Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
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(Opening music: )
The Berghoff mountain retreat of Adolf Hitler. Here, senior party members and th
eir families relax, away from the frantic activity of the camp. Yet, even in the
peaceful setting of the Bavarian Alps amongst the tranquil scenes of domestic l
ife there is an unsettling presence: the racial elite of the New Order, the SS.
[dramatic music playing, sounds of marching]
"How can we arrest racial decay?" asks Adolf Hitler. "Shall we form a select com
pany of the truly initiated? An Order, the Brotherhood of Templars around the Ho
ly Grail of pure blood." By 1934, almost ten years after its creation, the SS is
in the process of becoming Hitler's Brotherhood of Templars. The handpicked, di
sciplined and fiercely loyal bodyguard of the Fuhrer is being transformed into a
n Aryan elite. A mystical order, dedicated to the creation of an empire.
In the strange and terrifying doctrines of National Socialism, the Aryan is the
race of the future. Providence has decreed that the Aryans will subjugate all ot
her peoples.
[dramatic music playing]
In the vanguard of the Nazi mission would be the black-clad ranks of the SS. Thi
s carefully selected elite is intended to be the stock from which will come a ne
w and superior breed of human -- the superman -- a caste of men born to rule. It
is Heinrich Himmler who will forge Hitler's guard into a racial aristocracy. Un
der Himmler's leadership, the SS will become a state within a state. Obsessed wi
th secrecy and bound by solemn ritual, the SS will become a force of unprecedent
ed power and authority.
[sounds of crowd cheering]
The origins of this, the most sinister of all Nazi's creations, do not lie in th
e personal visions of Heinrich Himmler or his Fuhrer. The roots of the SS go dee
per -- even the National Socialism itself.
By 1900, the cities of Germany and Austria have changed beyond all recognition.
Millions have abandoned the poverty of peasant life, the slave in the mills and
foundries of the Industrial Revolution. As their population swell with the influ
x of labor, elegant centers of commercial and aristocratic life become teeming i
ndustrial slums. It is in the cities that the values of the old order are challe
nged. Calls for democracy and Socialism threaten the traditional power of the ru
ling elites. Established religious beliefs are undermined by science and a risin
g tide of materialism. To many, the new world seems fractured and chaotic.
Amongst the aristocratic and educated classes in the first decade of the 20th ce
ntury, the overriding mood is one of nostalgia. There is a powerful yearning for
a vanished past, a past believed to have been more harmonious, orderly, and spi
ritual.
All over industrialized Europe new movements arise, devoted to the search for si
mplicity. In Germany, the movement calls itself, [i]Lebensreform[/i] -- life ref
orm. It is pledged to the restoration of a more natural way of living. Tens of t
housands of German youth join the [i]Wandervögel[/i] -- the birds of passage. Its
members share a mystical love of the German countryside and revere German folklo
re and ritual.
While science and medicine are rejected as products of the Industrial Revolution
, vegetarianism, herbal healing, nudism, communal living, and meditation become
fashionable pursuits. In every major city, cults devoted to spiritualism, astrol
ogy, magic, and the occult flourish among the disciples of life reform. Of all t
he doctrines favored by the movement, none will be more influential than those p
reached by the Russian evangelist and telepath Madame Helena Blavatsky.
In 1888 Madam Blavatsky claimed to have traveled to Tibet, and there to have bee
n initiated into the secrets of spiritual masters she calls the "Hidden Elect."
In the doctrines of occultists, the Hidden Elect, or the Great White Brotherhood
, are believed to be humans who, by initiation and self denial, have risen becom
e Adepts. They have gained powers and knowledge beyond those of ordinary mortals
. In Britain, Aleister Crowley, a magician of the Hermetic Order of the Golden D
awn, claimed in 1909 to have crossed the abyss and to have returned as an Adept.
Madame Blavatsky did not claim to be an Adept in her own right, but she did cla
im constant telepathic communication with her hidden masters. They had revealed
to her, their chosen one, the occult history of the human race.
