards polytheistic reconstructionism, turning away from theosophic and occult elements, but elements of Germanic mysticism continue to play a role in some white supremacist organizations. Alleged mystical or shamanic aspects of historical pre-Christian Germanic culture, summarized as seidr are also practiced in Odinism (Freya Aswynn, Nigel Pennick, Karl Spiesberger, see also Germanic Runic Astrology, The Book of Blotar)

Guido von List in 1910 from the book "Guido v. List. Der Wiederentdecker uralter arischer Weisheit." by Johannes Balzli publised in 1917

Guido von List called his doctrine “Armanism” (after the “Armanen”, supposedly the heirs of the sun-king, a body of priest-kings in the ancient Ario-Germanic nation).^{[citation needed]} Armanism was concerned with the esoteric doctrines of the gnosis (distinct from the exoteric doctrine intended for the lower social classes, Wotanism).^{[citation needed]}

In 1905 Lanz von Liebenfels, founder of the Order of the New Templars, published a fundamental statement of doctrine titled Theozoologie oder die Kunde von den Sodoms-Äfflingen und dem Götter-Elektron (Theozoology or the Lore of the Sodom-Apelings and the Electron of the Gods).^{[citation needed]} The author claimed that “Aryan” peoples originated from interstellar deities who bred by electricity, while “lower” races were a result of interbreeding between apes and humans.^{[citation needed]} The book relied on somewhat lurid sexual imagery, decrying the abuse of white women by ethnically inferior, but sexually active, men.^{[citation needed]} Thus, Lanz advocated mass castration of racially “apelike” or otherwise “inferior” males.^{[citation needed]} This policy was in fact implemented during the Nazi era “purification.”^{[citation needed]}

The term Ariosophy (occult wisdom concerning the Aryans) was coined by Lanz von Liebenfels in 1915, and replaced “Theozoology” and “Ario-Christianity” as the label for his doctrine in the 1920s. In 1985 the historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke redefined Ariosophy as a general term to describe Aryan-centric occult theories and hermetic practices, including both Lanz's Ario-Christianity and the earlier Armanism of List, as well as later derivatives of either or both systems. If the term is employed in this extended sense, then Guido von List, and not Lanz von Liebenfels, was the founder of Ariosophy.

Main article: Thule Society

Thule Society emblem

In 1916 Hermann Pohl, Chancellor of the List-inspired Germanenorden (Germanic or Teutonic Order), founded a schismatic offshoot, the Germanenorden Walvater of the Holy Grail. He was joined by Rudolf von Sebottendorff, a wealthy adventurer with wide-ranging occult and mystical interests. A Freemason and a practitioner of sufism and astrology, Sebottendorff was also an admirer of Guido von List and Lanz von Liebenfels. Convinced that the Islamic and Germanic mystical systems shared a common Aryan root, he was attracted by Pohl's runic lore and became the Master of the Germanenorden Walvater's Bavarian province late in 1917.

In 1918 Sebottendorff made contact with Walter Nauhaus, a member of the Germanenorden who headed a study group called the Thule Gesellschaft (or Thule Society).[2] This original Thule Society^[1] was adopted as a cover-name for Sebottendorff's Munich lodge of the Germanenorden Walvater when it was formally dedicated on August 18, 1918, with Pohl’s assistance and approval (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 144). Sebottendorff states that the group was run jointly by himself and Nauhaus.

Deriving elements of its ideology and membership from earlier occult groups founded by List (Guido von List Society, established 1908) and Lanz von Liebenfels (the Order of the New Templars, established circa 1907), the Thule Society was dedicated to the triune god Walvater, identified with Wotan in triple form. The name Thule was chosen for its significance in the works of Guido von List. According to Thule Society mythology, Thule was the capital of Hyperborea, supposedly a legendary island in the far North polar regions, originally mentioned by Herodotus from Egyptian sources. In 1679, Olaf Rudbeck equated the Hyperboreans with the survivors of Atlantis, who were first mentioned by Plato, again following Egyptian sources. Supposedly, Hyperborea split into two islands, Thule and Ultima Thule, which were considered to be the center of an advanced, lost civilization.[3] Interestingly enough, Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) began his work Der Antichrist (The Antichrist) in 1895 with, "Let us see ourselves for what we are. We are Hyperboreans."

