 | The factual accuracy of this article is disputed.
Please see the relevant discussion on the talk page. | Vril is a word from a science-fiction novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton titled Vril: The Power of the Coming Race. The book was quite popular in the late 19th century, and for a time the word "Vril" came to be associated with "life-giving elixirs". Indeed, the still popular English drink Bovril takes its name from a mixing of the word "Bovine" and "Vril".
In the book, Vril is a sort of power or energy possessed by an unusual and extremely powerful subterranean race. A fair number of readers believe the book is non-fiction, and it has become associated with theories regarding Nazis who flew "Flugscheiben" (Flight Discs) during World War II, Vril-powered KSK (Kraftstrahlkanone, Force-Ray Cannon), transmission rods (producing wildly potent energy rays), Jesuit "Spiritual Exercises", and Atlanteans, to name a few.
Vril Society It has been claimed that a Vril Society existed in the Third Reich an the inner core of the Thule society. However, no evidence of this society has ever been found. Its existence was claimed in the 1967 book "Aufbruch ins dritte Jahrtausend: von der Zukunft der phantastischen Vernunft" by L. Pauwels and J. Bergier, published in Bern, Switzerland. An account of the society takes about a tenth of the volume, amongst other esoteric speculations, but the authors fail to clearly explain whether this section is fact or fiction. New publications appeared in the 90s, by the German right wing author Jan Udo Holey, writing under penname Jan van Helsing. The story spread and evolved.
It includes a lot of elements popular in conspiracy theories:
Claims in detail The Vril Gesellschaft (Society) was said to have been founded to explore the origins of the Aryan race. It was founded as "The All German Society for Metaphysics" in 1921. The Society was formed by a group of female psychic mediums led by the Thule Gesellschaft medium Maria Orsitch (Orsic) of Zagreb, who claimed to have received communication from Aryan aliens living in Alpha Tauri, in the Aldebaran system, since 1919. These aliens had once visited Earth and settled in Sumeria. Allegedly, Vril is the shortening of "Vri-Il", which in the ancient Sumerian language translates as "Like God". The Vril medium was a woman that called herself Sigrun. Sigrun is based on Sigrune, one of the Norse God Wotan's nine daughters and also a Valkyrie.
The Society allegedly taught exercises in concentration designed to awaken the forces of Vril (the inner light of the Godhead), but their main goal was to achieve Raumflug (Spaceflight) to reach Aldebaran. To achieve this Vril joined the Thule Gesellschaft and DHvSS (Men of the Black Stone) to fund an ambitious program involving an inter-dimensional flight machine based on psychic revelations from the Aldebaran aliens.
In 1922, Thule and Vril constructed Germany's first flight disc, the JFM (Jenseitsflugmaschine) or "Other World Flight Machine", in Munich, for channeled flight testing that lasted two years. The project was led by W.O. Schumann of the Technical University of Munich, but the project was halted in 1924 with the machine dismantled and shipped to Messerschmitt's Augsburg facility, where it was stored for future research.
Professor Schumann developed a levitation unit from the research which was called the Schumann-Munich, or SM-Levitator.
Members of the Vril Society are said to have included Adolf Hitler, Alfred Rosenberg, Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Göring, and Hitler's personal physician, Dr. Theodor Morell. These were original members of the Thule Society which supposedly joined Vril in 1919. The NSDAP (Nazi Party) was created by Thule in 1920, one year later. Dr. Krohn was also a Thulist and created the Nazi flag by using the Thule Sonnenrad (Sun Wheel) for inspiration, not the good luck Swastika.
With Hitler in power in 1933, both Thule and Vril Gesellschafts received official state backing for continued disc development programs aimed at both spaceflight and possibly a war machine.
The new RFZ (Rund flugzeug) or "Round Aircraft" series began in 1937, after Vril bought the fallow land surrounding the Arado-Brandenburg aircraft facility. RFZ discs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 were tested there under Vril supervision while Thule was helped by special SS technical branch unit E-IV, which was tasked with developing alternative energies. Thule worked on a seperate disc at a secret location in NW Germany referred to as Hauneburg from 1935 on. As such their product was known as the H-Gerat (Hauneburg Device) but this was shortened to Haunebu in 1939 once the disc's Triebwerk (Thrustwork) engine was perfected. Haunebu I was briefly designated as RFZ-5 when Thule moved from Hauneburg to Arado-Brandenburg.
The Thule Triebwerk was a revolutionary EMG (electro-magnetic-gravitic) engine also known as a Tachyonator 7. It used a modified Hans Coler Magnetstromapparat (a gravitic free-energy battery) turned into a converter that was coupled to a Van De Graaf band generator and a Marconi dynamo (spinning tank of heated mercury). Once activated, the Triebwerk produced strong rotating EMG fields that affected gravity. The rotating fields also turned the dynamo, creating a reduction of mass at incredible Rpms.
Vril also developed its own Triebwerk by 1941 with the RFZ-7, which was re-designated Vril-1 Jager (Hunter).
After 1941 Hitler forbade secret societies, so both Thule and Vril were documented under the SS E-IV unit. Vril also became secretly known as "Die Kette" - "The Chain", which refers to their mental links to their circle of members. Vril had strong contacts with Canaris of the Abwehr, the Ahnenerbe (SS occult bureau), and worked with the engineers at Arado.
Both the Thule and Vril discs were built from 1939-1945. Thule produced the Haunebu I-III series of large discs while the Vril series were more concerned with resuming channeled flight. By 1944, construction of a Vril 7 Geist (Ghost) channeled flight disc was achieved, as well as a huge 139 meter long cylindrical mothership called the Andromeda-Gerat (Andromeda Device).
A special unit named Sonderburo (Special Bureau) 13 was created by the Luftwaffe to "officially" investigate strange aerial phenomenon over the Reich but "unofficially" was created to cover-up these reports of flight discs and flying cigars. In September 1944 a Me-262 jet pilot caught site of one of the Andromeda craft and reported it. Sonderburo 13 immediately tried to feign ignorance of such a device.
Meanwhile, as the Allies advanced further into the Reich, Vril planned to evacuate its technology to bases outside of Europe, especially to a secret Antarctic base - Base 211, while their own personal plan was to evacuate their circle of mediums to the stars by channeled flight of the Andromeda. They left in March 1945 and were never found again.
Vril today Today the self-proclaimed exile governmenzt of Sealand under Johannes W.F. Seiger promotes Vril free energy and also has started linking to Vril disc aircraft and history. This gives some weight to allegations, that the Seiger group has contact to Neonazis, especially the self-proclaimed Reichsregierung.
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