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The Thule Society (German: Thule-Gesellschaft), originally the Studiengruppe für germanisches Altertum 'Study Group for Germanic Antiquity', was a German occultist and Völkisch group in Munich, named after a mythical northern country from Greek legend. The Society is notable chiefly as the organization that sponsored the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, which was later transformed by Adolf Hitler into the Nazi Party. Hitler, however, was never a member of the Thule Society. Image File history File links Question_book. ... Thule-gesellschaft_emblem, I got it from [1], which states that it is public domain. ... The word occult comes from the Latin occultus (clandestine, hidden, secret), referring to knowledge of the hidden.[1] In the medical sense it is used commonly to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e. ... The völkisch movement is the German interpretation of the Populist movement, with a romantic focus on folklore and the organic. ... For other uses, see Munich (disambiguation). ... The German Workers Party (German: Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, short DAP) was a briefly existing progenitor of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party). ... Hitler redirects here. ... The National Socialist German Workers Party (German: , or NSDAP, commonly, the Nazi Party), was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945 that was known as the German Workers Party before the name was changed in 1920. ...

Origins

The Thule Society was a cover-name adopted by Rudolf von Sebottendorff, a German occultist, for his Munich lodge of the Germanenorden Walvater of the Holy Grail at its formal dedication on August 18, 1918. The Germanenorden Walvater was a schismatic offshoot of the Germanenorden, a secret society (a.k.a. the "Order of Teutons") founded in 1911 and named Germanenorden in 1912. Rudolf Freiherr von Sebottendorf was the alias of Adam Alfred Rudolf Glauer (November 9, 1875 – May 8, 1945), who also occasionally used another alias, Erwin Torre. ... The word occult comes from the Latin occultus (clandestine, hidden, secret), referring to knowledge of the hidden.[1] In the medical sense it is used commonly to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e. ... is the 230th day of the year (231st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1918 (MCMXVIII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. ... The Germanenorden or Germanic Order, was a secret society in Germany early in the 20th century. ... A secret society is an organization that conceals its activities and membership from outsiders. ...

Von Sebottendorff later claimed that he originally intended the Thule Society to be a vehicle for promoting his own occultist theories, but that the Germanenorden pressed him to emphasize political, nationalist and anti-Semitic themes. The fact that this claim was made while the Nazis were in power and von Sebottendorff had little to gain by denying anti-Semitism lends credibility to this claim. Nationalism is an ideology that creates and sustains a nation as a concept of a common identity for groups of humans. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

Beliefs

A primary focus of Thule-Gesellschaft was a claim concerning the origins of the Aryan race. "Thule", or Θούλη, was a land located by Greco-Roman geographers in the furthest north. The term "Ultima Thule" — (Latin: most distant Thule) is also mentioned by the Roman poet Virgil in his epic poem Aeneid. This was supposed to be the far northern segment of Thule and is now generally understood to mean Scandinavia. Aryan (/eÉ™rjÉ™n/ or /ɑːrjÉ™n/, Sanskrit: ) is a Sanskrit and Avestan word meaning noble/spiritual one. ... Thule as Tile on the Carta Marina by Olaus Magnus. ... A geographer is a scientist whose area of study is geography, the study of the physical environment and human habitat. ... Aeneas flees burning Troy, Federico Barocci, 1598 Galleria Borghese, Rome The Aeneid (IPA English pronunciation: ; in Latin Aeneis, pronounced — the title is Greek in form: genitive case Aeneidos): is a Latin epic written by Virgil in the 1st century BCE (between 29 and 19 BCE) that tells the legendary story... Scandinavia is a historical and geographical region centered on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe which includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden. ...