According to Madame Blavatsky, each round of the cosmic cycle has associated wit
h it seven root races. The first root race to evolve on earth, she calls the Ast
ral race. It was a race of pure spirit, the highest form of existence. The secon
d race she calls the Hyperborean race. Its home was a now vanished continent in
the northern ocean. The third race was the Lemurians. Blavatsky is clear about t
he reason for the fall of the Lemurian race: it had interbred with animals. The
fourth race in the history revealed to Madam Blavatsky is the race of Atlantis.
The Atlanteans had possessed psychic powers and had constructed giant cities usi
ng an energy source of mysterious origins. The Atlanteans were destroyed in a gr
eat flood. The fifth root race Madam Blavatsky sees as the race of hope -- the r
ace that has once founded the culture of ancient Greece, and soon would return m
an to the pinnacle of spirituality. That race she named, the Aryan. By 1914, Bla
vatsky's mystical doctrine of the destiny of the Aryan man has spread throughout
Germany and Austria.
[music playing]
The opening days of the Great War. There is little sense of the impending catacl
ysm. All over Europe, news of war is greeted with unqualified enthusiasm. In all
the warring nations, the emotions of militant nationalism are given free reign.
In the ranks of the Austrian and German armies, there is a widespread belief th
at the aspirations of a generation may be satisfied at last: the unification of
German speaking peoples and the creation of a Germanic empire.
[sounds of explosions]
To the frontline soldiers of the Imperial armies, the teachings of the Austrian
clairvoyant Guido von List are an inspiration. List believes that in the Germans
, more than in any other people, runs the blood of the mythical race called by M
adam Blavatsky, the Aryans. To List, the Great War is proof that the modern worl
d, with its materialism and its Democracy, is destroying itself. But out of war
and destruction will come the victory of the German cause and the beginning of a
n Aryan millennium. List revives the prayer of the 16th century philosopher and
heretic Giordano Bruno: "O Jove! That the Germans realize their own strength, an
d they shall not be men, but gods."
[music playing]
Like Aleister Crowley and Madame Blavatsky, List's psychic researches have led h
im to believe in the existence of a hidden elect. His visions of the ancient Ger
man tribes have revealed to him an elite class of priest-rulers. List calls it t
he [i]Armanenschaft[/i]. The role of the Armanenschaft was to preserve the occul
t knowledge of the German's Aryan ancestors.
List claims that the imposition of Christianity on the Teutonic tribes and the p
ersecution of the followers of the old religion forced the Armanenschaft to cont
inue its traditions in secret. Their law had lived on in the rituals and symbols
of a network of secret societies. The store of occult knowledge had been preser
ved down the centuries by Freemasons, Rosicrucians, and chivalrous orders, such
as the Knights Templar. So great is List's influence among German and German-Aus
trian nationalists, that many army officers have joined the secret occultist org
anization inspired by his teachings. The German Order, founded in May 1912, has
lodges in ten German cities. The government of the order is by a secret twelve m
an council of initiates, calling itself the Arminius Assembly. The future Aryan
empire will according to List be governed by a similar council of initiates, a n
ew Armanenschaft. In the design of the future SS, List's Arminius Assembly will
not be forgotten.
[sounds of explosions]
List's prediction that the Great War would see the victory of Imperial Germany o
ver its democratic and degenerent enemies will not be fulfilled. By 1918, the Ge
rman economy is in ruins and the Kaiser's armies are crumbling. To the men at th
e front, the failure of the Imperial war machine is inexplicable. In 1918, Germa
ny had won several major battles. The Russian enemy had already collapsed. Theor
ies of a conspiracy abound. Many believe that Germany has been betrayed from wit
hin. The blame is placed squarely on the shoulders of the traditional targets of
the German nationalist movements: Capitalists, Democrats, and Jews.
