Hitler's Monsters: A Supernatural History of the Third Reich

by Eric Kurlander

Overview

“A dense and scholarly book about . . . the relationship between the Nazi party and the occult . . . reveals stranger-than-fiction truths on every page.”—Daily Telegraph

The Nazi fascination with the occult is legendary, yet today it is often dismissed as Himmler’s personal obsession or wildly overstated for its novelty. Preposterous though it was, however, supernatural thinking was inextricable from the Nazi project. The regime enlisted astrology and the paranormal, paganism, Indo-Aryan mythology, witchcraft, miracle weapons, and the lost kingdom of Atlantis in reimagining German politics and society and recasting German science and religion.
 
In this eye-opening history, Eric Kurlander reveals how the Third Reich’s relationship to the supernatural was far from straightforward. Even as popular occultism and superstition were intermittently rooted out, suppressed, and outlawed, the Nazis drew upon a wide variety of occult practices and esoteric sciences to gain power, shape propaganda and policy, and pursue their dreams of racial utopia and empire.
 
“[Kurlander] shows how swiftly irrational ideas can take hold, even in an age before social media.”—The Washington Post
 
“Deeply researched, convincingly authenticated, this extraordinary study of the magical and supernatural at the highest levels of Nazi Germany will astonish.”—The Spectator
 
“A trustworthy [book] on an extraordinary subject.”—The Times 
 
“A fascinating look at a little-understood aspect of fascism.”—Kirkus Reviews
 
“Kurlander provides a careful, clear-headed, and exhaustive examination of a subject so lurid that it has probably scared away some of the serious research it merits.”—National Review

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300190373
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	08/11/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	461
Sales rank:	430,386
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Eric Kurlander is professor of history at Stetson University. He lives in DeLand, FL.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements vii

Introduction ix

Part 1

1 The Supernatural Roots of Nazism: Ario - Germanic Religion, Border Science, and the Austro-German Occult Revival, 1889-1914 3

2 From the Thule Society to the NSDAP: Fashioning the Nazi Supernatural Imaginary, 1912-24 33

3 Exploiting Hitler's Magic: From Weimar's Horrors to Visions of the Third Reich 62

Part 2

4 The Third Reich's War on the Occult: Anti-Occultism Hitler's Magicians' Controversy, and the Hess Action 99

5 The Stars Come Down to Frozen Earth: Border Science in the Third Reich 131

6 Lucifer's Court: Ario-Germanic Paganism, Indo-Aryan Spirituality, and the Nazi Search for Alternative Religions 162

Part 3

7 The Supernatural and the Second World War: Folklore and Border Science in Foreign Policy, Propaganda, and Military Operations 197

8 Monstrous Science: Racial Resettlement, Human Experiments, and the Holocaust 231

9 Nazi Twilight: Miracle Weapons, Supernatural Partisans, and the Collapse of the Third Reich 263

Epilogue 297

Notes 301

Bibliography 387

Illustration Credits 407

Index 408

Editorial Reviews

Deeply researched, convincingly authenticated, this extraordinary study of the magical and supernatural at the highest levels of Nazi Germany will astonish.”—Robert Carver, Spectator

“A trustworthy [book] on an extraordinary subject.”—David Aaronovitch, The Times 

“This is a dense and scholarly book about one of the pulpiest subjects of the past 70 years – the relationship between the Nazi party and the occult, which has been much debated across popular culture both in fiction (Captain America, Hellboy, Wolfenstein, the Indiana Jones series, Iron Sky, The Keep and countless others) and in innumerable schlocky works of pseudoscience with runes and swastikas on the covers. As it turns out, though, even this sober, academic treatment of the topic reveals stranger-than-fiction truths on every page.”—Tim Martin, Daily Telegraph

“[Kurlander] shows how swiftly irrational ideas can take hold, even in an age before social media.”—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

“This original and compellingly argued book shows a significant link between Nazism and the supernatural.”
—Lisa Pine, English Historical Quarterly

“A fascinating look at a little-understood aspect of fascism.”—Kirkus Reviews

“A frightening glimpse at the pseudo-science national socialists accepted to justify their abominations abroad.”—National Post

“Kurlander provides a careful, clear-headed, and exhaustive examination of a subject so lurid that it has probably scared away some of the serious research it merits.”—National Review

“A deeply researched and lucid study of the role of supernatural beliefs in the rise of the Nazis . . . Indispensable for anyone interested in Nazism and modern pseudoscience and pseudohistory.”—Choice