Said by Nazi mystics to be the capital of ancient Hyperborea, they identified Ultima Thule as a lost ancient landmass in the extreme north: near Greenland or Iceland. These ideas derived from earlier speculation by Ignatius L. Donnelly that a lost landmass had once existed in the Atlantic, and that it was the home of the Aryan race, a theory he supported by reference to the distribution of swastika motifs. He identified this with Plato's Atlantis, a theory further developed by Helena Blavatsky, the famous occultist during the second part of the 19th century. The Thule-Gesellschaft maintained close contacts with Theosophists, the followers of Blavatsky. Thule Society emblem Nazi mysticism is a term used to describe a quasi-religious undercurrent of Nazism; it denotes the combination of Nazism with occultism, esotericism, cryptohistory, and/or the paranormal. ... In Greek mythology, according to tradition, the Hyperboreans were a mythical people who lived far to the north of Thrace. ... Compass rose with north highlighted and at top Look up North in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Ignatius Loyola Donnelly (November 3, 1831 – January 1, 1901) was a U.S. Congressman, populist, and writer, known primarily today for his theories on the history of Atlantis and Shakespearean authorship. ... The Aryan race is a concept in European culture that was influential in the period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. ... This article is about the symbol. ... For other uses, see Atlantis (disambiguation). ... Helena Blavatsky Helena Petrovna Hahn (also Hélène) (July 31, 1831 (O.S.) (August 12, 1831 (N.S.)) - May 8, 1891 London, England), better known as Helena Blavatsky or Madame Blavatsky was the founder of Theosophy. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Theosophy, literally god-wisdom (Greek: θεοσοφία theosophia), designates several bodies of ideas. ...

Activities

The Thule Society attracted about 250 followers in Munich and about 1,500 in greater Bavaria. Its meetings were often held in the Munich luxury hotel Vier Jahreszeiten ("The Four Seasons"). For other uses, see Bavaria (disambiguation). ...

The followers of the Thule Society were, by von Sebottendorff's own admission, little interested in his occultist theories. They were more interested in racism and combatting Jews and Communists. They are also said to have planned to kidnap the Bavarian Socialist Prime Minister Kurt Eisner. After the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic, they were accused of trying to infiltrate its government and of having attempted a coup on April 30, 1919. During this attempt, the Soviet government took several members of the Thule Society into custody, and later executed them. Racism is the prejudice that members of one race are intrinsically superior or inferior to members of other races. ... Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership of the means of production. ... Monument to Kurt Eisner on the sidewalk where he fell when he was assassinated in Munich. ... The Bavarian Soviet Republic (Bayrische Räterepublik) — also known as the Munich Soviet Republic (Münchner Räterepublik) — was a short-lived revolutionary government in the German state of Bavaria in 1919 that sought to replace the fledgling Weimar Republic in its early days. ... is the 120th day of the year (121st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ...

Münchener Beobachter newspaper

The Thule Society bought a local weekly newspaper, the Münchener Beobachter (Munich Observer), and changed its name to Münchener Beobachter und Sportblatt (loosely, Munich Observer and Sport Report) in an attempt to improve its circulation. The Münchener Beobachter later became the Völkischer Beobachter (People's Observer), the main Nazi newspaper. It was edited by Karl Harrer. The Münchener Beobachter was the daily supplement to, and subsequently bercame, the Voelkischer Beobachter. ... One of the last editions of the Völkischer Beobachter (April 20, 1945) hails Adolf Hitler as man of the century on the occasion of his 56th birthday, ten days before his suicide. ... Karl Harrer (8 October 1890 - 5 September 1926) was a German journalist and politician, one of the founding members of the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers Party, DAP) in 1919, the party that soon would become the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP). ...

Deutsche Arbeiterpartei

In 1919, the Thule Society's Anton Drexler, who had developed links between the Society and various extreme right workers' organizations in Munich, together with Karl Harrer established the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (DAP), or German Workers Party. Adolf Hitler joined this party in 1919 . By April 1, 1920, the DAP had been reconstituted as the National Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), or National Socialist German Workers Party (generally known as the "Nazi Party"). Anton Drexler (June 13, 1884 - February 24, 1942) was a German Nazi political leader of 1920s. ... Karl Harrer (8 October 1890 - 5 September 1926) was a German journalist and politician, one of the founding members of the Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (German Workers Party, DAP) in 1919, the party that soon would become the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP). ... The German Workers Party (German: Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, short DAP) was a briefly existing progenitor of the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party). ... is the 91st day of the year (92nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1920 (MCMXX) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ... The National Socialist German Workers Party (German: , or NSDAP, commonly, the Nazi Party), was a political party in Germany between 1920 and 1945 that was known as the German Workers Party before the name was changed in 1920. ...