To the followers of Guido von List, all that is valuable seems irretrievably los
t. A government of unknown politicians has accepted the humiliating terms of the
Versailles Treaty. Worst of all, the Kaiser and the German princess have abdica
ted. Germany has become a Democratic Republic.
The abdication of the Kaiser is a stunning blow to the occultist of the German O
rder. Guido von List had taught that the aristocracy of Germany had been founded
in ancient times by the Armanenschaft itself. In the aristocracy was to be foun
d the purest of Aryan blood -- and with it, the strongest remaining traces of th
e Aryan psychic powers.
In the aftermath of the Great War, faced with the twin threat of Democracy and S
ocialism, traditionalists eagerly embraced List's mystical belief in the German
nobility. But, by now, a new concept of aristocracy is in a process of developme
nt. Side by side with the teachings of List, it will become the cornerstone of N
azi ideology and the future SS.
Since the mid 19th century, the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin had chal
lenged religious beliefs held sacred for centuries. But, by the end of the Great
War, many physicians, scientists, and politicians have come to see in Darwinism
a formula for social and political action. Belief in the equality of man is see
n as simply unscientific. The new slogan is, "The survival of the fittest."
In Darwin's [i]The Descent of Man[/i], published in 1871, he speculates on the e
ffect of modern medicine on the future course of human evolution: "With savages,
the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated. We civilized men, on the other ha
nd, do our best to check the process of elimination. Thus, the weak members of c
ivilized society propagate their kind. This," argues Darwin, "must be highly inj
urious to the race of man...excepting in the case of man himself, hardly anyone
is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed."
In Britain, the family planning movement, led by the scientist Marie Stopes, is
preoccupied with the supposed threat to the health of the race posed by uncontro
lled breeding. Marie Stopes work on birth control, [i]Wise Parenthood[/i], first
published in 1918, is dedicated "to all those who wish to see our race grow in
strength and beauty." Stopes is concerned with the tendency revealed by the nati
onal census for the lower classes to produce more children than the upper classe
s. "The numbers of our population," she states, "increasingly tend to be made up
from the less thrifty and the less conscientious."
In America, the compulsory sterilization of the mentally handicapped, of alcohol
ics, and the persistent criminals has been legal in certain states since 1907. M
arie Stopes advocates similar policies for Britain, including the sterilization
of male children with an epileptic or mentally handicapped parent, uncle or aunt
. The family planning movement is part of a broader movement aimed at directing
and accelerating the evolution of the human race by selective breeding. This new
science calls itself Eugenics.
By 1918, Eugenics has become so influential that the [i]British Medical Journal[
/i] publishes an article in which a noted physician can write: "There is no equa
lity in nature among children nor among adults, and if there is to be a much nee
ded improvement in the race we must breed from the physically, morally, and inte
llectually fit."
From Britain, Eugenics spreads to Germany, acquiring the new name "racial hygien
e." University departments and institutes are founded devoted to the new science
. By the 1920s, Eugenics has won widespread support amongst the German medical e
stablishment. It has also had a profound effect on the doctrines of the German o
ccultists.
In 1919, Guido von List, a prophet of the Aryan millennium, dies in Berlin at th
e age of 70. His place as Germany's leading mystic and Aryan visionary has been
taken by Jörg Lanz. Lanz, an ex-Cistercian monk and respected biblical scholar, wi
ll have a profound impact on the development of Nazi ideology and on the structu
re and ritual of the future SS. Lanz has blended the Aryan occultism of Guido vo
n List and the principles of the science of Eugenics. He calls his new doctrine
"theozoology." Theozoology is an occult religion of race.
Inspired by Madam Blavatsky's mystical history of racial evolution, Lanz claims
that the decline of the Aryans occurred because they had committed bestiality wi
th the subhuman species. The result was the creation of many mixed races -- race
s whose very existence threatens the rightful dominance of the Aryans.
Like List, Lanz believed that the early Aryans possessed the power of telepathy.
