Silovik, Thanks for the heads up on The Morning of the Magicians, interesting stuff!

I'm no expert, but what I gather is that Hitler had no interest in the occult or its practitioners, except as he could use such people for his own ends. There were certainly streams of such interest in Germany at the time, descended from the very popular Theosophy and pseudo-Masonic lodge occultism from a few decades previous. (The Order of the Golden Dawn, a magical lodge in England that was hugely influential on 20th-century occultism, always claimed to have gotten its authority from lodges in Germany.) Hitler himself seems to have considered such people rather dimwitted and gullible, but he was willing to use them in the same way he was willing to use the Catholic Church when it suited him.
The present media connection of the Nazi Party and Hitler with occultism seems ultimately to derive from that fountainhead of fascinating wackiness,
The Morning of the Magicians
(published in 1960, when people were still scared of Nazis), as well as similar books published soon afterwards. A particularly influential book was
Occult Reich
, probably the proximate source for most of such ideas today. The author, J. H. Brennan, also wrote books on ancient astronauts, how to remember your past lives, ghosts, astral projection, Tibetan and Egyptian magic, and many other such subjects, so consider the source.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
certainly re-popularized the idea for our times, but it was solidly based on stories that had been circulating for a couple of decades. (
Stories
, I hasten to add, not history!) Like many other contemporary lines of thought that came from writers copying what someone wrote, who were repeating what someone else wrote, who was copying from a speculation that Pauwels and Bergier came up with in
The Morning of the Magicians
, it all makes for great entertainment when it's done right, and who doesn't love a little cosplay combined with a little hocus-pocus?

"Oh, well," said Zanoni, "to pour pure water in the muddy well does but disturb the mud!"

especially i.r.o. the extent of Hitler's involvement.
Yup.
While I'm willing to give Hellboy a pass (comic-book film, obviously set in an alternate reality), it's astounding how many other stories get the idea of "Nazi-occultism" wrong.
I didn't do a whole lot of research on this media-phenomenon, but it goes back at least to "Raiders of the Lost Ark" where Hitler is said to have been "obsessed with the occult". Nothing could be further from the truth.
Among the top Nazis, it was Himmler who was probably the biggest sucker for occult nonsense. And Hitler mocked him for that fascination and all the weird projects he (Himmler) had going in that field.
S.

True.
I don't love her.. She kicked me in the face!!

Something quite similar was happening under the Bush administration as well. It has been a long term problem.
"Aw Crap!"

After that, public opinion never counted. It was as if the tea party swept elections in 2012 including mitt Romney, I see the tea party as the new nazi movement.
Not that they are nazis, they are not: but if they got into power, they would use the same political tricks nazis used, to STAY in power, like the night of the long knives.
Do you not realize that his highness, obama and his administration, with his "pen and a cellphone", executive orders and cover of night, closed door decrees are eroding your freedoms right before your eyes?
I don't love her.. She kicked me in the face!!

The Tea Party and Nazis are both Fascist movements. That is why the Tea Party scares me so much. Fascism under any name is terrifying.
Human Rights: Know Them, Demand Them, Defend Them

Interesting conversation, thanx for the linx.
I'm fascinated with nazis, it was a pure demonic movement. But it took over all of Germany quickly.
It is not that the whole country agreed with it, but that enough agreed to get hitler elected.
After that, public opinion never counted. It was as if the tea party swept elections in 2012 including mitt Romney, I see the tea party as the new nazi movement.
Not that they are nazis, they are not: but if they got into power, they would use the same political tricks nazis used, to STAY in power, like the night of the long knives.
Tea and nazi parties have similar goals: also similar ideals, including "all other ideas are wrong"
So both of them react violently to rebuttal. Nazis with assassination, tea farty with loud noise, insults, and faking public opinion. Ironic, tea farty claims to be Christian, but if you listen to their talk and speeches, they speak only with hate and venom. And the term Racial Purity comes up quite a bit as well.

Well, not only is it a love-affair of writers and movie makers to pair Nazism and the occult, there is some historically tangible evidence for it as well, though little conclusive, especially i.r.o. the extent of Hitler's involvement.
http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/2450/were-hitler-and-the-nazis-obsessed-with-the-occult
http://www.greyfalcon.us/restored/Nazism and The New Age.htm
http://www.mgr.org/NazismAndTheOccult.html
http://stargods.org/Nazis_and_the_Occult.html
http://www.newsmonster.co.uk/paranormal-unexplained/hitler-and-the-secret-satanic-cult-at-the-heart-of-nazi-germany.html

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