Von Sebottendorff had by then left the Thule Society, and never joined the DAP or the Nazi party. It has been alleged that other members of the Thule Society were later prominent in Nazi Germany: the list includes Dietrich Eckart, Gottfried Feder, Hans Frank, Rudolf Hess and Alfred Rosenberg. (Eckart, who coached Hitler on his public speaking skills, had Mein Kampf dedicated to him.) Historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (1985: 149, 217-225) has described such membership rolls as 'spurious' and 'fanciful', noting that Feder, Rosenberg, Eckart and Hess were never more than guests to whom the Thule Society extended hospitality during the Bavarian revolution of 1918. It has also been claimed that Adolf Hitler himself was a member (Angebert 1974: 9). There is no evidence to support this claim; on the contrary, the evidence shows that he never attended a meeting, as attested to by Johannes Hering's diary of Society meetings (Johannes Hering, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Thule-Gesellschaft, typescript dated 21 June 1939, Bundesarchiv Koblenz, NS26/865, cit. in Goodrick-Clarke 1992: 201). It is quite clear that Hitler himself had little interest in, and made little time for, "esoteric" matters (Skorzeny 1995).^[1] Dietrich Eckart Dietrich Eckart (March 23, 1868 - December 26, 1923) was one of the early key members of the National-Socialist German Workers Party and one of the participants in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch. ... Gottfried Feder Gottfried Feder (January 27, 1883 – September 24, 1941) was an economist, anti-semite and one of the early key members of the German Nazi party. ... Hans Frank (May 23, 1900 – October 16, 1946) was a lawyer for the Nazi party during the 1920s and a senior official in Nazi Germany. ... Not to be confused with Rudolf Hoess. ...   (January 12, 1893 Reval (nowadays Tallinn) – October 16, 1946) was an early and intellectually influential member of the Nazi party, who later held several important posts in the Nazi government. ... Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners. ... Mein Kampf (English translation: My Struggle) is a book by the German-Austrian politician and dictator Adolf Hitler which combines elements of autobiography with an exposition of Hitlers Nazi political ideology. ... Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke is the author of several books on modern occultism and esotericism with the history of its intersection with fascist politics. ... The Bavarian Soviet Republic (Bayrische Räterepublik) — also known as the Munich Soviet Republic (Münchner Räterepublik) — was a short-lived revolutionary government in the German state of Bavaria in 1919 that sought to replace the fledgling Weimar Republic in its early days. ... is the 172nd day of the year (173rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Other members were Karl Fiehler, Wilhelm Frick, Michel Frank, Heinrich Jost, Wolfgang Pongratz, Wilhelm Laforce, Johann Ott, Hans Riemann, Max Seselmann, and Hans-Arnold Stadler.^{[citation needed]} Two well-known aristocrats in the group were Countess Hella von Westarp, a young woman who functioned as secretary, and Prince Gustav von Thurn und Taxis (both of these were among those abducted and executed by the Communist government in Munich in 1919). // Life Karl Fiehler (* August 31, 1895 in Braunschweig - † December 8, 1969 in Diessen/Ammersee) was a politician of the German Nazi-Party (see NSDAP) and Lord Mayor of Munich from 1933 until 1945. ... Dr. Wilhelm Frick (March 12, 1877 â€“ October 16, 1946) was a prominent Nazi official. ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ...

Dissolution

Early in 1920 Karl Harrer was forced out of the DAP as Hitler moved to sever the party's link with the Thule Society, which subsequently fell into decline and was dissolved about five years later (Goodrick-Clarke 1985: 221), well before Hitler came to power.

Rudolf von Sebottendorff had withdrawn from the Thule Society in 1919 , but in 1933 he returned to Germany in the hope of reviving it. In that year he published a book entitled Bevor Hitler kam (Before Hitler Came), in which he claimed that the Thule Society had paved the way for the Führer: "Thulers were the ones to whom Hitler first came, and Thulers were the first to unite themselves with Hitler." This claim was not favourably received by the Nazi authorities: after 1933 , esoteric organisations (including völkisch occultists) were suppressed, many closed down by anti-Masonic legislation in 1935 . Sebottendorff's book was prohibited and he himself was arrested and imprisoned for a short period in 1934, afterwards departing into a lonely exile in Turkey.