Interbreeding with racial inferiors had led to the loss of their paranormal abi
lities. "Why do you seek a hell in the next world?" Lanz asks. "Is not the hell
in which we live and which burns inside us sufficiently dreadful?" To Lanz, the
hell which burns inside is the impure blood in the veins of even the purest Bava
rians.
The teachings of Jörg Lanz are propagated throughout Germany and Austria by his ow
n journal, [i]Ostara[/i], founded in 1905. Lanz claims that over 100,000 copies
of [i]Ostara[/i] a year are sold. He even claims that amongst his eminent subscr
ibers is the British General Kitching. In the pages of [i]Ostara[/i], and in a s
eries of widely read essays, Lanz develops a terrifying prescription for the pur
ification of the race. He proposes polygamy to increase the birth rate of the ra
cially purists. Eugenic convents are to be established, in which chosen women he
calls "root mothers" will produce children for pure-blooded Aryan males. While
the racially impure, and the physically or mentally unfit are to be sterilized,
other races deemed inferior are to be deported to Madagascar, or used as slave l
abor.
In the future Nazi state, all of Lanz's proposals will be given the most serious
consideration. Some will be put into practice. A massive compulsory sterilizati
on campaign will be directed at those judged physically, mentally or racially in
ferior. The deportation of German Jews to Madagascar will be discussed in the up
per echelons of the Party. The SS will plan for the official introduction of pol
ygamy and will fund its own SS breeding program.
To Jörg Lanz, the legends of the Knights of the Holy Grail are more than the produ
cts of the medieval imagination. Lanz believed that they were the Knights Templa
r, founded in the 12th century and famed for their part in the Christian Crusade
s. Lanz believed that the Crusades were an attempt to hold back the inferior rac
es of the East. The Holy Grail was an electrical force, representing the psychic
powers of the pure-blooded Aryans. The search for the Grail was the search for
racial purity. In 1907, Lanz formed an occult society dedicated to a new Crusade
. He called it the Order of the New Templars. In the castle of Burg Werfenstein
in upper Austria, Lanz founded the Order's first headquarters. Other order prior
ies soon followed. The occult rituals of the New Templars are based on Lanz's mo
nastic experience, and his own especially composed psalms, prayers, and readings
. A constant theme is an appeal to the Aryan Christ, Frauja, for salvation from
racial impurity and for the extermination of inferior races.
The aims of the Order are explicit: to harmonize science, art and ethics into an
occult religion devoted to the purification of the Aryan race in all countries
of the world. In anticipation of the practices of the SS, prospective members an
d their marriages are racially vetted. For Lanz, the New Templars are the beginn
ing of a new order. "No longer will parliaments determine the fate of the people
," Lanz proclaims. "In their place will rule wise priest-kings and leaders of ch
ivalrous and spiritual secret orders." In reality, it would not be the occultist
s of the New Templars who will create the Aryan aristocracy of the future. The m
ystical doctrines preached by Lanz will be put into practice by others -- above
all by a man who, since the age of 20, has been an avid collector of [i]Ostara[/
i].
In the closing months of 1918, Corporal Adolf Hitler, holder of the Iron Cross F
irst Class, will come to the attention of his superior officers, and their mutin
y at the demobilization camp, at which Hitler is stationed, is brought under con
trol by his powerful oratory. In September 1919, Hitler, now a civilian, is call
ed upon once more by the army command. This time to spy on an insignificant nati
onalist group calling itself the German Workers Party. Within months, Hitler has
joined the party and has begun to speak at meetings. By January in 1920, he has
been elected head of propaganda and has drawn up a new party constitution. The
army intelligence Captain who had first recruited Hitler as a spy has been retir
ed. His replacement as Hitler's army sponsor is the 32-year-old Captain Ernst Röhm
.
[end of documentary]
Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Fuhrer: one race, one government, one religion.
You'd better wake up out there, or the adepts have you by the neck, and they're
holding you over a tub of sheep dip, dummies. Don't miss tomorrow night's episod
e of the Hour of the Time.
Good night, and God bless you all.