"Hitler’s Monsters by Eric Kurlander advances an arresting argument. . . . Eric Kurlander deserves considerable credit for taking us along on that pursuit in such entertaining and stimulating fashion."—Derek Hastings, Journal of Modern History

"Hitler’s Monsters is a book I’ve long been wishing to read. Now that it’s been written, I couldn’t be more delighted. Eric Kurlander delivers in just about every way possible. His writing is crisp and compelling; his haunting narrative richly documented, utterly convincing, and certain to change popular understanding of National Socialist history in Germany."—Sidney D. Kirkpatrick, author of Hitler’s Holy Relics 
 

"Eric Kurlander’s provocative new study offers compelling reasons to take a critical look at the neglected history of occultism in Nazi Germany. It should spark renewed attention to the topic and more informed debates about its significance."—Peter Staudenmaier, author of Between Occultism and Nazism

"In this thought-provoking and original book, Kurlander explores the monstrousness of Hitler’s Germany by taking seriously the demons, vampires, witches, and werewolves that populated the Nazi world and made possible the building of a Third Reich right in the middle of the twentieth century."—Peter Fritzsche, author of An Iron Wind: Europe Under Hitler
 

"Until now, no one has offered a sustained treatment of the links between Nazism and occultism. Eric Kurlander has unearthed myriad examples of these links, and in fields as diverse as agriculture, archaeology and armaments manufacture. Their cumulative effect in Hitler’s Monsters is positively jaw-dropping."—Monica Black, author of Death in Berlin
 

"In this stunning new book, historian Eric Kurlander shows how the Third Reich was monstrous in more ways than commonly supposed. The regime's modern planning and methods of conquest and biopolitics were shot through with the search for esoteric pagan, even supernatural knowledge.  We cannot think of “racial science” in the same way again."—A. Dirk Moses, author of German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past

From the Publisher

“This is a dense and scholarly book about one of the pulpiest subjects of the past 70 years – the relationship between the Nazi party and the occult, which has been much debated across popular culture both in fiction (Captain America, Hellboy, Wolfenstein, the Indiana Jones series, Iron Sky, The Keep and countless others) and in innumerable schlocky works of pseudoscience with runes and swastikas on the covers. As it turns out, though, even this sober, academic treatment of the topic reveals stranger-than-fiction truths on every page. ?????”
—Tim Martin, Daily Telegraph

Daily Telegraph - Tim Martin

“This fascinating supernatural history explores the Third Reich’s obsession with the occult. Astrology, the paranormal and paganism were just as much part of Hitler’s mad credo as his pseudo-scientific belief in a master race, and Kurlander shows how the party used such practices to gain power and shape policy.”
—Sebastisan Shakespeare, Tatler 

Tatler - Sebastian Shakespeare

“A trustworthy [book] on an extraordinary subject.”
—David Aaronovitch, The Times 

The Times - David Aaronovitch

2017-05-02
Of Nazis as satanists, werewolves as saviors, and other supernatural curiosities of the Third Reich.This isn't a Morning of the Magicians-style treatise on Nazi occultism, with secret portals to hell in the Caucasus and professions of the theory of eternal ice, though such things figure at the margins. Instead, Kurlander (History/Stetson Univ.; Living with Hitler: Liberal Democrats in the Third Reich, 2009, etc.) delivers a serious consideration of the place of supernatural belief in the larger German society. The author writes of the influence of the so-called border sciences of parapsychology and their ilk on fascism, and vice versa, and of the identification of Jews and other "undesirables" with vampires, zombies, ghouls, and kindred monsters, joining modern racism to older cultural touchstones. Kurlander traces much of that to the Romantic era, when "folklore, mythology, and neo-paganism rushed to fill an important gap in the German spiritual landscape" left by a decline in belief in the Judeo-Christian God. Though rational-minded Germans shunned belief in such things as graphology and palm-reading, it was still strong enough that a corporate executive, at the time of the Nazi rise, was dismissed because his shareholders were convinced that his handwriting bode ill. The Nazis made use of existing mythology and added elements to proclaim Hitler "a ruler of souls" and a wizard possessed of powers no other earthly ruler held. Whether Hitler believed in such things himself is arguable, but clearly there was a kind of approved occultism that the regime tolerated even while rooting out "rival esoteric doctrines" that did not cohere with the state-sanctioned forms. In later years, the Nazis even tolerated a doctrine that held that they were agents of Lucifer battling an evil Jewish god, and though the promulgator of that theory committed suicide, his books remained in print until the end of the war. A fascinating look at a little-understood aspect of fascism, with a nod to how "shadowy conspiracy theories" and supernatural thinking continue to play out in politics today.

Kirkus Reviews