Nonetheless, it has been argued that some Thule members and their ideas were incorporated into the Third Reich (Angeburt 1974: 9). Some of the Thule Society's teachings were expressed in the books of Alfred Rosenberg.^{[citation needed]} Many occult ideas found favour with Heinrich Himmler who, unlike Hitler, had a great interest in mysticism, but the SS under Himmler emulated the ethos and structure of Ignatius Loyola's Jesuit order (Höhne 1969: 138, 143-5) rather than the Thule Society. Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... Heinrich Luitpold Himmler ( ; 7 October 1900–23 May 1945) was the commander of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany by being second in power to Adolf Hitler in the Nazi hierarchy. ... SS or ss or Ss may be: The Schutzstaffel, a Nazi paramilitary force Steamship (SS) (ship prefix) The United States Secret Service A submarine not powered by nuclear energy (SS) (United States Navy designator), see SSN A Soviet/Russian surface-to-surface missile, as listed by NATO reporting name Shortstop... Ignatius of Loyola Saint Ignatius of Loyola (December 24, 1491? – July 31, 1556), baptized Íñigo López de Loyola, was the founder of the Society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic religious order commonly known as the Jesuits that was established to strengthen the Church, initially against Protestantism. ... The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ...

Conspiracy Theories

Like the Ahnenerbe section of the SS, and due to its occult background, the Thule Society has become the center of many conspiracy theories concerning Nazi Germany. Such theories include the creation of spacecraft and secret weapons. Emblem Founded by Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Wirth, and Walter Darré on July 1 1935, Forschungs- und Lehrgemeinschaft Ahnenerbe e. ... SS or ss or Ss may be: The Schutzstaffel, a Nazi paramilitary force Steamship (SS) (ship prefix) The United States Secret Service A submarine not powered by nuclear energy (SS) (United States Navy designator), see SSN A Soviet/Russian surface-to-surface missile, as listed by NATO reporting name Shortstop... A conspiracy theory is a theory that defies common historical or current understanding of events, under the claim that those events are the result of manipulations by two or more individuals or various secretive powers or conspiracies. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... The Space Shuttle Discovery as seen from the International Space Station. ...

The Thule Society in popular culture

• Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum mentions the society perhaps half a dozen times as the three protagonists discuss ways that mysticism, Rosicrucianism, and ideas about the Knights Templar have interested modern conspiracy theorists.

• In Everquest and Everquest II, there is an evil god named Cazic Thule. He is the god of fear and primarily worshipped by the Iksar; an evil, reptilian race whose members often engage in torture and the capture of slaves, much akin to the Nazis.

• Karl Ruprecht Kroenen, one of the antagonists in the Hellboy movie, is described as a member of the Thule Society.

• The Thule Society and its leader, Dietlinde Eckart, play key roles in the anime feature Fullmetal Alchemist the Movie: Conqueror of Shamballa

• The Thule Society appears in the video game Bloodrayne.

• It is mentioned in the Friday the 13th: The Series episode "The Butcher" when a high ranking Nazi Colonel is brought back from the dead with the help of a mystic swastika amulet.

• It is the source of the mystic rites that power many of Germany's super soldiers in Green Ronin's Mutants and Masterminds Golden Age Superhero campaign.

• It is mentioned heavily in the 1978 thriller novel The Spear by James Herbert in the context of a contemporary Nazi mysticist terrorist organisation.

• Mack Bolan, The Executioner, goes up against the Thule Society in the 1998 novel, Devil's Guard, by Mark Ellis.

• Russian songwriter, Alexander Laertsky had published an album called Общество Туле (Thule Society).

• The society was a central topic in the fictional novel by James Rollins named The Black Order.

• Fictional Villian, Friedrich von Schlitz, is said to be a member of the Thule Society in Decoder Ring Theatre's Red Panda Adventures (episode 24) "The World Next Door".

