Thule Society

The main topic of social research was the origin of the " Aryan race ." The country of Thule ( Greek Θούλη ) was placed by ancient Greek and Roman geographers in the far north. The society was named after Ultima Thule (“the farthest Thule”) - the far northern part of Thule, referred to by Virgil in the “ Aeneid ”, and by which they usually understand Scandinavia . Nazi mystics claimed that it was the capital of ancient Hyperborea , located in the far north, near Greenland and Iceland .

Members of the public believed that the Aryans were the highest race that supposedly existed in the prehistoric era on the legendary mainland Atlantis . The myth said that the inhabitants of Tula were descendants of the Aryans who survived the death of Atlantis. ^[one]

Anthroposophical ideas were popular in society. , such as, for example, the motto Der Weg ist in Dir (“The Way in You”). Members of the public also believed that the Aryans possessed secret knowledge that could be adopted through magical rituals .

The legend of the mysterious island performed a dual function for the members of the Thule Society. They not only believed in creatures that preserve the wisdom of mythical civilization, but also claimed that the Germans were the heirs of the Aryans, which made them a " race of masters ."

Thule's ideas influenced many figures of the Third Reich. In 1933, Herman Wirth , one of the founders of the Ancestral Heritage Society, organized a religious-historical exhibition in Berlin called the Holy Givers. From Tula to Galilee and back from Galilee to Tula. " According to Wirth, Christianity was a weak echo of the spiritual culture of Thule. Another Anenerbe employee, Otto Ran, considered Iceland to Thule, but was disappointed after visiting the island. Alfred Rosenberg was also involved in identifying Atlantis and the ancestral home of the Nordic race , believing that the climate in the Arctic used to be milder ^[1] .

The word Thule became widespread among right-wing radicals after the publication of the northern sagas of 1913 (the series bore this name as a reference to the northern island, mentioned in ancient sources). In 1918, Rudolph von Zebottendorf created the racist felkish Society "Thule" in Munich. Sebottendorf believed that Thule was the oldest German culture in the history of mankind and had a developed science, in particular, its astronomical records later allegedly served as a source for creating runes . He found traces of this culture throughout Eurasia , including in Palestine (before the Jews came there), even in the Biblical giants he saw hints of a “race of lords” ^[1] .

The society provided military support for actions against the left revolution in Bavaria in the spring of 1919 and can be considered the forerunner of the NSDAP . A member of it was Rudolf Hess . ^[2]

In the years 1918-1925, despite the interests of the founder, only two lectures were held on the themes of occultism . The rest dealt with megaliths , the ancestral home of the Teutons, folklore , Jews, Zionism and various political issues. After 1925, the activity of society becomes insignificant ^[3] .

Newspaper Münchener Beobachter

In 1918, for the needs of the Thule Society, von Sebottendorf acquired the Munich weekly newspaper Munich Beobachter (Munich Observer). Later, the newspaper was renamed “ Völkisher beobachter ” (“People's Observer”) and, after the split between Thule and the NSDAP, became the main print organ of the NSDAP. Karl Harrer became its editor. The split took shape in July 1920, when Hitler demanded - and made it - that the Völkicher beobachter ceased to support other conservative parties. By the end of the year, Sebottendorf had to leave the editorial office, and the newspaper was bought by the NSDAP with a loan from von Epp ^[4] .

According to some historians, Rudolf Hess - the right hand of Hitler and Hans Frank - one of the main organizers of the genocide in Poland was in society (other historians believe that they often attended meetings - but as guests ^[5] ). Alfred Rosenberg and Dietrich Eckart , Adolf Hitler’s closest advisers, were there as guests ^[3] .

In 1960, the best-selling book The Morning of Mages was published by French journalists Jacques Bergier and Louis Powel, which served as the source of many dubious allegations related to society, in particular, the membership of Hitler and Haushofer , the search for Nazis imagined by theosophists of Shambhala , etc.

In 1964, the concept of Thule reappears in the book of Robert Charr, along with ideas about the origin of the Hyperboreans from Venus and the opposition of the latter with the Jews. Wilhelm Landig devotes a fantastic trilogy to the mythical history of the Nordic ancestral homeland and the “Judeo-Christian” conspiracy and establishes his own neo-Falkish society, the Landig Group, in which he develops the ideas of ariosophy . In the 1970-80s, the image of Thule and the myths associated with it began to be used by neo-Nazis ^[3] .

Like Ahnenerbe , the Thule Society became the center of many conspiracy theories regarding Nazi Germany. It is alleged, in particular, that society is involved in the creation of secret weapons and aircraft. There is also an opinion that members of the society not only taught Hitler the art of public speaking, but also gave him some magical secrets that allowed him to achieve political success.

• Nazi occultism
• Anenerbe
• Vril Society
• Guido Background Leaf
• Ultimate thule

in Russian

• Goodrick-Clark N. Occult Roots of Nazism. Secret Aryan cults and their influence on Nazi ideology: Ariosophists of Austria and Germany, 1890-1935 . - M .: Eurasia, 1993. ISBN 5-85233-003-18 (wrong)

in other languages

• Hale, Christopher. 2003. Himmler's Crusade: The true story of the 1938 Nazi expedition into Tibet. Transworld Publishers. London ISBN 0-593-04952-7
• Kershaw I. Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris . Penguin Books Ltd , 2001 ISBN 0-14-013363-1
• Hermann Gilbhard, Die Thule-Gesellschaft , Kiessling Verlag 1994, ISBN 3-930423-00-6 (in German)
• D. Sklar, “ The Nazis and the Occult, ” Dorset Press 1977, ISBN 0-88029-412-4
• Kurlander, Eric. Hitler's Monsters: The Occult Roots of Nazism and the Emergence of the Nazi 'Supernatural Imaginary' (Eng.) // German History. - 2012. - No. 30.4 . - P. 528-549 .

• List of members of the Thule Society (unavailable link from 05/26/2013 [2273 days] - history , copy )