Alfred Rosenberg Thule Society

At the beginning of the twentieth century, there were a myriad of racial theories circulating throughout Europe, all of which had their antecedents in the nineteenth century. A common link for these theories was an innate anti-Semitism that kept the Jewish “race” separate and denigrated. Within occult circles in Germany and Austria, Theosophical theories of race and human evolution were intermingled with Pan Germanic nationalism, anti-Semitism and nostalgic appeals to a Germanic heritage prior to Christianity. This potent cocktail of ideas were consumed heavily by various groups such as the German Order, the Thule Society, and promoted by Ariosophists such as Guido von List (1848-1919) and Jorg Lanz von Liebenfels (1874-1954). Together, these individuals and organizations laid the foundation for a variety of ideas that informed Nazi race theory and contributed to the Nazi Holocaust, claiming the lives of over 20 million. While there are no direct links, most, if not all of these individuals and organizations found inspiration and validation within the work of the Theosophical Society and in particular the materials of Madame Blavatsky.

Returning to the Journal of Contemporary History debate on The Holy Reich, this article argues that the notion of ‘positive Christianity’ as a Nazi ‘religious system’ has been largely invented. It offers a close analysis of significant public statements on National Socialism by three leading Nazis: Adolf Hitler, Gottfried Feder and Alfred Rosenberg. In doing so, it demonstrates that in historical context the three key ideas from Point 24 of the NSDAP programme that were meant to form the content of this ‘type of Christianity’ were not promoted as Christian. Instead, they formed a part of the Nazis’ racial ideology.

In recent years there has been a renaissance of studies into the diverse relationships between National Socialism and esoteric or occult religious trends, which appears to form a remarkable return to the work of George L Mosse. Yet within these debates there has been surprisingly little space devoted to the question of what specifically ‘counted’ as religion in the early Nazi milieu. This article seeks to address this problem through a detailed study of the views on religion in one of the major antisemitic groups in the 1920s, the German Socialist Party, which had a number of significant connections to the NSDAP. The German Socialist debates on religion have remained largely unexamined, and this article analyses the group’s response to the Nazis’ 25 Point Programme, the German Socialists’ own debates about religion, and their views on the most important völkisch authors who were seeking a ‘religious revival’. It demonstrates that views on religion in the early Nazi milieu were extremely diverse, but commonly adhered to notions of race and a racial spirituality that amounted to a kind of ‘ethnotheism’. It argues that concepts of religion in völkisch groups at the time, including the NSDAP, have to be principally understood as part of a particular and extreme ‘racist culture’.

We have repeatedly supported an Asiatic - Middle Eastern Vision for Turkey, as a means of extensive democratization and secularization of a vast region spanning between China and the Red Sea, which is inhabited by Muslims, predominantly but not exclusively. If we advocate Turkey's political, economic, academic and intellectual mobilization in Asia, it is because we believe that from and through this position Turkey can better contribute to Peace in the World.

This does not however mean that Turkey does not have a European vocation, identity, and past; on the contrary! As heir of the Ottoman and the Eastern Roman Empires (an unsurpassed continuity of almost 1700 years!), and as premier advocate of the Enlightenment among Muslims in Europe (due to Kemal Ataturk's groundbreaking changes), Turkey is more European than many other countries currently member states of the European Union.

Either Turkey decides to finally adhere to the European Union or not, the European Heritage and Culture have irreversibly got a distinct Turkish, Ottoman, and Islamic stamp. Erasing this is sheer Intellectual Terrorism. European Union policy makers must understand that True European History matters much more than Brussels' Butter Price Decision Making.
First published in the American Chronicle, Buzzle and AfroArticles on 11th January 2008
Republished in the Politics Forum on 24th January 2008