Umberto Eco (born January 5, 1932) is an Italian medievalist, semiotician, philosopher and novelist, best known for his novel The Name of the Rose (Il nome della rosa) and his many essays. ... Foucaults Pendulum (original title: Il pendolo di Foucault) is a novel by Italian novelist and philosopher Umberto Eco. ... The Temple of the Rose Cross, Teophilus Schweighardt Constantiens, 1618. ... The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon (Latin: Pauperes commilitones Christi Templique Solomonici), popularly known as the Knights Templar or the Order of the Temple, were among the most famous of the Christian military orders. ... For other uses, see Conspiracy theory (disambiguation). ... EverQuest (EQ) is a 3D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on March 16, 1999. ... EverQuest II (EQ2), based upon the popular EverQuest, is a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) and shipped on November 8, 2004. ... Karl Ruprecht Kroenen is a villain in the Hellboy series of comics books, created by Mike Mignola, and its 2004 film adaptation, written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. ... Hellboy is a fictional Dark Horse Comics character created by Mike Mignola. ... “Animé” redirects here. ... For other uses see film (disambiguation) Film refers to the celluliod media on which movies are printed Film — also called movies, the cinema, the silver screen, moving pictures, photoplays, picture shows, flicks, or motion pictures, — is a field that encompasses motion pictures as an art form or as... BloodRayne, is a horror-themed third-person action video game. ... Friday the 13th: The Series was a television series that ran for three seasons, from September 1987 to May of 1990. ... Green Ronin Publishing is a company based in Seattle, WA, USA. They have published several role-playing game related products. ... Mutants & Masterminds (abbreviated M&M or MnM) is a superhero role-playing game written by Steve Kenson and published by Green Ronin Publishing based on a variant of the d20 System by Wizards of the Coast. ... The Spear by James Herbert The Spear is a 1978 novel by British author James Herbert dealing with Nazi mysticism. ... James Herbert (born 8 April 1943, London) is a best selling English horror writer known for his simple yet compelling sensationalist novels, which are notable for their use of horrific set pieces. ... Nazi mysticism is a quasi-religious undercurrent of Nazism; it denotes the mixture of Nazism with occultism, esotericism, cryptohistory, and/or the paranormal — especially in the traditions of Germanic mysticism. ... Mack Bolan in action For the singer, see Marc Bolan. ... Mark Ellis can refer to different people: Mark Ellis: a record producer Mark Ellis: a Major League Baseball player Mark Ellis: a writer This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Under the pen name James Rollins, former veterinarian Dr. Jim Czajkowski (1961 - ) writes such bestselling, action-packed adventure-thrillers as Subterranean (1999), Excavation (2000), Deep Fathom (2001), Amazonia (2002), Ice Hunt (2003), Sandstorm (2004), and Map of Bones Rollins is an amateur spelunker and a certified scuba diver. ... The Black Order ) is the second episode of the anime series D.Gray-man. ... Decoder Ring Theatre is a Toronto based Theatre and Audio Production company that runs an award-nominated weekly podcast of the same name. ...

Notes

1. ^ http://www.hitler.org/speeches/09-06-38.html — On Hitler's disapproval of occultism

Literature

• Angebert, Jean Michel. 1974. The Occult and the Third Reich. Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.
• Gilbhard, Hermann. 1994. Die Thule-Gesellschaft (in German). Kiessling Verlag. ISBN 3-930423-00-6
• Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. 1985. The Occult Roots of Nazism: The Ariosophists of Austria and Germany 1890-1935. Wellingborough, England: Aquarian Press. ISBN 0-85030-402-4. (1994. The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology. New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-3060-4)
• Hale, Christopher. 2003. Himmler's Crusade: The true story of the 1938 Nazi expedition into Tibet. London: Transworld Publishers. ISBN 0-593-04952-7
• Höhne, Heinz. 1969. The Order of the Death's Head: The Story of Hitler's SS. Martin Secker & Warburg.
• Kershaw, Ian. 2001. Hitler 1889-1936: Hubris. Penguin Books Ltd. ISBN 0-14-013363-1
• Sklar, D. 1977. The Nazis and the Occult. Dorset Press. ISBN 0-88029-412-4
• Skorzeny, Otto. 1995. My Commando Operations.

After Operation Greif, Otto Skorzeny was labelled the most dangerous man in Europe Otto Skorzeny (June 12, 1908 - July 6[1] 1975) was an Obersturmbannführer in the German Waffen-SS during World War II. After fighting on the Eastern Front, he is known as the commando leader who rescued...

See also

• Ahnenerbe
• Guido von List
• Nazi mysticism
• Nazi archaeology
• Vril
• Swastika

Emblem Founded by Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Wirth, and Walter Darré on July 1 1935, Forschungs- und Lehrgemeinschaft Ahnenerbe e. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Nazi mysticism is a quasi-religious undercurrent of Nazism; it denotes the mixture of Nazism with occultism, esotericism, cryptohistory, and/or the paranormal — especially in the traditions of Germanic mysticism. ... Nazi archaeology refers to the movement led by various Nazi leaders, archaeologists, and other scholars, such as Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, to recreate the German past in order to strengthen nationalism. ... The Coming Race (original title), also reprinted as Vril: The Power of the Coming Race, is a novel by Edward Bulwer-Lytton published in 1870. ... This article is about the symbol. ...

External links

• http://www.relinfo.ch/thule/info.html#sebottendorf
• http://www.thule-italia.net/sitoinglese/indexinglese.htm