Thule Society, German Paganism and Hitler

[WW2Researcher]

Was Hitler and the general public aware of groups like the Thule Society and the occult/paganist activities of NSDAP members?

I'm asking because I know that Hitler had said that the National Socialist movement was Christian and did not accept anyone who attacked the ideas of Christianity, but at the same time, party members like Rosenberg and Himmler were involved in occult and neo-pagan groups.

[michael mills]

Hitler had nothing but contempt for occult and neo-pagan groups. His model for the ideal "Aryan" people was constituted by the Ancient Greeks and Romans, not the primitive Germanic peoples, whom he regarded as uncivilised barbarians who had not produced anything of value.

In his view, the Germanic Reich would be based on the Roman Empire, and he regarded the Catholic Church as structurally and organisationally a survival of the Roman Empire, even though he rejected the core ideology of Christianity as Jewish in origin.

[sarahgoodson]

Was Hitler and the general public aware of groups like the Thule Society and the occult/paganist activities of NSDAP members?

Hitler had no interest in the occult or paganism.

National Socialism is not a cult-movement - a movement for worship; it is exclusively a 'volkic' political doctrine based upon racial principles. In its purpose there is no mystic cult, only the care and leadership of a people defined by a common blood-relationship. Therefore we have no rooms for worship, but only halls for the people - no open spaces for worship, but spaces for assemblies and parades. We have no religious retreats, but arenas for sports and playing-fields, and the characteristic feature of our places of assembly is not the mystical gloom of a cathedral, but the brightness and light of a room or hall which combines beauty with fitness for its purpose. In these halls no acts of worship are celebrated, they are exclusively devoted to gatherings of the people of the kind which we have come to know in the course of our long struggle; to such gatherings we have become accustomed and we wish to maintain them. We will not allow mystically-minded occult folk with a passion for exploring the secrets of the world beyond to steal into our Movement. Such folk are not National Socialists, but something else - in any case, something which has nothing to do with us. At the head of our program there stand no secret surmisings but clear-cut perception and straightforward profession of belief. But since we set as the central point of this perception and of this profession of belief the maintenance and hence the security for the future of a being formed by God, we thus serve the maintenance of a divine work and fulfill a divine will - not in the secret twilight of a new house of worship, but openly before the face of the Lord.

Hitler speech, 1938

I'm asking because I know that Hitler had said that the National Socialist movement was Christian and did not accept anyone who attacked the ideas of Christianity, but at the same time, party members like Rosenberg and Himmler were involved in occult and neo-pagan groups.

Hitler said a lot of things in public that were contrary to his true personal beliefs. In private, he attacked Christianity.

Read about the Church Struggle (Kirchenkampf) during the Third Reich too.

[WW2Researcher]

Was Hitler and the general public aware of groups like the Thule Society and the occult/paganist activities of NSDAP members?

Hitler had no interest in the occult or paganism.

National Socialism is not a cult-movement - a movement for worship; it is exclusively a 'volkic' political doctrine based upon racial principles. In its purpose there is no mystic cult, only the care and leadership of a people defined by a common blood-relationship. Therefore we have no rooms for worship, but only halls for the people - no open spaces for worship, but spaces for assemblies and parades. We have no religious retreats, but arenas for sports and playing-fields, and the characteristic feature of our places of assembly is not the mystical gloom of a cathedral, but the brightness and light of a room or hall which combines beauty with fitness for its purpose. In these halls no acts of worship are celebrated, they are exclusively devoted to gatherings of the people of the kind which we have come to know in the course of our long struggle; to such gatherings we have become accustomed and we wish to maintain them. We will not allow mystically-minded occult folk with a passion for exploring the secrets of the world beyond to steal into our Movement. Such folk are not National Socialists, but something else - in any case, something which has nothing to do with us. At the head of our program there stand no secret surmisings but clear-cut perception and straightforward profession of belief. But since we set as the central point of this perception and of this profession of belief the maintenance and hence the security for the future of a being formed by God, we thus serve the maintenance of a divine work and fulfill a divine will - not in the secret twilight of a new house of worship, but openly before the face of the Lord.

Hitler speech, 1938

I'm asking because I know that Hitler had said that the National Socialist movement was Christian and did not accept anyone who attacked the ideas of Christianity, but at the same time, party members like Rosenberg and Himmler were involved in occult and neo-pagan groups.

Hitler said a lot of things in public that were contrary to his true personal beliefs. In private, he attacked Christianity.

Read about the Church Struggle (Kirchenkampf) during the Third Reich too.

Thanks for the quotes!

[ChristopherPerrien]

One man who needed no speech-writer.

[ManfredV]

Hitler only believed in himself. His ideology was a strange mixture of several things. Personally he was anti christian. Of course in inner circle he lauded catholic church for its clever kind of staging and organization. But he also made jokes about extrem paganism of Himmler and others.
One of Hitler's methods to keep power was to play someone off against the other.

[steverodgers801]

Hitler would say what ever he thought was needed at the moment. He worshiped Nietze, who despised Christianity, and thus Hitler also hated Christianity. He felt it made Germany weak and he wanted to eliminate it, but he couldn't right away. Hitler had no problem allowing Himmler to prohibit any member of the SS from belonging to a church

[michael mills]

Hitler had no problem allowing Himmler to prohibit any member of the SS from belonging to a church

Members of the SS were not forbidden to belong to a church, but they were encouraged to formally resign from church membership, and declare the status of "gottglaeubig" = believer in God.

At that time, and even today, all German citizens were legally obliged to belong to a recognised Church or other religious community, in which case they had to pay the Church Tax collected by the State, or else formally register as not belonging to any recognised religious organisation, in which case they did not have to pay the Church Tax, but had no right to any services provided those organisations, eg baptism, marriage or funeral in a church, burial in a cemetery owned by a religious organisation, etc.

The process of officially renouncing membership in a recognised religious organisation is known as "Kirchenaustritt" = leaving the church.

The category "gottglaeubig" was created by the National Socialist Government as a means of distinguishing National Socialists who had renounced Church membership from the avowedly atheist Communists.