Speculative authors assert that a number of high Nazi Party officials had been members of the Thule Society (including such prominent figures as Max Amann, Anton Drexler, Dietrich Eckart, Rudolf Hess, Alfred Rosenberg and Gottfried Feder). Eckart, the wealthy publisher of the newspaper Auf gut Deutsch (In Plain German), has been represented as a committed occultist and the most significant Thule influence on Hitler. He is believed to have taught Hitler a number of persuasive techniques, and so profound was his influence that Hitler’s book Mein Kampf was dedicated to him. However, although Eckart attended Thule Society meetings, he was not a member and there is nothing to indicate that he trained Hitler in techniques of a mystical nature. Examining the membership lists, Goodrick-Clarke (1985: 149, 221) notes that Hess, Rosenberg and Feder were - like Eckart - guests of the Thule Society in 1918 but not actual members. He also describes a Thule Society membership roll including Hans Frank and Heinrich Himmler as "spurious". There is no evidence that Hitler himself had any connection with the Society, even as an associate or visitor. However, a member of the Thule Society, dentist Dr. Friedrich Krohn, did choose the swastika symbol for the Nazi party (although the design was revised at Hitler's insistence).

In 1923, Sebottendorff was expelled from Germany as an undesirable alien; around 1925, the Thule Society disbanded. In 1933, Sebottendorff returned to Germany and published Bevor Hitler kam: Urkundliches aus der Frühzeit der nationalsozialistischen Bewegung von Rudolf von Sebottendorff (see Phelps 1963). The book was banned by the Bavarian political police on March 1, 1934; Sebottendorff was arrested by the Gestapo, interned in a concentration camp, then expelled to Turkey yet again, where he committed suicide by drowning in the Bosphorus on May 9, 1945, as the Nazis surrendered to the Allies.

Ariosophy has been termed a theoretical precursor of the Nazi genocide.^{[citation needed]} However, the foremost expert on Guido von List in the English-speaking world, Stephen E. Flowers, refuses to connect the theories of List and other early 20th century rune magicians directly to the excesses of Auschwitz.^{[citation needed]} One German academic, Stefanie von Schnurbein (1992: 136), in commenting on Flowers' introduction to The Secret of the Runes, states:

Various Armanenschaft jewellery/ritual items distributed throughout England, including the Armanen runes and ring and stick, Fyrfos pin, Schwarze Sonne earings and pin (and Zierscheiben ‘Schwarze Sonne necklace), Mjollnir earings and necklace, Wolfsangel pin, Unicursal Hexagram necklace and Sidereal Pendulum.

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

It has further been argued that even the writings of the most "extreme" of the Ariosophists, Lanz von Liebenfels,^[2] cannot be definitively linked to the applied anti-semitism of the Nazis. Apologists for Lanz state that he did not write unfavorably about the Jewish race,^{[citation needed]} that he cooperated with Jewish scholars in many of his publications,^{[citation needed]} and while it can be argued that individual Nazis became familiar with the mystical racism of Theosophy through the works of List and Lanz,^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} It has been alleged, for example, that the roots of Nazi anti-semitism can be traced to the Lutheran and Catholic churches as it was the 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 (Kertzer 2001).

1. ^ Some sources claim that the Thule Society was founded in 1910 by Felix Niedner.[1]^{[citation needed]}
2. ^ Lanz is cited several times by List in The Religion of the Aryo-Germanic Folk: Esoteric and Exoteric.

• Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. 1985. The Occult Roots of Nazism: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany 1890-1935. Wellingborough, England: The Aquarian Press. ISBN 0-85030-402-4
• Kertzer, David. 2001. Popes Against the Jews. Knopf.
• Phelps, Reginald H. 1963. ""Before Hitler Came": Thule Society and Germanen Orden", Journal of Modern History 35(3): 245-261.[4]
• von Schnurbein, Stefanie. 1992. Religion als Kulturkritik.

• Philipp Stauff
• Friedrich Wannieck
• Karl Spiesberger
• Karl Hans Welz
• Philipp Stauff
• Joseph Hogrebe
• Guido von List
• Rudolf John Gorsleben
• Siegfried Adolf Kummer
• Friedrich Bernhard Marby
• Friedrich Oskar Wannieck

• Vril
• Sig Rune
• Black Sun
• Fylfot
• Savitri Devi Mukherji
• Nigel Pennick
• Stephen Flowers
• List of terms in Germanic mysticism

• Armanenschaft glossary